Forced Reset Trigger Legal States (2026)

2025 Attorney General guidance expressly affirms FRTs fall within the § 16930 multiburst trigger activator definition; manufacture, sale, and possession are all prohibited.

In force since signing on April 10, 2025 (the act carries a safety clause, so it took effect on approval). SB25-003 defines rapid-fire device broadly (any part or kit increasing a semiautomatic's rate of fire above standard) and adds it to the dangerous-weapons list. The separate August 1, 2026 date applies only to the specified-semiautomatic purchase-gating regime in § 18-12-116(2), not the device ban. No grandfather clause.

The current § 53-206g definition names recoil-driven reciprocating devices, trigger cranks, and binary triggers but not forced-reset triggers. P.A. 26-41 expressly adds devices that repeatedly pull or forcibly reset a trigger, including FRTs, effective October 1, 2026. Treat possession and acquisition as legally risky during the transition rather than claiming the 2018 text already supplies an express FRT ban.

The rapid fire device catch-all covers any device increasing rate of fire to mimic a machine gun; first offense is a class B misdemeanor, subsequent offenses a class E felony.

Section 790.222 defines a prohibited bump-fire stock expansively as any conversion kit, tool, accessory, or device used to alter the rate of fire of a firearm to mimic automatic weapon fire. No Florida court has ruled on whether a one-pull-per-round FRT qualifies, but Florida firearms counsel read the definition as reaching FRTs and makers decline Florida shipments, so the class is treated as legally ambiguous, the same posture as binary triggers under the same statute.

Bans bump fire stocks, multiburst trigger activators, and trigger cranks; class C felony.

The Attorney General's office treats FRTs as banned under existing Illinois machine-gun law and sued over the 2025 federal settlement. SB1936 (the proposed Rafael Wordlaw Act, 104th GA) would write forced reset triggers into the machine-gun definition expressly but had NOT been enacted as of July 2026; do not cite it as enacted law.

Bans transport, manufacture, possession, sale, and transfer; a narrow pre-October-2018 grandfather with ATF-authorization conditions exists, but there is no new lawful acquisition path.

Chapter 135 of the Acts of 2024 defines and bans rapid-fire trigger activators; the Attorney General separately blocked return or sale of these devices in-state.

The 2023 amendment (2023 c 52 art 4 s 15) rewrote 'trigger activator' to capture recoil-harnessing devices that reset and continue firing without additional physical manipulation, reaching FRTs; felony with penalties up to 20 years. The May 2026 single-subject ruling in Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus v. Walz severed only the 2024 binary-trigger prong; this FRT-reaching prong survives, though it is untested in court as applied to one-pull FRTs.

NRS 202.274 requires the device to eliminate the need for a separate trigger movement per shot AND materially increase rate of fire or approximate a machine gun. Whether a one-pull-per-round FRT meets the first element is contested and untested in court. Nevada joined the June 2025 multistate suit opposing the federal FRT settlement, so this cell stays conservative at banned; class D felony if covered. Sections 25-28 of AB 291 took effect on approval (June 14, 2019), not the January 1, 2020 date that applied to the rest of the act. Rare Breed's published no-ship list does not include Nevada as of July 2026, so maker shipping policy should not be cited as corroboration.

New Jersey's machine-gun definition is broader than the federal NFA and the Attorney General treats FRTs as prohibited machine guns; trigger cranks and bump stocks are separately enumerated.

The rapid-fire modification device definition covers devices designed to accelerate rate of fire and expressly reaches forced reset triggers; criminal possession is a class A misdemeanor.

SB 243 (Community Safety Firearms Act) defines forced reset trigger by name within rapid fire activator; transport, manufacture, or transfer is a class B felony and possession a class A misdemeanor.

The 2018 device ban names bump-fire devices, binary triggers, and trigger cranks and turns on enabling full-automatic fire; forced reset triggers are not named, and § 11-47-8.1(d) expressly preserves ordinary replacement triggers. Coverage of one-pull FRTs is contested and untested in court. Makers uniformly refuse to ship FRTs to Rhode Island; this cell stays conservative at banned.

The machine-gun definition includes any combination of parts designed for converting a firearm to a machine gun; possession of machine guns and such parts is prohibited under § 22-4514.

Maine has no trigger-activator or rate-of-fire statute reaching forced reset triggers.

Michigan has no machine-gun or trigger-activator statute reaching forced reset triggers.

No trigger-activator statute reaching FRTs as of verification; an active gun-control legislature makes this a state to monitor in future sessions.

Vermont has no trigger-activator statute reaching forced reset triggers.

Virginia's trigger-activator bump-stock statute (§ 18.2-308.5:1) targets recoil and bump devices; it has not been applied to one-pull-per-round FRTs as of verification.

RCW 9.41.010 defines machine gun as a mechanism not requiring that the trigger be pressed for each shot; an FRT still requires a trigger function per round, so it falls outside RCW 9.41.190. Binary triggers ARE effectively banned in WA (separate class).