WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has decided to permit the sale of forced-reset triggers, devices that enable semiautomatic rifles to fire more rapidly. This change comes as the federal government ends a long-standing ban due to a settlement that also mandates the return of previously seized devices.
On Friday, the Justice Department announced the agreement, which resolves a series of legal disputes concerning aftermarket triggers. Previously, the government classified these triggers as machine guns under federal law. This settlement represents a significant change in Second Amendment policy during the Republican administration, indicating a potential reversal of many regulations that the previous administration, under Democratic President Joe Biden, aimed to maintain to help curb gun violence.
“This Department of Justice believes that the 2nd Amendment is not a second-class right,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.
Gun control advocates said the settlement would worsen gun violence.
“The Trump administration has just effectively legalized machine guns. Lives will be lost because of his actions,” stated Vanessa Gonzalez, vice president of government and political affairs at GIFFORDS, a gun control advocacy organization.
There had been several legal battles over forced-reset triggers, which replace the typical trigger on an AR-15-style rifle. The government for years had argued they are essentially illegal machine gun conversion devices because constant finger pressure on the triggers will keep a rifle firing essentially like an automatic.
The deal announced Friday was between the Justice Department and Rare Breed Triggers, which was previously represented by David Warrington, Trump’s current White House counsel. Rare Breed Triggers argued that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was wrong in its classification and ignored demands to stop selling the triggers before being sued by the Biden administration.
“This victory is a landmark moment in the fight against unchecked government overreach,” Lawrence DeMonico, the group’s president, said in a statement. “The ATF and DOJ tried to silence and bury us not because we broke the law, but because I refused to bend to the will of a tyrannical administration.”
Under the settlement, Rare Breed Triggers has agreed not to develop such devices to be used on handguns, according to the Justice Department. The settlement requires the ATF to return triggers that it had seized or that owners had voluntarily surrendered to the government.
