President Donald Trump’s administration agreed on Friday to permit the sale of a device that allows for semi-automatic rifles to be fired quicker, a decision that gun control activists say paves the way for more mass shootings.
The Department of Justice announced the agreement as part of a settlement between the federal government and gun manufacturer Rare Breed Triggers, in litigation brought by the Biden administration.
“This Department of Justice believes that the 2nd Amendment is not a second-class right,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in the statement. “And we are glad to end a needless cycle of litigation with a settlement that will enhance public safety.”
Forced-reset triggers (FRT) allow a semi-automatic rifle to be fired at an increased rate by automatically resetting the trigger after each shot. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) classified them as illegal machine guns in 2022 under the National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934. Machine guns have been heavily regulated by Congress since the NFA was passed, and the manufacture for civilian use was banned completely under the Firearms Owners Protection Act of 1986, a bill endorsed by the National Rifle Association.
The Justice Department brought a lawsuit in New York in 2023 against Rare Breed Triggers, which made and distributed such devices, leading to a court ruling blocking it from selling them. While the case was pending, the National Association of Gun Rights (NAGR) filed a separate lawsuit in Texas challenging the ban and a judge there ruled the ban was unlawful.
The latest settlement resolves those disputes and falls in line with Trump’s February executive order on protecting the Second Amendment’s “right to bear arms,” the Justice Department said in its statement.
“This decision marks a new era of holding the DOJ and ATF accountable when they trample the rights of law-abiding gun owners,” NAGR President Dudley Brown said in a release. “We made them give back what they took, and that’s a precedent they’ll never forget.”
The DOJ also said the settlement includes “agreed-upon conditions” concerning public safety with respect to FRTs, including that Rare Breed will not develop or design FRTs for use in any pistol and will enforce its patents. Rare Breed also agreed to promote the safe and responsible use of its products, the DOJ said.
CNN has reached out to Rare Breed Triggers for comment on the settlement.
Democratic lawmakers and gun control groups have widely condemned the decision.
Vanessa Gonzalez, a Vice President with GIFFORDS, the national gun violence prevention group led by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, said in a statement the Trump administration “effectively legalized machine guns.”
“This is an incredibly dangerous move that will enable shooters to inflict horrific damage,” Gonzalez said. “The only people who benefit from these being on the market are the people who will make money from selling them, everyone else will suffer the consequences.”
The national gun control advocacy group, Brady United, said the settlement means “highly dangerous weapons of war can now be purchased anonymously” and without a background check.
“The Trump’s Administration’s secret settlement with the gun lobby to permit the sale of Forced Reset Triggers will turn already deadly firearms into weapons of mass destruction,” President of Brady, Kris Brown, said in the statement. “(It) is not only an astonishing abuse of power, but undermines decades of sensible government gun safety policy and puts whole communities at immediate serious risk.”
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