Attorney General Brown Blocks the Return and Sales of Machine Gun Conversion Devices in Maryland

Following a lawsuit filed by Maryland AG Anthony Brown with a coalition of 16 attorneys general – including Delaware – the Trump administration has committed to excluding Maryland from plans to distribute thousands of machine gun conversion devices. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives confirmed to a judge that it will not return Forced Reset Triggers into Maryland – or the other plaintiff States. And the country’s largest purveyor of FRTs, Rare Breed Triggers, has confirmed that it will not sell any FRTs in Maryland or the other plaintiff states. With these actions, the coalition is withdrawing its motion for a preliminary injunction based on a notice that lays out these representations in detail.

Additional information from AG Brown:

“When our Office filed this lawsuit, we warned that thousands of forced reset triggers would flood our streets and leave Marylanders vulnerable to more senseless gun violence. Our case led the federal government to block their redistribution into Maryland and other states where they’re banned,” said Attorney General Brown. “This victory protects Maryland families from the devastation these dangerous devices have been used to inflict in our communities.”

In recent years, machine-gun 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. 

In addition to Attorney General Brown, the attorneys general in Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai‛i, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington secured commitments from the ATF and Rare Breed Triggers.