Vermont Business Magazine Attorney General Charity Clark today announced she joined a coalition of attorneys general in suing the Trump Administration, and in particular the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), over its official plans to redistribute thousands of previously seized machine gun conversion devices to communities across the United States. ATF’s action involves Forced Reset Triggers, which allow even novice shooters to achieve the firepower of a military machine gun. Although ATF previously classified FRTs as machineguns, ATF—under directive from Trump Administration leadership—signed a settlement agreement that promises to stop enforcing federal law against FRTs and to redistribute thousands of FRTs that ATF had previously seized.
Today’s lawsuit, filed by a coalition of 16 attorneys general, seeks to prevent the redistribution of FRTs because they are prohibited by a 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 Trump administration’s decision to distribute illegal machine gun conversion devices in our communities will make us less safe,” said Attorney General Clark. “I am filing this lawsuit to prevent the implementation of this potentially disastrous directive from the Trump administration.”
In recent years, machine gun conversion devices like FRTs have been frequently used in violent crimes and mass shootings, worsening the gun violence epidemic in the United States. Firearms equipped with machine gun conversion devices are able to exceed the rate of fire of many military machine guns, firing up to 20 bullets in one second. ATF has noted a significant rise in the use of machine gun conversion devices, leading to increasing incidents of machine-gun fire – up 1,400% from 2019 through 2021.
Since at least 1975, 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. Despite the prohibition, in recent years, ATF estimates that at least 100,000 FRTs have been distributed across the country. 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. 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.
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.
Joining Attorney General Clark in filing this lawsuit are the Attorneys General from Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai'i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington.
A copy of the lawsuit is available here.
6.9.2025. MONTPELIER, Vt. – Attorney General
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