By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown recently joined a coalition of 15 other AGs in suing the Trump administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) over its plans to distribute thousands of machinegun conversion devices (MCDS) to communities across the United States (US).
According to the Attorney General’s Office (AGO), the current epidemic of gun violence has grown in recent years due to many factors, including the growing use of MCDS, which are used to turn semi-automatic firearms into fully automatic machine guns. One MCD in particular, a forced reset trigger (FRT), which dramatically increases a firearm’s rate of fire, has become popular amongst individuals who are prohibited from possessing any firearms under federal law.
“Communities are less safe with these mass-shooting devices in circulation,” Brown said. “Essentially deregulating them is another example of this administration being driven by extreme ideology rather than commonsense.”
According to the lawsuit, at least 100,000 FRTs have been sold throughout the country and have made their way into every state, even those that have independently banned such devices in their state.
As a way to tackle the gun violence problem head-on, the ATF classified FRTs as prohibited machineguns under federal law, which led to seizing nearly 12,000 FRTS from the field. However, even though FRTs are a serious public safety risk, the federal government has reversed its motive and has decided to not only abandon enforcing federal law against the distribution and possession of FRTs but also decided to distribute thousands of these dangerous devices into communities around the country.
“It’s obvious this administration is determined to engage in federal overreach on a host of policy areas,” said the AGO in a statement. “Our intention is to make the administration follow the rule of law and reverse this reckless decision to make these mass-shooting devices more available.”
In recent years, machinegun conversion devices like FRTs have been frequently used in violent crimes and mass shootings, worsening the gun violence epidemic in the U.S. If the distribution were to go through, the Attorney General’s Office believes that it would have a negative impact on our state.
“ATF’s own records show machinegun conversion devices like FRTs are showing up more often at crime scenes around the U.S.,” they said.
During the Biden Administration, multiple lawsuits seeking to either enforce or challenge the prohibition on FRTs were filed. In New York, a federal judge agreed that they are banned under federal law. On the other hand, a federal judge in Texas disagreed and held that they do not qualify as machineguns under federal law, but that ruling was on appeal.
On May 16, the Trump administration announced a settlement in the lawsuits that appears to lift the federal ban on FRTs. However, this new lawsuit filed by a coalition of state attorneys general looks to re-instate the federal ban.
ATF has agreed to abandon its enforcement actions and appeals; promised to stop enforcing the federal ban against the devices, even against individuals and sellers who were not parties to any of these lawsuits; and pledged to redistribute forced reset triggers that it previously seized.
Today’s lawsuit seeks to prevent the redistribution because they are prohibited by U.S. law, which prohibits anyone from owning machineguns, including devices that convert firearms into automatic weapons. The lawsuit explains that the federal government cannot violate U.S. law, even when it tries to bury those violations in a settlement agreement.
The coalition will seek a preliminary injunction to halt the administration from distributing these devices in ways that directly harm plaintiff states in contravention of federal law. And as the lawsuit highlights, ATF has even admitted that returning FRTs in states that prohibit them would “aid and abet” violations of state laws. The AG seeks to prevent those harms from occurring.
“We were certainly disturbed by the administration’s efforts to distribute machine guns, but this administration has spent the last five months establishing a predictable pattern of disregard for the law in favor of radical ideology,” said the AGO.
