State Legality MatrixForced Reset TriggersIllinois
Statute-cited, last verified 2026-07-28 · State detail verified 2026-07-31
Banned
No. Treated as machine guns by the Illinois Attorney General under the existing unlawful-use-of-weapons statute; PICA's rate-of-fire provision also reaches them.
Controlling law: 720 ILCS 5/24-1(a)(7); 720 ILCS 5/24-1.9
Contested entry
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would write forced reset triggers into the machine-gun definition expressly but had NOT been enacted as of July 2026; do not cite it as enacted law.
The statute in practice
Illinois's unlawful-use-of-weapons statute regulates machine guns, while the Protect Illinois Communities Act separately reaches specified devices that increase a semiautomatic firearm's rate of fire. The Attorney General has publicly stated that forced-reset triggers fall within existing Illinois prohibitions.
SB 1936 in the 104th General Assembly would add forced-reset-trigger language expressly, but that proposal is not the source of the present classification and should not be described as enacted.
What it means for you
Use the enacted Illinois Compiled Statutes and the Attorney General's Illinois-specific notice together. A pending bill that would make wording more explicit does not imply that state officials disclaim existing authority.
Federal law
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.
Federal baseline verified 2026-07-28. 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.
Common questions
No. Treated as machine guns by the Illinois Attorney General under the existing unlawful-use-of-weapons statute; PICA's rate-of-fire provision also reaches them. Controlling law: 720 ILCS 5/24-1(a)(7); 720 ILCS 5/24-1.9.
The controlling law is 720 ILCS 5/24-1(a)(7); 720 ILCS 5/24-1.9. Treated as machine guns by the Illinois Attorney General under the existing unlawful-use-of-weapons statute; PICA's rate-of-fire provision also reaches them.
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. The Attorney General relies on existing Illinois law; SB 1936 is a separate proposal to add explicit wording.