FRT trigger legal states, and why the published lists disagree

Forced reset triggers are legal under federal law following the May 2025 Department of Justice settlement. State law is a separate question, and it is where almost everyone gets caught out. If you are trying to work out the FRT trigger legal states position for where you live, the honest answer is that the published lists do not agree with each other, and this page explains why rather than adding a fifth list to the pile.

On this page

The federal position, briefly

In May 2025 the Department of Justice settled with Rare Breed Triggers and abandoned the ATF’s position that forced reset triggers were machine guns. The agency published notice that seized units would be returned — see the ATF notice — and Congress’s research service set out the background in a July 2025 CRS report. We cover that in more depth in whether forced reset triggers are legal.

A settlement is not a statute, and it did not touch state law at all.

Why state law is the hard part

Here is the mechanism behind the confusion. Almost no state legislated the phrase “forced reset trigger”. What states did instead, mostly years before FRTs existed in their current form, was ban a category of device: “multiburst trigger activator”, “rate of fire enhancer”, “trigger crank or similar device”, “rapid fire activator”. Those definitions were written with bump stocks and trigger cranks in mind.

Whether a forced reset trigger falls inside wording like that is a question of statutory interpretation, not a lookup. Careful readers land in different places, which is exactly why one published list says thirteen jurisdictions, another says fourteen, and a third says sixteen. It is also why a list that was accurate in January can be wrong by June.

California, worked through properly

California is the one state where the position can be traced end to end from primary sources, so it is worth walking through as the worked example of how these statutes actually operate.

  • Penal Code § 16930 defines a “multiburst trigger activator” — the category, not the product.
  • Penal Code § 32900 makes it an offence to manufacture, import, keep for sale, offer for sale, give, lend or possess one in the state.
  • In June 2025, weeks after the federal settlement, the California Department of Justice issued a law enforcement bulletin stating that forced reset triggers remain illegal under California law, qualifying at minimum as multiburst trigger activators under § 16930. The Attorney General’s office published that position directly.

Notice the shape of it: a category definition written earlier, a possession offence attached to that category, and then a state-level interpretation confirming FRTs fall inside it. That is the pattern you are looking for in your own state’s code, and California is unusual only in having published the interpretation so plainly.

What every source agrees on

Across the four published lists we compared, eleven jurisdictions appear on all of them as restricting forced reset triggers: California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia.

If you are in one of those, treat the answer as no until your own counsel tells you otherwise.

What they disagree on

Connecticut, Washington, Colorado, Minnesota and Nevada appear on some published lists and not others. That disagreement is not sloppiness on anyone’s part; it reflects genuine ambiguity in how each state’s category wording is read.

Washington is a good illustration. Its relevant provisions at RCW 9.41.190, with definitions at RCW 9.41.010, were drafted around bump stocks. Whether they reach a forced reset trigger is an interpretive question, and reasonable sources answer it differently. Minnesota is commonly cited under § 609.67, including by the state’s own gun owners’ caucus, but we have not been able to verify a published state-level interpretation the way California’s exists.

Florida is worth a separate mention because it causes confusion in the other direction: there is no Florida FRT ban, but many retailers still refuse to ship there because the litigation climate makes it not worth the exposure. A shipping restriction is a business decision, not a legal finding.

How to check your own state

  1. Search the category terms, not the product. Look through your state’s penal or criminal code for multiburst, trigger activator, rate of fire, rapid fire and machine gun. “Forced reset trigger” almost certainly will not appear.
  2. Check whether a possession offence attaches. A definition on its own does nothing; California’s § 16930 only bites because § 32900 attaches to it.
  3. Look for a published state interpretation. Your Attorney General’s office may have taken a position, as California’s did.
  4. Ask a firearms attorney licensed in your state if the wording is ambiguous. This is a cheap question to ask and an expensive one to get wrong.

Common questions

Why does no one agree on the number of banned states?

Because most states banned a category of device rather than the product, and whether an FRT falls inside that category is an interpretation. Published counts range from thirteen to sixteen jurisdictions for that reason.

Are FRTs legal in Texas or Florida?

Neither appears on any of the four restriction lists we compared. That is not the same as a legal opinion, and Florida in particular sees widespread retailer shipping restrictions despite having no state ban. Verify the current code before ordering.

Does the federal settlement override my state?

No. It resolved the federal enforcement position only. State restrictions operate independently and were untouched by it.

If a retailer ships to me, am I clear?

No. Shipping policies reflect a seller’s risk assessment, not a determination about your legal position. Retailers commonly block more states than the law requires, and occasionally fewer.

What this page is and isn’t

This is general information about how these statutes are structured, not legal advice, and we are not your attorney. We have cited California from primary sources because it can be; we have deliberately not published a fifty-state table, because the sources that do so contradict one another and a stale row in a page like this could put someone in serious trouble. Verify your own jurisdiction before buying, possessing or installing any trigger device.

If you have established that your state permits them, our forced reset trigger guide covers how they work and what a rifle needs to run one, and the forced reset triggers we stock are listed separately. The Para 15 Trigger overview is the short version.