Oregon Joins Lawsuit to Stop Trump from Redistributing Illegal Machine Gun Conversion Devices
Yesterday, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield today indicated that the state joined a coalition of 15 other attorneys general in a lawsuit against the Trump Administration, specifically the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), over plans to distribute thousands of machine gun conversion devices (MCD) to communities across the US.
Lawsuit To Halt Distribution of Machine Gun Conversion Devices
MCDs, such as Forced Reset Triggers (FRT), allow even novice shooters to achieve the firepower of a military machine gun by increasing the rate of fire and were previously classified as machine guns by the ATF.
Under a directive from Trump Administration leadership, ATF signed a settlement agreement promising to stop enforcing federal law against FRTs and undertaking to redistribute thousands of FRTs previously seized by the agency.
Rayfield said, “The idea that the federal government would hand thousands of these devices back out into our communities is a serious threat to public safety.”
Firearms with MCDs can exceed the rate of fire of many military machine guns, firing up to 20 bullets in a second. MCDs like FRTs have been prevalent in the gun violence epidemic in the United States, frequently used in violent crimes and mass shootings.
ATF reported a 1,400% rise in the use of MCDs from 2019 through 2021, leading to increasing incidents of machine gun fire.
Even ATF has admitted that returning FRTs in states that prohibit them would “aid and abet” violations of state laws. Oregon lawmakers are considering current legislation that would ban rapid-fire devices, such as bump stocks.
The Oregon Senate narrowly passed Senate Bill 243 amidst fierce debate on May 29, and the bill is now headed to the Oregon House of Representatives.
As FRTs are illegal to possess under federal law, the current lawsuit seeks to prevent the imminent redistribution of FRTs as they are prohibited by US law, which prohibits anyone from owning machine guns, including devices that convert firearms into automatic weapons.
The AG coalition asserts that the federal government cannot violate US law, even when it attempts to conceal those violations in a settlement agreement.
The coalition is seeking a preliminary injunction to halt the Trump Administration from distributing FRT devices in ways that directly harm the coalition states in contravention of federal law.