ATF Sued By Trigger Manufacturer

One of the biggest concerns for gun owners with the current administration is that Joe Biden will try to use the regulatory powers of the executive branch to impose new restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms since he can’t get his gun ban plan through Congress. We’re already witnessing the a couple of attempts to do so with the proposed rules regarding unfinished frames and receivers and pistol braces that are still open for public comment, but a new lawsuit filed by Rare Breed Triggers is another example of how the agency can abuse its regulatory authority and cause big problems for companies that are trying to do the right thing.

As detailed in the federal lawsuit filed in Orlando, Florida, the company had four different former ATF agents take a look at their FRT-15 trigger to make sure it complied with ATF regulations and every one of them concluded that the trigger did not meet the ATF’s definition of a “machine gun.”

These four experts, with over 100 years of combined law enforcement experience, are well known to the Defendants. This is not only because of their former employment as ATF special agents, but also because the DOJ and ATF presented each of them as experts in the Defendants’ cases and criminal prosecutions on the subject of what does and does not constitute a “machinegun” under federal law.

In reliance upon the opinions of the Plaintiffs’ legal counsel and the opinions of these well-qualified industry experts and former ATF agents, RBT proceeded to sell the FRT-15.

On or about July 26, 2021, the DOJ, acting thorough the ATF, called the Plaintiffs in for a meeting with SAC.