U.S.A. -(Ammoland.com)- The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) sent a letter to all licensed firearms dealers warning them that specific forced reset triggers (FRTs) are machine guns.
The letter was sent to all FFLs in the country on March 24, 2022. The notice was dated March 22, 2022. It informed the dealers that some force reset triggers are considered machine guns under the National Firearms Act (NFA). The ATF threatened the dealers with imprisonment of up to 10 years and a $250,000 fine for selling one of the forbidden FRT triggers.
The letter did not specify what FRTs were considered machine guns, leaving dealers in a precarious position.
Multiple brands of force reset triggers are on the market, and others are expected to hit the market later this year. The letter puts a question mark on those hitting the market.
If charged with an NFA violation, it takes around $250,000 to fight against the government. Most gun stores are small “mom and pop” shops that do not have the money to fight a criminal prosecution. All the FFLs AmmoLand News spoke with planned to stop all FRT triggers’ sales.
The ATF’s war on Force Reset Triggers started last July when The Bureau sent Rare Breed Triggers a “cease and desist” letter over its FRT-15 trigger. In the letter, the agency claimed that the FRT-15 was a machine gun and ordered the company to stop selling the product. Rare Breed refused to comply with the demand and sued the ATF in federal court, seeking an injunction on the enforcement of the ATF’s orders.
A federal judge denied Rare Breed’s preliminary injunction. Rare Breed still sought a permanent injunction, but the judge dismissed the case without prejudice due to a missed deadline. Rare Breed has vowed to re-file the case but has yet to do so. The company is still selling the FRT-15 trigger despite the ATF’s cease-and-desist demand. It is expected to roll out a three-position selector switch model any time now.
In January, The ATF visited Big Daddy Unlimited (BDU), Big Daddy Guns, and America Unlimited and seized all the companies’ FRT triggers. Big Daddy Enterprises own both companies. The ATF took all Rare Breed FRT-15 triggers and all Wide Open Triggers (WOT) made by Wide Open Enterprises.
Wide Open Enterprises is another child company of Big Daddy Enterprises. Rare Breed Triggers sued Big Daddy Enterprises and its subsidiaries over patent infringement. Rare Breed believes that Wide Open Enterprises stole the design for its Wide Open Trigger. The case is still ongoing. BDU announced a new FRT in conjunction with the FRT’s original inventor, Thomas Graves.
CEO of Big Daddy Enterprises believes that the letter is in response to Senator Mike Lee’s letter to the ATF over the Bureau overstepping its bounds when it comes to FRTs and solvent traps. He believes that the letter does not stop them from selling their new trigger, and it will be business as usual.
AmmoLand News reached out to Rare Breed Triggers for comment but have not heard back before publishing.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
Looks suspiciously like, “death from a thousand cuts” for the Second Amendment by an unelected 3-letter federal bureaucracy.
Yes, unelected, and not even created by Congress!
The ILLEGALLY FORMED bureaucracy of the aft(bidet) was formed by a MEMO of a “director” within the ‘irs’, NOT Congress.
And BATFE does not have the protection of a Congressional enabling act. That is Congress need not repeal any previous act to get rid of BATFE.
We need to get rid of the IRS, ATF, ETC. Just another form of welfare.
all we need is an actual conservative president, or at least one who believes in constitution.
would be nice to do one single cut ,and dump this bunch in trash bin of history
Seems the ATF are above the law.
By law, federal agencies such as ATF must consult the public when creating, modifying, or deleting rules in the Code of Federal Regulations.The ATF is an abusive and oppressive government agency that enforces unconstitutional, anti-gun regulations. It must be defunded and disbanded. And the laws and regulations that ATF enforces must be put to rest by Congress.
Then lets begin these processes!
