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Judge Vacates Another ATF Rule: Forced Reset Triggers Are Not ‘Machineguns’

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor decided against yet another Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) rule Tuesday, vacating the agency’s rule that classified forced reset triggers (FRTs) as “machineguns.”

Two of the plaintiffs in the case were Texas Gun Rights, Inc., and the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR). There were individual plaintiffs, as well.

Plaintiffs sued the United States Attorney General, the ATF, the Department of Justice (DOJ), and others over the rule, which made it a felony to possess an FRT. Their suit centered on the ATF’s broadening of the term “machinegun” to include FRTs.

An FRT is a trigger that resets a semiautomatic firearm’s trigger mechanically, thus allowing the gun to be fired faster. However, the gun still fires only one round per trigger pull.

O’Connor noted the semiautomatic action of a firearm is not changed by the installation of an FRT: “When firing multiple shots using an FRT, the trigger must still reset after each round is fired and must separately function to release the hammer by moving far enough to rear in order to fire the next round.”

He applied various court decisions regarding the ATF’s bump stock rule, noting, “FRTs do not fire multiple rounds with a single function of the trigger and, thus, do not qualify as machineguns.”

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1 thought on “Judge Vacates Another ATF Rule: Forced Reset Triggers Are Not ‘Machineguns’”

  1. The atf is too big for their britches, they have zero authority to make law. Their only job is to enforce laws already in the books, just as police departments all over the country.
    Fact !!!!

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