Rapid fire conversion devices will not be sold in Nevada, Ford confirms

The Trump administration will not include Nevada among a group of states where the administration will return confiscated devices that can accelerate the rate of fire from semi-automatic weapons, according to the state’s attorney general.

In June, Attorney General Aaron Ford joined a lawsuit as part of a coalition of 16 attorneys general against the Trump administration’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to stop the redistribution of devices called forced reset triggers, which are trigger mechanisms that enable a faster firing rate than a standard trigger of a semi-automatic weapon.

The policy change was announced in May that the Trump administration had settled longstanding lawsuits on whether the forced reset triggers qualified as prohibited “machine guns” and lifted the federal prohibition on them.

Forced reset triggers not sold in states where they’re illegal

Ford and other attorneys general sought to stop the sale and redistribution in their states through a preliminary injunction, but they withdrew its motion Friday after further communications with the federal government’s counsel and reviewing defendants’ responses. The lawsuit as a whole is still ongoing and seeks to block the redistribution of the devices across the country.

The federal government confirmed it will not return forced reset triggers to owners living in states where they are illegal. Rare Breed Triggers, a Texas-based company that sells forced reset triggers, also confirmed in court filings it will not sell the products in those states.

The ATF also stated that it will send notices to owners of forced reset triggers who live in states where they are illegal informing them of their options. They can request that the ATF transfer the device to them in a state where it is legal, transfer it to a third party in a state where it is legal, or abandon the device to the bureau for disposal.

Owners will also be warned that they cannot bring forced reset triggers into a jurisdiction that prohibits them, and doing so could result in state prosecution, according to the attorney generals’ notice of withdrawal.

Notice of withdrawal by hill23602 on Scribd

Ford said he is relieved Nevada will not be part of the returns of seized forced reset triggers, but is “still concerned that distributing these items across other areas of the country will cause them to appear in the Silver State.”

“I will continue to fight this action for the safety of Nevadans and the rest of our great country, which has seen far too much gun violence,” he said in the statement.

Defendants in the litigation argued the ATF posted a notice on its website in June about the process to return seized forced reset triggers, and it specified the bureau would not return the products to states where they are illegal.

The federal government argues that the plaintiffs’ claims of injury are speculative and hypothetical, and that siding with the plaintiffs would undermine the government’s ability to negotiate in litigation moving forward.

“States remain free to prohibit (forced reset triggers) as a matter of state law, and they may continue to exercise their sovereign power to enforce such prohibitions. States may not, however, regulate possession of these items outside their borders,” the defendants argued in their court filings.

It is illegal to possess forced reset triggers in Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Washington D.C., Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia and Washington, according to the ATF.

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X.