A prison security guard once observed that prisoners are the most innovative and creative people he’s ever met, proving yet again that necessity is indeed the mother of invention. And while nearly all gun owners are law-abiding citizens, they are often treated as criminals by legislators who would disarm them through fees, red tape, and administrative paperwork until gun ownership becomes so burdensome and onerous that citizens simply give up their rights.
Fortunately, Americans are resilient, and often look at opposition as opportunity. Legislative mandates intended to be hurdles have turned into technical challenges that the creative community of firearms owners constantly conquers through new innovations.
While legislators intend legal definitions to be functional deterrents, the definitions themselves are often the very tool used to develop firearms (and related products) that give options and latitude to gun owners, frequently in the most restrictive jurisdictions.
Guns That Defy ATF Definitions
For example, in 2019, Franklin Armory created two new firearms that neatly circumvented definitions under the National Firearms Act. The designs were so unique that the ATF didn’t know how to categorize them, but decided to shoehorn them into categories of restricted arms anyway, a move that resulted in a lawsuit and a settlement in which the ATF admitted that the new design “is free and clear from any NFA restrictions due to its unique characteristic.” (See our full coverage of this story here as the ATF continues to fight against these new products.)
A Decade-Old Solution to the California ‘Assault Weapon’ Ban
The Kali Key is a unique product that nullifies the California statute designed to limit the ability to own common rifles such as the AR-15. California’s features-based test in Penal Code section 30515 lays out the definition of an “assault weapon.” Developed a decade ago, with tens of thousands of units sold, the Kali Key’s modified drop-in charging system redirects gas so that the bolt doesn’t cycle, effectively turning the firearm into a bolt-action rather than semi-auto action, neatly side-stepping the prohibition.
“We have never received any communication, cease-and-desist notice, enforcement notice, or other correspondence from the California DOJ concerning the product,” a company spokesman told News2A, adding, “Beyond helping people continue to own and enjoy the AR platform, part of our mission from the beginning has been to support grassroots organizations working to protect and restore Second Amendment rights.”
Sometimes an innovative product solves unrelated problems as well. According to Kali Key, the Pennsylvania Game Commission has approved AR-platform hunting within the state via the use of the Kali Key. Because the product changes the function of the firearm, it has opened up a whole new platform for Pennsylvania hunters, many of whom own the popular AR-15, of which there are nearly 40 million in the country.
(On the topic of hunting, straight-wall cartridges like the .350 Legend and .450 Bushmaster are also innovations that allow AR-15s to be used in states that allow only straight-walled cartridges for deer.)
Arbitrary Magazine Capacities Meet an Old Technology
New Jersey, and many other blue states, impose arbitrary and capricious restrictions on magazine capacity, with no meaningful argument as to why one more round is incrementally more dangerous. And the restrictions are often slippery slopes to further and tighter limits. New Jersey shifted its definition of a “large capacity magazine” from 15 rounds to 10 rounds in 2018.
Though not proposed as a solution to navigate around magazine limits, the Lima Six belt-fed AR upper does exactly that. Introduced as a concept in March of 2024, the company’s belt-fed uppers – compatible with standard AR-15 lower receivers – elude many definitions of large capacity magazines, which often hang on words like box, drum, tube, or container, with some state statutes failing to mention belts at all. Belt-fed guns are not an innovation (the oldest we’re aware of dates to 1874), but combining the belted ammunition feeding technology with one of America’s most popular rifles is an innovation that undermines legislation, to the glee of law-abiding gun owners everywhere.
The Poor Man’s Machinegun
While many would love to see the National Firearms Act dismantled, and machinegun ownership as common and burden-free as owning a simple .22 rifle, that’s unlikely to occur in this decade (or the next). There are currently only 234,718 transferable machineguns, with many costing tens of thousands of dollars. Yet a novel device known as a forced reset trigger, introduced in 2020, creates machinegun-like performance, while still adhering to the strict definition of a semi-automatic firearm.
A machinegun is a firearm that expels more than one round with the single press of a trigger, as defined under the NFA. A forced reset trigger is a semi-automatic trigger that uses the bolt carrier’s cycle to mechanically push the trigger forward to its reset after each shot so that the shooter’s constant pressure on the trigger can rapidly initiate an additional shot. The design satisfies the definition of semi-automatic, with each trigger pull firing only one shot.
The ATF attempted to squash this innovation by classifying FRT-equipped firearms as machineguns, a move that a Texas district judge enjoined in July of 2024. Soon after, the Bondi Justice Department ended its litigation against the manufacturer, Rare Breed Triggers, in 2025. In making his determination against the ATF on forced reset triggers, Judge Reed O’Connor cited the Garland v. Cargill Supreme Court decision, which invalidated the ATF’s ban on bump stocks, another novel (but questionably useful) innovation that the ATF didn’t like, but still didn’t meet the muster of a definition as a machinegun.
Homemade Guns in the Information Age
The broadest frontier in battling gun control regulations takes shape in the ability to freely access gun design and manufacturing information, a fight that engages with First Amendment liberties as home manufacturing of firearms becomes more accessible through 3D printing. This is another area where gun control jurisdictions are fighting against perfectly legal activities which often creatively exceed traditional moats that gun control proponents believe are able to “control” the availability of firearms.
In this landscape, 2A enthusiasts are open-sourcing firearms design information, making it freely available on platforms like defcad.com and thegatalog.com, and characterizing the files and their code as free speech. In response, states like California and New York are attempting to ban the sale of 3D printers or impose government censorship on how they are used.
In 2018, the New Jersey attorney general threatened Defense Distributed, a Texas company, with legal action unless it stopped “publishing printable-gun computer files for use by New Jersey residents.” The legislature later banned distribution of those files to anyone in New Jersey. The situation eventually resulted in a legal challenge that reached the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
But in many ways, the cat is out of the bag when it comes to open-source design files, as there is no practical way to block or ban them. The legality of legislation that bans them is a topic that courts are still grappling with, attempting to define the gray areas between free speech, code, and the proliferation of firearms.
In summary, the rebellious American spirit of innovation is one of the many things that is keeping Second Amendment liberties alive and well. Each regulation is simply a challenge to be overcome through creative applications of law and design. Of course, owning firearms is – and always will be – the most significant defense of Second Amendment liberties.
