Delaware News

Attorney General Kathy Jennings Sues Trump Administration to Keep Machine Gun Devices Out of Delaware

Department of Justice | Department of Justice Press Releases | Featured Posts | Newsroom | Date Posted: Monday, June 9, 2025


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Attorney General Kathy Jennings today announced that she is co-leading a coalition of 15 Attorneys General in suing the Trump Administration, and in particular the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), over its plans to distribute thousands of machinegun conversion devices (MCD) 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 machinegun. Although ATF previously classified FRTs as machineguns, the agency – under directive from Trump Administration leadership – signed a settlement agreement that promised to stop enforcing federal law against FRTs and redistribute thousands of FRTs that ATF had previously seized. The multistate litigation seeks to prevent that imminent redistribution, because FRTs are illegal to possess under federal law.
 
“In seeking to reintroduce weapons of war to our communities, this Administration is – once again – flagrantly violating the law,” said Attorney General Kathy Jennings. “We should be clear about the stakes here: if they are allowed to implement their illegal agenda, more innocent people will die from gun violence. With this litigation, we’re stepping up to stop that from happening.”
In recent years, machinegun 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. 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, ATF has classified devices that operate similarly to FRTs as machineguns 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 machinegun 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 machineguns under federal law, but that ruling was on appeal.
 
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Attorney General Kathy Jennings Sues Trump Administration to Keep Machine Gun Devices Out of Delaware

Department of Justice | Department of Justice Press Releases | Featured Posts | Newsroom | Date Posted: Monday, June 9, 2025


Navy blue background featuring the Delaware state seal in the center
Attorney General Kathy Jennings today announced that she is co-leading a coalition of 15 Attorneys General in suing the Trump Administration, and in particular the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), over its plans to distribute thousands of machinegun conversion devices (MCD) 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 machinegun. Although ATF previously classified FRTs as machineguns, the agency – under directive from Trump Administration leadership – signed a settlement agreement that promised to stop enforcing federal law against FRTs and redistribute thousands of FRTs that ATF had previously seized. The multistate litigation seeks to prevent that imminent redistribution, because FRTs are illegal to possess under federal law.
 
“In seeking to reintroduce weapons of war to our communities, this Administration is – once again – flagrantly violating the law,” said Attorney General Kathy Jennings. “We should be clear about the stakes here: if they are allowed to implement their illegal agenda, more innocent people will die from gun violence. With this litigation, we’re stepping up to stop that from happening.”
In recent years, machinegun 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. 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, ATF has classified devices that operate similarly to FRTs as machineguns 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 machinegun 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 machineguns under federal law, but that ruling was on appeal.
 
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Keep up to date by receiving a daily digest email, around noon, of current news release posts from state agencies on news.delaware.gov.

Here you can subscribe to future news updates.