Colorado and 15 other states have sued the Trump administration over its plan to allow the sale of forced-reset triggers that make and return devices already seized to their owners.
The lawsuit filed Monday against the U.S. Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives argues that returning the triggers would violate federal law, pose a threat to residents and law enforcement and worsen gun violence. It was filed in federal court in Maryland.
“Itap hard enough for our local law enforcement officials to protect Colorado communities from gun violence without the federal government willfully ignoring the law,” Colorado Attorney General Weiser said in a statement. “The law is clear: machine guns, and devices that turn a semiautomatic weapon into a machine gun, are illegal. We’re suing to stop the ATF and the administration from making our communities more dangerous by distributing thousands of devices that turn firearms into weapons of war.”
There had been several legal battles over the devices, which replace the typical trigger on an AR-15-style rifle. The Biden administration the triggers qualify as machine guns under federal law because constant finger pressure on the triggers will keep a rifle firing, essentially creating an illegal machine gun.
Rare Breed Triggers, the maker of the devices, had argued that the ATF was wrong in its classification and ignored demands to stop selling the triggers before being sued by the Biden administration.
The Justice Department reached a with Rare Breed Triggers to allow the sale of forced-reset triggers with. The company was previously represented by , Trump’s current White House counsel.
Under the settlement, Rare Breed Triggers agreed not to develop such devices to be used on handguns, according to the Justice Department. The settlement requires the ATF to return triggers that it had seized or that owners had voluntarily surrendered to the government.
The states’ lawsuit is being led by the attorneys general of Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey. Other states involved are Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, along with the District of Columbia.
The attorneys general in those states are all Democrats, though the office in Hawaii is technically nonpartisan.
