State Legality Matrix / Forced Reset Triggers / California
Statute-cited, last verified 2026-07-28
No. FRTs are classified as prohibited multiburst trigger activators.
Controlling law: Cal. Penal Code § 32900; § 16930 (definition)
2025 Attorney General guidance expressly affirms FRTs fall within the § 16930 multiburst trigger activator definition; manufacture, sale, and possession are all prohibited.
California prohibits multiburst trigger activators under Penal Code section 32900, with section 16930 defining the term to include devices that increase a semiautomatic firearm's rate of fire. The prohibition covers manufacturing, importing, offering for sale, giving, lending, and possessing.
In June 2025 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 section 16930, and that the federal Rare Breed settlement did not change California law.
The June 2025 DOJ bulletin restates that the federal settlement did not change California law. Rare Breed Triggers lists California as a no-ship jurisdiction.
Under the 2025 DOJ settlement with Rare Breed Triggers, an FRT fires one round per trigger function and is not an NFA machine gun federally. The settlement covers rifles and grip-forward pistols; it does not extend to grip-fed handguns (Glock, S&W M&P, Canik), whose federal FRT status remains less settled. State bans operate independently of federal law through broader state machine-gun, trigger-activator, or rate-of-fire definitions.
Scope: Forced reset triggers (Rare Breed FRT-15, Dairyland Defender, and similar) and forced-reset selectors (AR Super Safety, ARC-Fire). One round per trigger function. Binary triggers are a separate class.
No. FRTs are classified as prohibited multiburst trigger activators. Controlling law: Cal. Penal Code § 32900; § 16930 (definition).
The controlling law is Cal. Penal Code § 32900; § 16930 (definition). FRTs are classified as prohibited multiburst trigger activators.
Under the 2025 DOJ settlement with Rare Breed Triggers, an FRT fires one round per trigger function and is not an NFA machine gun federally. The settlement covers rifles and grip-forward pistols; it does not extend to grip-fed handguns (Glock, S&W M&P, Canik), whose federal FRT status remains less settled. State bans operate independently of federal law through broader state machine-gun, trigger-activator, or rate-of-fire definitions.
No. California uses its own multiburst trigger activator definition in Penal Code section 16930, which reaches devices that increase a semiautomatic firearm's rate of fire regardless of how the federal definition treats them.
No. The California Department of Justice stated that the federal settlement did not change California law and that FRTs remain prohibited as multiburst trigger activators.