ATF ARE LIARS ! – ‘FRT TRIGGERS ARE THE SAME AS ” BINARY” !!! ONE ACTION OF THE TRIGGER FIRES ONE ROUND! THEN = RELEASING THE TRIGGER { FIRES ANOTHER ROUND} = THIS IS IN “FACT – TWO ACTIONS OF THE TRIGGER” !!! STOP MAKING UP LAWS / RULES AS YOU SEE FIT !!! YOU CANNOT “BY LAW ‘ MAKE-UP RULES & LAWS WITHOUT “CONGRESS / SCOTUS ” RULING !! FACT!!! STOP WASTING OUR TAX DOLLARS FIGHTING US LAW ABIDING CITIZENS !! — AND GO AFTER THE ‘REAL CRIMINALS “! LIKE MAYBE ” THE POLITICIANS WHO ARE IN FACT> SELLING… Read more »
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=*ena3ty+f6r+cva4s5ng+g6vern0ent+waste+and+ab4se+6f+*6wer
Innovators will innovate. If BATFE really doesn’t like bump stocks, FRTs, and whatever invention will inevitably follow them then the simple solution is to go to congress and request that the Hughes amendment be repealed. BATFE can be happy (for the moment until NFA is repealed) because machine guns can be easily registered and “the people” can have new machine guns with less additional cost than a FRT.
The FRT has been classified as a machinegun by the FaRTs.
System is rigged & that’s irrefutably obvious. Overton Window changes at the PTB’s Lockstep whim. Everything is tracked & monitored. US Mail, DHL Mail, FedEx, UPS, USPS Money Orders etc.
Fed Fascism keeps growing exponentially while rights are incrementally winnowed away.
When does it end ? B/c it clearly doesn’t & no end in sight.
It will end when WE, The People realize that we must pull our heads out of our apathetic asses and realize, WE, THE GOVERNED are IN CHARGE of those WE CHOOSE to GOVERN our affairs! https://www.dccsociety.org/news-page/what-constitutes-a-violation-of-federal-civil-rights When a company such as Rare Breed steps up to the plate to fight these types of tyranny, it is OUR DUTY to fully support them and back them at every cost! We have become complacent and actually a bunch of pussies have sprouted. I took on Marfa, Texas for destroying a gun show that THEY begged me to produce for them. When I… Read more »
My guess is that the ATF is reacting to the similarity of FRTs to so-called “auto sears,” so of course, they write the reg as broadly as possible to encompass anything that can easily be fiddled with to produce a similar result or that “appears” to achieve a similar result. I’m not agreeing with the ATF, merely pointing out the context and POV they are coming from. They think they are getting out ahead of something, and it stands to reason that they care nothing for market consequences or that “appear” is not the same thing as “is”. https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkp8p8/glock-switches-auto-sears
If there is a VICTIM, there is a crime. I bet that lots of folks who would have those are no more dangerous then those who don’t have them. A pistol or rifle is an inanimate object.
Remember people…”our” government armed the Taliban with THOUSANDS of machine guns, THOUSANDS of anti tank weapons, THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of rounds of ammo, a few attack helicopters and they want to worry about Glock switches…makes sense to me! DE-FUND THE ATF. Make them get real jobs.
Biden must be arrested and prosecuted for that heinous crime. Now.
This is one of the main reasons we need CONSTITUTIONAL SHERIFFS in every county of the country. They can STOP this crap in a heart beat. https://cspoa.org There should be no “law” against possession of any THING. The law should be against if you use it in a way to create a VICTIM. Otherwise we need to outlaw EVERYTHING that can be used to harm someone. Starting with martial arts. OUTLAW MARTIAL ARTS! Yeah, that can be the new mantra of Mothers Against Bullies…
(ATF) sent a letter to all licensed firearms dealers warning them that specific “forced reset triggers (FRTs) are machine guns.”
Yeah and the moon is made of green cheese.
It appears that the SOLUTION to these problems is to form a coalition, retain legal council and a funding source, then mount this battle and fight it until WE, THE PEOPLE get closure. WHO’s IN?