Among other gadgets which the ATF-Troop unilaterally declared to be NFA items — machine guns, specifically — was the forced reset trigger and like items.
Not so fast, feckless feddies. A federal judge has tossed that bizaare claim, in NAGR v. Garland.
Having considered the above-referenced filings and applicable law, th4e Court concludes thatthe Defendants engaged in unlawful agency action taken in excess of their authority. Therefore, the Courts GRANTS Plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Judgement and DENIES Defendants’ Cross-Motion for Summary Judgement.
Note: The judge didn’t say the ATF exceeded its authority and leave it at that. He specifically and explicitly stated that they acted unlawfully; they broke the law. And he called out their BS on claiming FTRs turn semiautos into machine guns.
An FTR is a device that forcibly returns the trigger to its reset state. In the commercialized FRT designs at issue in this litigation, the trigger is forcibly reset by the hammer when the bolt carrier cycles to the rear. A “locking bar” mechanically locks the trigger in its reset state, preventing the user from moving the trigger rearward to function by releasing the hammer, until the bolt has returned to the in-battery position and the firearm is safe to fire.
[…]
When firing multiple shots using an FRT, the trigger must still rest after each round is fired and must separately function to release the hammer by moving far enough to the rear in order to fire the next round.
TL;DR: It’s still firing semi-auto, idiots. And you don’t get to change the definition of machine gun to encompass whatever.
Plaintiffs’ cgun definition as applied to FRTs ontend that the ATF’s broadened view of the machinegun definition as applied to FRTs is an unlawful expansion of the agency’s authority.Plaintiffs are correct.
Interestingly, there seems to be no mention of CHEVRON deference to agency interpretations, or Loper Bright‘s reversal of such deference. The judge simply noted that both plaintiffs and defendants agreed of how FTRs work, but that the ATF improperly called semiautos machine guns.
