Adjust 3D printed machine gun conversion device
ATF has been linked to an increase in 3D printed “machine gun conversion devices” and has announced plans to limit them.
President Donald Trump’s administration has agreed to allow gun enthusiasts to sell and possess devices that can convert semi-automatic rifles into weapons that can shoot as fast as machine guns.
The agreement came in a settlement announced by the Justice Department that settled a lawsuit filed under Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, after his administration banned certain “forced revenge set triggers.”
“The Department of Justice believes that the second amendment is not a second-rate right,” Attorney General Pamela Bondy said in a statement about his constitutional right to possess arms. “And we are delighted to end an unnecessary litigation cycle with a settlement that will increase public safety.”
The deal was criticized by Vanessa Gonzalez, vice president of government and political affairs at gun control group Gifford, who said “the Trump administration has just effectively legalized machine guns.”
“My life will be lost because of his actions,” she said.
In 2022, the Bureau of Alcohol, cigarettes, firearms and explosives informed the firearm licensee that they had determined that such devices constituted illegal machine guns under the National Firearms Act.
A year later, DOJ filed a lawsuit in New York against the company that created and distributed such devices nationwide, attracting the triggers of a rare variety and preventing the court from continuing to sell it.
When traveling to prevent the sale of such devices, the Biden administration cited the frequency with which AR-15-style semi-automatic firearms are used in mass shootings nationwide.
The New York lawsuit was pending, but the National Gun Rights Association filed a lawsuit in Texas challenging the Biden-era ban, leading to a judge, which was illegal because it banned it from enforcement.
The Trump administration’s settlement resolved the lawsuits under appeal and resolved an agreement to return all forced reset triggers that seized or surrendered all forced reset triggers to the owner.
The Trump administration has agreed not to apply machine gun bans to such devices unless they are designed for use with handguns.
“This decision marks a new era of being accountable to the DOJ and the ATF when trampling on the rights of law-abiding gun owners,” said Dudley Brown, president of the Gun Rights Association, in a statement.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond of Boston, edited by Lee Jones and William Mallard)
