The agency famous for once declaring a shoe string a machine gun has now targeted Florida-based company Rare Breed Triggers. An ATF letter to Rare Breed is floating around social media stating that the FRT-15 trigger has been classified as a machine gun under the National Firearms Act and that Rare Breed needs to cease and desist sales of the FRT-15 and contact the ATF within five days to develop a plan to address those machine guns already distributed.
The ATF concluded the Rare Breed triggers to be a combination of parts designed and intended to convert a semi-automatic weapon into a machine gun. The ATF’s examination found that the Rare Breed trigger allows a firearm to “shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, with a single continuous pull of the trigger.”
The FRT in FRT-15 stands for Forced Reset Trigger, and while I’ve handled one, I understand that they still require one pull of the trigger to function. The user pulls the trigger, the weapon fires, and the FRT-15 forces a reset of the trigger. If the user keeps continuous force on the trigger, it will fire again.
Here’s Rare Breed’s explanation of how the FRT-15 works . . .
This is not an automatic function by any means, and the weapon fires one shot per trigger pull.
ATF Goes Rogue on the FRT-15
The ATF must’ve rolled an above 15 on their D20 and decided it’s time to go rogue once again. The FRT-15 does not seem to meet the definition of a machine gun, but then again, neither did bump stocks.
According to court documents, Rare Breed filed for declaratory and injunctive relief against all Defendants on the 2nd of August, as well as a temporary restraining order, which appeared to be denied on 8/05.
According to court documents, the team at Rare Breed has a hearing this morning in a Florida court regarding the ATF’s action. I’ve reached out for comments from Rare Breed Triggers and have not heard back at the time of publishing. I imagine they are gearing up for the legal battle, and I wish them nothing but luck. Watch this space for updates.
