Sixteen states sue the ATF over return of machine gun devices

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(The Center Square) – Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser is joining 15 other state attorneys general in suing the federal government to stop them from redistributing thousands of seized gun parts.

This comes after the Trump administration issued a directive ordering the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to return seized “forced‑reset triggers.” Those triggers are devices that can allow semi‑automatic rifles to fire at an increased rate.

The ongoing debate is over whether FRTs should be classified as a machine gun device, which it was under the Biden administration.

“The law is clear: Machine guns, and devices that turn a semiautomatic weapon into a machine gun, are illegal,” Weiser said in a statement. “We’re suing to stop the ATF and the administration from making our communities more dangerous by distributing thousands of devices that turn firearms into weapons of war.”

The redistribution is the result of a lawsuit settlement between the federal government and Rare Breed Triggers, a company that manufactures the triggers. In the settlement, which was issued May 16, the ATF agreed to no longer seize FRTs and return the thousands already seized.

The National Association for Gun Rights called that settlement a “total victory over the ATF."

Colorado is joined on the lawsuit by Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

The lawsuit names 13 different entities as defendants, including Rare Breed Triggers, the U.S. Department of Justice, the ATF, and gun advocacy groups.

The states are arguing that the ban kept communities safer.

“It’s hard enough for our local law enforcement officials to protect Colorado communities from gun violence without the federal government willfully ignoring the law,” Weiser said. “These weapons have no place in our communities, and I will continue to fight to keep Coloradans safe from gun violence.”

Gun advocates argue FRTs are misrepresented when described as machine gun devices. Hannah Hill, vice president of the National Foundation for Gun Rights, said the lawsuit should be a "quick dismissal."

"This is an ill-conceived, pointless strategy that comes solely from absolute outrage that a little bit of the Second Amendment just got clawed back from their dirty grasping hands," Hill said of the lawsuit.

The ATF estimates that at least 100,000 FRTs have been distributed across the country in recent years.

The lawsuit requests a pause to the redistribution, arguing that it will “aid and abet violations of state law,” as FRTs are currently banned in about a dozen states.

The ATF has not yet released a statement regarding the lawsuit.