3 years ago

375

#frt #frt15 #atf
The ATF has sent out an open letter to all Federal Firearms Licensees stating that they are now classifying "some" FRTs or Forced Reset Triggers as machine guns. The letter also mentions that the ATF intends to take "appropriate remedial action with respect to sellers and possessors of these devices."

This letter is a culmination of events that we've covered since the last year, starting with the ATF contacting Rare Breed (the manufacturer of the most popular FRT) and informing them that they were considering the FRT to be a machine gun. In response, Rare Breed challenged the ATF's decision in court.

More recently, Gun Owners of America reported evidence of a leaked email from ATF documenting plans to give Field Agents the green light to start demanding forfeiture of Forced Reset Triggers and documents relating to the sale/transfer of these devices.

ATF has finally announced that FRT owners violate the NFA and GCA. In their open letter, ATF states that "Current possessors of these devices are encouraged to contact ATF for further guidance on how they may divest possession." So, ATF asks that gun owners call them and make them aware that they own what ATF has determined is an illegal machine gun.

But as always, with the ATF and gun control, there's a larger story here.

Forced Reset Triggers or FRTs are not machine guns or machine gun parts. They're semiautomatic triggers. Interestingly enough, in ATF's letter, they say that what determined that FRT devices are machine guns was that "some FRT devices allow a firearm to automatically expel more than one shot with a single, continuous pull of the trigger." Keep in mind the use of the word "continuous."

Let's compare this finding with the definition of "machine gun" as defined in 26 USC § 5845(b)

"The term 'machine gun' means any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger."