Washington state’s Nick Brown has locked arms with 15 other attorneys general in suing the Trump administration to block the distribution of thousands of what they call machine-gun conversion devices.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in Maryland, takes aim at recent actions by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) related to forced reset triggers, which the attorneys general contend allow even rookie shooters to attain a military machine gun’s firepower.
Forced reset triggers are aftermarket parts that allow semi-automatic firearms to be fired at a faster rate.
Brown and the other AGs want to stop the devices from being redistributed, arguing they’re illegal to possess under federal law and pose a serious threat to communities nationwide.
The bureau previously considered those triggers de facto machine guns, according to the June 9 news release from Brown’s office. But the ATF has signed a settlement agreement, under directive from the Trump administration, that vows to cease enforcement against these triggers — with plans to redistribute thousands such devices that had been previously seized.
“Communities are less safe with these mass-shooting devices in circulation,” Brown said in the news release. “Essentially deregulating them is another example of this administration being driven by extreme ideology rather than commonsense.”
A spokesperson for ATF said the agency isn’t able to comment, citing pending litigation.
Both guns equipped with forced reset triggers and the devices themselves are banned under Washington state law, Mike Faulk, deputy communications director for the Washington State Attorney General’s Office, said in an email.
The Biden administration had argued that under federal law, such devices effectively act as machine guns because applying consistent pressure on the trigger allows an AR-15-style rifle to continuously fire, according to The Associated Press.
The attorneys general note that machine-gun conversion devices, like these triggers, are often used in mass shootings and crimes, arguing that the devices have exacerbated the country’s gun-violence epidemic. Firearms with such features can shoot up to 20 bullets in a second, the news release states.
Cases of machine-gun fire soared by roughly 1,400% from 2019 to 2021, per CNN.
The lawsuit states that ATF’s actions will “in its own words ‘aid and abet violations of state law’” because numerous states independently ban the possession and distribution of the triggers. Yet people in those states aren’t excluded from having their device returned.
The plaintiffs include Washington, Delaware, New Jersey, Colorado, Maryland, Illinois, Hawai’i, Massachusetts, Maine, Minnesota, Michigan, Nevada, Rhode Island, Oregon, Vermont and the District of Columbia.
Plaintiffs further argue that the triggers’ redistribution will create significant health-care and law-enforcement costs. They’re asking for a preliminary injunction to prevent the devices from being redistributed.
“The harms would be irreversible, as once ATF returns these thousands of (machine-gun conversion devices), it will be difficult, if not impossible, to retrieve them,” the lawsuit states.
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