The Trump Administration Legalized Machine Guns. States Must Respond.
It’s clear: Trump cares more about gun industry profits than American lives.
On a Friday afternoon, the Trump administration announced it had caved to the gun lobby.
On May 16, hoping most Americans wouldn’t notice, it agreed to a settlement that requires the Department of Justice to “not enforce the machine gun ban against any device that functions like a forced reset trigger.”
Forced reset triggers (FRTs) are designed to drastically increase a firearm’s rate of fire by mechanically resetting the trigger after each shot instead of relying on the shooter’s release. The result is a firing rate nearly identical to a machine gun.
An era of gun violence in the 1920s spurred Congress to enact the National Firearms Act of 1934, which, at the time, established a $200 tax on machine guns and silencers. In 1986, Congress banned machine guns, with few exceptions. But today, the gun industry has effectively innovated its way around the ban.
From the bump stocks used in 2017 during the Las Vegas mass shooting that left 58 dead and more than 800 injured, to the recent mass shooting in Birmingham, Alabama, which used an auto sear, people are gaining access to machine guns again. FRTs are just another one of the gun industry’s latest “innovations.”
While the current administration seems hell-bent on putting guns above American lives, states have the power to protect themselves. Indeed, many have already banned popular devices that increase the firing rate of a semiautomatic firearm, including bump stocks and Glock switches.
Eleven states have gone further, proactively protecting themselves from the gun industry’s ceaseless effort to innovate deadly rapid-fire devices like FRTs:
- California1
- Colorado2
- Delaware3
- Florida4
- Hawaii5
- Illinois6
- Iowa7
- Maryland8
- Massachusetts9
- Nevada10
- New York11
Unfortunately, the 39 states that have not acted on rapid-fire devices broadly or have taken narrow approaches that depend upon what constitutes a single trigger pull are vulnerable. Gun manufacturers may even start pre-installing FRTs at the point of sale. These devices have no explicit age restrictions and are not subject to any specific design standards or permitting requirements beyond what’s required for the gun itself. In other words, in the rest of the country, there is little to prevent the proliferation of what are effectively machine guns.
Many state legislative sessions have already come to a close. But some still have an opportunity to act quickly to protect their residents from the Trump administration’s reckless actions, while others can begin to plan for the next session:
- Oregon is considering a bill explicitly banning FRTs alongside all other rapid-fire devices. The bill is part of a comprehensive package of reforms led by lawmakers putting Oregonian safety first. The laws in the package are all designed to insulate the state from the Trump administration’s retreat on gun safety, including a bill creating a state dealer license for dealing firearms, a bill to fund community violence intervention efforts, and a bill to improve Oregon’s permit to purchase law.
- Maine is considering a bill prohibiting rapid-fire devices, with language that would encompass FRTs. Over the next month, Maine lawmakers have the chance to protect their communities from the changing whims of an administration committed to punishing the state for simply following state and federal law. Now the Trump administration is threatening the safety of every Mainer.
- Virginia had the opportunity to enact a law prohibiting all rapid-fire devices, but Governor Youngkin vetoed the legislation, deeming it “unnecessary.” This fall, Virginians can elect a governor who puts safety first.
Make no mistake, the Trump administration’s actions are catastrophic for public safety.
This move is the latest from an administration that seems to put gun industry profits before American lives. In his first several months in office, the Trump administration has unilaterally cut funding to community violence intervention programs and school mental health programs, fired experts researching gun violence, removed the Surgeon General’s gun violence advisory and the ATF’s memorial to gun violence victims, shuttered the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, and rescinded rules cracking down on federally licensed gun dealers who falsify business records and skip customer background checks.
It’s clear: Trump cares more about gun industry profits than American lives.
Despite the bleak federal landscape, we are not powerless. Hope resides in the proven power of state action and lawmakers who put the safety of their constituents first. We know that states that score well on the GIFFORDS Annual Gun Law Scorecard consistently have lower rates of gun deaths than states that score poorly.
Americans deserve to be able to live comfortably without fear of machine guns and mass shootings. States can protect themselves, and GIFFORDS stands ready to help state lawmakers protect their constituents as the Trump Administration shrinks from its public safety responsibilities.
MEDIA REQUESTS
Our experts can speak to the full spectrum of gun violence prevention issues. Have a question? Email us at media@giffords.org.
Contact
- Cal. Penal Code § 16930(a)(2).[↩]
- Colo. Rev. Stat. §§ 18-12-101, 18-12-102.[↩]
- Del. Code Ann. tit. 11, § 1444(a)(6).[↩]
- Fla. Stat. § 790.222.[↩]
- Haw. Rev. Stat. § 134-8.5.[↩]
- 720 Ill. Comp. Stat. 5/24-1(a)(14).[↩]
- Iowa Code § 724.29.[↩]
- Md. Code §§ 4-301, 4-305.1.[↩]
- 2024 Mass. Acts 135, Sections 26 and 115.[↩]
- Nev. Rev. Stat. § 202.274.[↩]
- NY CLS Penal § 265.00.[↩]