Colorado joins 15 states in suing ATF over plans to redistribute machine gun conversion devices
COLORADO (KRDO) – Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser is joining 15 other states in suing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) over its plans to redistribute thousands of seized machine gun conversion devices (MCDs) to communities across the U.S.
The ATF's plans involve forced reset triggers (FRTs), which increase the firing rate of semiautomatic weapons, allowing them to function like machine guns. According to the Colorado AG's office, firearms equipped with FRTs can even exceed the rate of military machine guns, firing up to 20 bullets in one second.
The ATF previously classified FRTs as machine guns, but Weiser said that on May 16, the bureau signed a settlement agreement under a directive from the Trump administration to stop enforcing the federal law against FRTs and to redistribute thousands of the devices that the ATF had previously seized.
The multistate litigation is aiming to prevent that redistribution.
“It’s hard enough for our local law enforcement officials to protect Colorado communities from gun violence without the federal government willfully ignoring the law,” AG Weiser said in a press release. “The law is clear: machine guns, and devices that turn a semiautomatic weapon into a machine gun, are illegal. We’re suing to stop the ATF and the administration from making our communities more dangerous by distributing thousands of devices that turn firearms into weapons of war."
The attorneys general report that the ATF has previously estimated that at least 100,000 FRTs have been distributed nationwide in recent years. They say those ATF records also indicate that MCDs – including FRTs – have been appearing more frequently at crime scenes.
The Colorado AG's office said that in recent years, machine gun conversion devices such as FRTs have often been used in violent crimes and mass shootings across the nation.
Incidents of machine gun fire have also skyrocketed, with a 2022 analysis obtained by CNN finding that such incidents had increased by 1,400% from 2019 through 2021.
Multiple lawsuits were filed during the Biden administration to either enforce or challenge the prohibition on FRTs, but on May 16, the Trump administration announced it had settled those suits.
The 16-state lawsuit now seeks to prevent the ATF's redistribution of FRTs, claiming that they are prohibited by federal laws that ban owning machineguns, including devices that can convert firearms into automatic weapons.
"Today’s lawsuit explains that the federal government cannot violate U.S. law, even when it tries to bury those violations in a settlement agreement," Weiser's office said.
Weiser is joining the attorneys general of Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington on the lawsuit.
Read the full complaint, filed June 9 in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, here.
Stay up to date with the latest local news, sports, and investigations by downloading the KRDO13 app. Click here to download it from the Apple App Store. Android users can download it from Google Play here.
