Judge Blocks Sale of Trigger Kits The Justice Department Argues Are Machine Gun Parts

A federal judge issued a restraining or prohibiting two firearms parts businesses from selling trigger sets that, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, turn semi-automatic rifles in fully automatic-firing machine gun.

Judge Nina Morrison, of New York’s federal Eastern District Court, Granted A temporary restraining order was issued to prevent Rare Breed Triggers, LLC, and Rare Breed Firearms, LLC selling trigger kits for firearms known as FRTs. Morrison granted the temporary restraining order following a federal lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice last week. The Department of Justice argued that trigger kits can fire more than 700 rounds per minute and turn semi-automatic firearms to machine guns.

U.S. law Definitions a machine gun as “any weapon that shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger.”

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and ExplosivesATF) issued a Letter Some forced reset triggers may be classed as machine guns in March 2022 as they allow the weapons’ to be reset. You can fire multiple bullets with the trigger still held..

“ATF’s examination found that some FRT devices allow a firearm to automatically expel more than one shot with a single, continuous pull of the trigger,” The ATF letter says. “For this reason, ATF has concluded that FRTs that function in this way are a combination of parts designed and intended for use in converting a weapon into a machinegun, and hence, ATF has classified these devices as a ‘machinegun’ as defined by the [National Firearms Act] and [Gun Control Act].”

The DOJ Lawsuit The FRT-15 trigger design is a forced reset trigger. A virtual copy of this design, the wide-open trigger, or WOT, can be swapped into rifles such as the AR-15. These parts allow users to fire multiple rounds with one trigger function. According to the DOJ lawsuit Rare Breed Triggers and Rare Breed Firearms continued to sell FRTs even though they were warned by ATF that trigger kits could be considered machine gun parts. This is in violation of U.S. laws.

Current U.S. gun laws ban machine gun sales to the public. Machine gun owners must register their guns and pay a tax stamp. According to the DOJ, the defendants are accused of selling thousands of FRTs.

Morrison wrote in her decision to grant the temporary restraint order that she believed there was probable cause to believe that the defendant companies, their owners, have obstructed ATF investigations, FRT seizures, sold illegal machines guns, and committed wire- and mail fraud.

Machine Guns Aren’t Defined By How Fast They Fire, Manufacturers Say

Rare Breed Triggers argued The forced-reset trigger is not able to fire multiple rounds with one function. According to the company, a typical trigger on a semi-automatic firearm will fire once as the user pulls it from the unfired to fired position. They can’t fire again until they release that trigger and allow it to reset mechanically back into its original position. said a typical trigger on a semi-automatic firearm will fire a single time as the user pulls the trigger from the unfired to fired position and they can’t fire again until they release that trigger and allows it to mechanically reset to the unfired position. The company has argued FRTs can be used to reset the trigger automatically from the fired position to the unfired one, but the user must still pull the trigger every time it is reset to fire again.

The company has argued that the forced resetting of the trigger essentially simplifies a user’s actions, eliminating the need to release the trigger to allow it to reset before it can be fired again. The FRT manufacturers say that a lighter trigger-pullweight and a forced reset of the trigger can enable users to manipulate the trigger quickly, but they still claim that each pull of the trigger is only one.

“A ‘machinegun’ is not defined under federal law by how fast it can fire—but rather by the method in which it can fire fast,” Rare Breed Triggers were represented in their own suit (pdf) in a Florida federal court in August 2021, challenging the ATF’s authority to classify their trigger kits as machine gun parts.

Rare Breed Triggers was founded in Florida, and is now based in South Dakota. Texas incorporated Rare Breed Firearms.

Attorneys for Rare Breed Firearms and Rare Breed Triggers have yet to appear in New York Court to start arguing their case.

Morrison, a Biden appointee wrote that there could be “irreparable harm” and the defendants’ “violations will continue” Unless she has imposed a restraining or ban on the sales of trigger kits.

ATF Wants to Take Trigger Kits

The ATF asked FRT trigger kit owners to contact them and surrender their trigger kits in a March 2022 letter.

“Notwithstanding the ATF efforts, there are tens of thousands of FRT-15s and WOTs in the public domain, presenting a continuing threat to public safety,” The Justice Department submitted their complaint.

They must keep the restraining order against Rare Breed Firearms Triggers and Rare Breed Firearms. “all documents related to the manufacture, possession, receipt, transfer, customer base, and/or historical or current sale of the FRT-15s, Wide Open Triggers, forced reset triggers, and/or machinegun conversion devices.”

NTD News reached Rare Breed Firearms, but received no response.

From NTD News

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