Rare Breed Triggers LLC has battled the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) over its FRT-15 trigger for the past few years, and American gun owners have been caught in the crossfire. The ATF has once again sent out letters to the owners of the triggers demanding they turn them over to the government for destruction.
Rare Breed Triggers claims its FRT-15 is a semi-automatic trigger, but the ATF claims it is a machinegun conversion device. According to the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA), any item designed to convert a firearm to a machine gun is treated as a machine gun itself. According to the ATF, the device is regulated by the NFA, and since no machine guns made after April 1986 can be added to the registry, the ATF claims no one can legally own an FRT-15 trigger.
An FRT-15 trigger is a forced reset trigger. A forced reset trigger causes the trigger to reset after every shot, increasing the rate of fire for a firearm. The ATF claims the forced reset triggers fire automatically by a single function of a trigger. Rare Breed Triggers claim that since the shooter pulls the trigger with each shot, it does not fall under the federal definition of a machine gun.
Both sides have been fighting in court since Rare Breed Triggers was served with a cease-and-desist letter in July 2021. The ATF could not wait until the court cases were settled before attempting to recover triggers from consumers. In August of 2022, the ATF field office agents started showing up at the doors of buyers of FRT-15 triggers purchased from a GunBroker seller known as Rifleremedy2000.
The ATF collected FRTs from one of Rare Breed Trigger’s manufacturers and confiscated triggers from Big Daddy Unlimited (BDU), which sold a similar product called the Wide Open Trigger (WOT).
Last spring, the ATF made efforts to recover WOTs purchased from BDU. AmmoLand News could not determine how the ATF got a list of WOT owners, and the ATF isn’t speaking up. One thing is clear: the ATF would not stop until it could confiscate as many triggers as possible. The springtime operation targeted a different set of customers than the earlier operations.
Now, the ATF is starting a new purge of forced reset triggers, including the FRT-15 and the WOT sold directly from Rare Breed Triggers.
The ATF’s latest tactic is a letter campaign demanding gun owners turn over their forced reset triggers purchased from Rare Breed Triggers. All the letters AmmoLand News has examined reference “Red Beard Treasures.” Red Beard Treasures is an alias for Rare Breed Triggers. The ATF claims that Rare Breed Triggers shipped from the pseudonym to obfuscate the source of the triggers from the government. Rare Breed Triggers claims it used the Red Beard Treasures moniker to prevent would-be thieves from knowing what was in the packages.
AmmoLand News has not found any letters referencing packages marked as shipped from Rare Breed Triggers. Rare Breed Triggers claims the United States Postal Service (USPS) turned over customer information without a warrant. This incident wouldn’t be the first time a shipping company turned over information. Stamps.com turned over information on “Buy, Build, Shoot” kits sold by Polymer80. Although AmmoLand News cannot verify that the customers receiving letters had their information turned over to the ATF by the USPS, all evidence seems to point in that direction.
The ATF has not taken any enforcement actions against any forced reset trigger owners. For now, the ATF seems just to be happy taking possession of the triggers. Only time will tell if/when the ATF will start taking enforcement actions against trigger owners.
There are currently two cases involving Rare Breed Triggers. The government is suing the company in Brooklyn, New York, and Rare Breed Triggers is suing the ATF in Texas.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
From now on, whenever possible buy, in person, wear a wide brimmed hat, keep your head down and pay in cash. Yes, I am painfully aware of what that says about our current state of affairs.
Yes, buy it now, pay in cash before the only thing we have is digital currency.
DIYinSTL …….what do you think the face diapers were about..? Those help, too…
Yep, adding that to the list for my next visit to Bass/Academy/Cabelas.
Too bad they are not using them in Louisiana… as I’ve stated… Louisiana law states that more than 8 shots with one pull is “full auto”… I wonder if the zip tie produced that many…. ?
To: BATFE Fm: FRT-15 Owner You may be in violation of federal law. The Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights of the Constitution states, “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” You are creating a totalitarian police state by abusing your authority and infringing on our rights. Therefore, a well regulated militia is necessary to halt your abuses with the Arms in our possession. Pat Riot were these letters sent out registered mail or return receipt requested. “I didn’t… Read more »
I don’t remember where I saw it , but someone in a comment section said that every piece of mail sent through USPS is scanned and to to and from information is retained. The author of that comment claimed that it was a provision of the Patriot Act.
Are they doing the same for the glock switches? Why not?
I think Glock switches are actual conversion devices that allow multiple shots to be fired with a single trigger pull. That makes the Glock into an efficient ammunition depleting device–or machine gun. The switch itself was not manufactured or sold by reputable gun makers and by its design it cannot be argued it is a trigger enhancement for a semi-auto. And, to more specifically answer your question, if ATF uncovers a modified Glock, they will confiscate it and haul the owner off to the Gray Bar Hotel.
This is what happens when American ingenuity beats the government at its own game. We have seen and read how the trigger works. The fact that the mechanism moves the trigger forward by force and then the finger on the trigger pulls it again shows that it is not fully automatic like a fully automatic is manufactured. It makes sense that when you pull the trigger, the finger must feel a pulse. When in the USMC I fired fully auto, there was a selection switch for that and there was no pulse on the trigger. I bet with this device,… Read more »
What asshats down thumbed this post?
Roland I don’t know, but I just fixed it, even though I’m driving and I couldn’t read it, but I did see that it was posted by music Man… So, I feel like I can pretty much do that without having to read it.