US judge limits enforcement of forced reset trigger ban
The headline at Reuters tells the tale pretty well. The ATF’s classification of Forced Reset Triggers (FRTs) has been put on hold as, once again, the courts are enforcing the fact that words mean things and ‘Machine Gun’ is clearly defined.
Like the stay on the Brace ban, the block on enforcement is limited to plaintiffs and associated members and customers. So it isn’t necessarily everyone who owns an FRT is in the clear but good luck to the ATF getting only non-member and non-customer triggers.
The ATF used a broad interpretation of their mandates and DoJ urging to try and take guns and triggers that are not machine guns off the market for being to like machine guns in final function. IE: They allow the owner to shoot fast with a mechanical advantage. They are not automatic though, they use distinct and separate trigger movements to fire each shot.
The court is saying that you cannot just declare something close enough to a machine gun, which follows in the logic of the bump stock ban falling to the court system too. These suits are in process and don’t expect the products back commercial any time soon, but it is nice when the courts read plain english and agree with it.
It they want to ban FRTs, binary triggers, or anything at all, it is the job of Congress to pass a law, the President to sign it, and the court to determine if it passes constitutional muster. It is that last bit that so many gun control laws on the book are failing to meet.
