California Attorney General Rob Bonta has joined a lawsuit led by the attorneys general of New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland against the Trump Administration’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). The lawsuit challenges the ATF’s decision to return thousands of forced reset triggers (FRTs) to communities across the United States. These devices enable semi-automatic firearms to fire rapidly like fully automatic machine guns when the trigger is held down.
The ATF had previously classified FRTs as illegal machine guns but reversed this classification following a settlement agreement during the Trump Administration. This agreement included returning seized FRTs to communities nationwide. Despite this federal settlement, Attorney General Bonta issued a bulletin reminding law enforcement that FRTs remain illegal under California law.
Bonta stated, “It is a devastating fact that in our nation, children and teens are more likely to die by gun violence than any illness or accident. In California, we know that commonsense gun laws save lives, and we won’t stand idly by as the Trump Administration pours illegal weapons into our communities.” He added that FRTs “turn firearms into deadlier machine guns” and emphasized their illegality in California.
The ATF estimates that over 100,000 FRTs have been distributed in recent years despite federal prohibitions. These devices are reportedly appearing more frequently at crime scenes. Lawsuits challenging or enforcing these prohibitions were filed during the Biden Administration with differing judicial opinions on whether FRTs qualify as machine guns under federal law.
The multistate lawsuit aims to prevent the redistribution of FRTs based on their prohibition under federal law which bans machine guns and conversion devices for semi-automatic firearms. The suit argues that returning these devices would violate federal law and pose a permanent threat to public safety nationwide. It also highlights that returning FRTs would contravene state laws where they are banned.
Attorney General Bonta joins his counterparts from New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Colorado, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia in this legal action.
A copy of the amended complaint is available online.
