Attorney General Ford Blocks Returns and Sales of Machine Gun Conversion Devices in Nevada

Carson City, NV — Today, Nevada Attorney General Aaron D. Ford announced that, following his lawsuit alongside a coalition of 16 attorneys general, the Trump administration has committed to carving out Nevada from its illegal plans to distribute thousands of machine-gun conversion devices (MCD) into communities across the United States.

“Machine-gun conversion devices have no legitimate use in our society and put our residents at much greater risk of falling victim to gun violence," said AG Ford. "I am relieved that Nevada will be spared from this illegal influx of devices designed only to kill. However, I am 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."

In submissions made in the multistate litigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has expressly confirmed to a judge that it will not return Forced Reset Triggers (FRTs) into Nevada or the other plaintiff states. In addition, Rare Breed Triggers, the country’s largest purveyor of FRTs, has confirmed in its court filings that it will not sell any FRTs in the plaintiff states. As a result, the coalition is withdrawing its motion for a preliminary injunction, based on a notice that lays out these representations in detail.

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 Nevada, FRT devices will not be distributed in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

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