In layman’s terms: NJ and 15 other states are suing to stop the ATF from returning forced reset triggers to their owners. The claim that FRTs convert semiautomatic firearms into machine guns.
On June 9, New Jersey and 15 other liberal states filed a hasty and poorly structured lawsuit against the Justice Department and all of the parties in the FRT (forced reset trigger) case, seeking to invalidate a federal settlement agreement and stop the return of seized or surrendered FRTs to their owners.
“The courts have already swatted down these rabidly anti-gun Attorneys General once before, and even though they’re now seeking refuge by shopping their case out to yet another venue, we hope the court in Maryland court will see through these shenanigans,” said Hannah Hill, Vice President for the National Association for Gun Rights, in a press release. “These states lack standing to file this lawsuit, and they know it. This suit is just reckless political lawfare.”
As we previously reported in May, the ATF ended its litigation against Rare Breed Triggers, and ordered that all triggers be returned to individuals. Today’s multistate lawsuit argues that, “The Redistribution Policy will cause Plaintiff States irreparable injuries.”
Parties being sued include The National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR), Rare Breed Triggers, Texas Gun Rights, and three individual plaintiffs. The suit was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland.
These triggers relevant to the lawsuit are already illegal in New Jersey, as they are in many of the other states that are parties to the suit, making it unclear what their particular legal interest is. New Jersey alleges that “Rare Breed Triggers LLC made 364 deliveries through a commercial shipping service to addresses in New Jersey.” However, Rare Breed sells several products, many of which are legal in New Jersey.
The ATF will begin mailing FRT owners no later than June 30 with instructions on how to retrieve their property.
The 32-page complaint is notable in many ways. First, for a lawsuit with significant Second Amendment legal implications, it completely omits some significant key terms and case references, including:
- “Supreme Court”
- “Bruen”
- “Cargill”
- “keep and bear arms” or any text of the Second Amendment
- “Constitution” (other than “Plaintiff the District of Columbia is a municipal corporation organized under the Constitution of the United States.”)
- “Second Amendment” (other than “On February 7, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order titled “Protecting Second Amendment Rights”)
The complaint begins by asserting an “epidemic of gun violence” but doesn’t allege any instances of specific crimes involving FRTs. Among the more amusing allegations is the state’s argument that, “Criminal incidents involving FRT-equipped firearms are also substantially likely to impose increased health care costs on Plaintiff States.”
Mark Smith, constitutional scholar, host of the Four Boxes Diner YouTube channel, and contributor at News2A, made the following observation about the complaint:
At first glance, these States seem to have a terrible standing problem…not to mention they should have sued in Texas federal court under various doctrines like comity and the first filed rule. But they know they will lose in [the] Fifth Circuit (they already have) so they are trying to forum shop for an anti-gun activist judge in Maryland.
The lawsuit was announced in a virtual press conference by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin (perhaps among others), along with a press release. Platkin took questions from reporters, including John Petrolino, who asked, “What is the historical analogue from 1791 that says banning an FRT would be constitutional?” Platkin indicated such information was in the brief, which is empty of any historical information whatsoever. The earliest date mentioned in the brief is 1934 and the National Firearms Act.
Petrolino also asked, “Doesn’t an FRT require multiple functions of the trigger?” Platkin responded that, “one pull of the trigger, hold it down, fire 900 rounds a minute, if that’s not a machine gun, I don’t know what is.”
