Following a January report of a leaked ATF email documenting plans to begin seizing lawfully-owned forced reset and wide-open triggers for AR-15 platforms, Rare Breed Triggers’ vendor was raided by the federal government in late March, according to the company.
A customer attempting to purchase Rare Breed’s Forced Reset Trigger received an email on April 20 from the company’s customer service team explaining the order was canceled because, on March 25, the ATF raided their vendor, which inhibited them from shipping triggers.
“I’m very sorry, but we had to cancel your order. One of our vendors was raided by the ATF on 3/25, which resulted in our inability to ship a number of orders placed around that time. It is important to note that the vendor does not have any customer data. Because we’re unsure exactly when we’ll have the FRT back in stock and ready to ship, we went ahead and refunded your order in full. You should see the refund on your MC ending in XXXX,” Rare Breed’s customer service team told the customer.
Here’s the full email:
One day before the raid, gun advocacy group The Machine Gun Nest (TMGN) pointed out that the ATF declared some Rare Breed’s Forced Reset Triggers “machine guns” in an open letter.
ATF issued an Open Letter on Forced Reset Triggers. Marketed as replacement triggers, some FRTs allow a firearm to automatically expel more than one shot w/ a single, continuous pull of the trigger, making them prohibited machineguns per the GCA & NFA. https://t.co/1w8wueebz3 pic.twitter.com/N3MCSFDpcj
— ATF HQ (@ATFHQ) March 24, 2022
As explained by TMGN, forced reset triggers aren’t machine guns:
But as always, with the ATF and gun control, there’s a larger story here.
Forced Reset Triggers or FRTs are not machine guns or machine gun parts. They’re semiautomatic triggers. Interestingly enough, in ATF’s letter, they say that what determined that FRT devices are machine guns was that “some FRT devices allow a firearm to automatically expel more than one shot with a single, continuous pull of the trigger.” Keep in mind the use of the word “continuous.”
“Unless the ATF doesn’t understand the difference between resetting and pulling a trigger, the statement is further evidence of the agency’s underhandedness,” said Firearms Policy Coalition.
Let’s compare this finding with the definition of “machine gun” as defined in 26 USC § 5845(b)
“The term ‘machinegun’ means any weapon which 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.”
Notice how the word “continuous” is missing from the legal definition?
While it is true that FRT devices do increase a shooter’s rate of semiautomatic fire, the FRT does not convert a semiautomatic firearm into a machine gun. Like the name “Forced Reset” implies, the trigger is reset after firing via spring tension and a mechanical assist.
Nowhere in the definition of “machine gun” is the rate of fire mentioned. By this logic, match triggers, belt loops, and Jerry Miculek’s fingers should be considered machine guns.
If this situation sounds familiar, that’s because it is—the ATF in 2019 classified bump stock devices in a similar fashion.
Is the next step for the ATF to go after law-abiding private citizens who bought these triggers legally?
Somebody help him!! Tench can’t stop laughing.
🙂
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If I use one continuous pull on my Rare Breed trigger it will only fire once