State Legality Matrix / Binary Triggers / Illinois
Statute-cited, last verified 2026-07-10
No. Prohibited under PICA's ban on devices that increase a semiautomatic firearm's rate of fire. Effective 2023-01-10.
Controlling law: 720 ILCS 5/24-1.9
PICA bars any device, part, kit, tool, accessory, or combination of parts designed and functioning to increase the rate of fire of a semiautomatic firearm above its standard rate; binary triggers fall within this. Illinois' machine-gun definition (single function of the trigger) does not independently reach binaries, so the PICA rate-of-fire provision is the operative hook.
Binary triggers are legal under federal law and are not machine guns under 26 U.S.C. § 5845(b); ATF treats the trigger pull and the trigger release as two separate functions of the trigger, so one round is fired per function. Cargill v. Garland (2024) concerned bump stocks, not binary triggers, and does not change this.
Scope: Binary triggers (Franklin Armory BFSIII and similar): fire one round on trigger pull and one on release. Forced reset triggers are a separate class.
No. Prohibited under PICA's ban on devices that increase a semiautomatic firearm's rate of fire. Effective 2023-01-10. Controlling law: 720 ILCS 5/24-1.9.
The controlling law is 720 ILCS 5/24-1.9. Prohibited under PICA's ban on devices that increase a semiautomatic firearm's rate of fire.
Illinois's rule took effect 2023-01-10. PICA bars any device, part, kit, tool, accessory, or combination of parts designed and functioning to increase the rate of fire of a semiautomatic firearm above its standard rate; binary triggers fall within this. Illinois' machine-gun definition (single function of the trigger) does not independently reach binaries, so the PICA rate-of-fire provision is the operative hook.
Binary triggers are legal under federal law and are not machine guns under 26 U.S.C. § 5845(b); ATF treats the trigger pull and the trigger release as two separate functions of the trigger, so one round is fired per function. Cargill v. Garland (2024) concerned bump stocks, not binary triggers, and does not change this.