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June 09, 2025
LANSING – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel today announced she is joining a coalition of 16 attorneys general in suing the Trump Administration, and in particular the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), over its official plans to distribute thousands of machine gun conversion devices (MCD) to communities across the United States (PDF).
The ATF’s action involves Forced Reset Triggers, which allow even novice shooters to achieve the firepower of a military machine gun. Although the ATF previously classified FRTs as machine guns, the ATF— under directive from Trump Administration leadership — signed a settlement agreement that promises to stop enforcing federal law against FRTs and that promises to redistribute thousands of FRTs the ATF had previously seized. The multistate litigation seeks to prevent that imminent redistribution, because FRTs are illegal to possess under federal law.
“Machine guns do not belong in our communities, but this unlawful action by the Trump Administration deliberately makes it easier to convert semiautomatic weapons into machine guns, putting lives at risk and undermining efforts to combat gun violence,” Nessel said. “Allowing Forced Reset Triggers into Michigan could be devastating, and I will continue fighting to protect the safety of our residents, especially when the federal government refuses to.”
In recent years, machine gun conversion devices like FRTs, which dramatically increase a firearm’s rate of fire, have been frequently used in violent crimes and mass shootings, worsening the gun violence epidemic in the United States. Firearms equipped with MCDs are able to exceed the rate of fire of many military machine guns, firing up to 20 bullets in one second. The ATF has noted a significant rise in the use of MCDs, leading to increasing incidents of machine-gun fire – up 1,400% from 2019 through 2021.
Since at least 1975, the ATF has classified devices that operate similarly to FRTs as machine guns prohibited by federal law. FRT devices replace the standard trigger on a semiautomatic firearm to allow the shooter to maintain continuous fire with one trigger pull, similar to the operation of fully automatic weapons. Michigan state law also independently prohibits FRTs or FRT-equipped firearms. Despite the prohibition and state law, in recent years, the ATF estimates that at least 100,000 FRTs have been distributed across the country. The ATF’s records also establish that machine gun conversion devices, including FRTs, are showing up more often at crime scenes.
Multiple lawsuits seeking either to enforce or challenge the prohibition on FRTs were filed during the Biden Administration. A federal judge in New York agreed that FRTs are banned under federal law. A federal judge in Texas disagreed and held that FRTs do not qualify as machine guns under federal law, but that ruling was on appeal.
On May 16, 2025, the Trump Administration announced that it has now settled these lawsuits— and done so in a way that eviscerates the federal FRT prohibition. The ATF has agreed to abandon its enforcement actions and appeals; promised to stop enforcing the federal ban on machine guns against FRTs, even against individuals and sellers who were not parties to any of these lawsuits; and pledged to redistribute FRTs that it previously seized.
Today’s lawsuit seeks to prevent the redistribution of FRTs because they are prohibited by U.S. law, which prohibits anyone from owning machine guns, including devices that convert firearms into automatic weapons. The lawsuit explains that the federal government cannot violate U.S. law, even when it tries to bury those violations in a settlement agreement.
The coalition will seek a preliminary injunction to halt the Trump Administration from distributing FRT devices in ways that directly harm Plaintiff States in contravention of federal law.
The lawsuit explains that the redistribution of machine gun conversion devices will permanently threaten public safety nationwide, and as the lawsuit highlights, the ATF has even admitted that returning FRTs in states that prohibit them would “aid and abet” violations of state laws. The Attorneys General seek to prevent those harms from occurring.
Attorney General Nessel is joining Colorado, Delaware, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia in filing this litigation.
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