State Legality MatrixForced Reset TriggersMassachusetts
Statute-cited, last verified 2026-07-28 · State detail verified 2026-07-31
Banned
No. Prohibited as a rapid-fire trigger activator under the 2024 firearms modernization act. Effective 2024-10-02.
Controlling law: Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 140, § 121 (definitions); ch. 269, § 10(c); St. 2024, c. 135
Contested entry
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 statute in practice
Massachusetts rewrote its firearms definitions in Chapter 135 of the Acts of 2024. General Laws chapter 140, section 121 defines a rapid-fire trigger activator to include an attached manual, power-driven, or electronic device designed and functioning to increase a semiautomatic firearm's rate of fire, as well as other devices or parts designed and functioning to substantially increase that rate above the firearm's standard rate.
The same act separately defines automatic parts and automatic conversion, including modifications that increase rate of fire to mimic automatic fire. These Massachusetts-specific definitions are broader than a test limited to multiple rounds from a single trigger function.
Timeline
What it means for you
Read the current section 121 definitions together with General Laws chapter 269, section 10(c), which supplies the possession and transfer offense for rapid-fire trigger activators and related devices. Trigger-pull-weight adjustments are excluded from the rapid-fire definition, but that exclusion does not extend to every rate-increasing device.
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. Prohibited as a rapid-fire trigger activator under the 2024 firearms modernization act. Effective 2024-10-02. Controlling law: Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 140, § 121 (definitions); ch. 269, § 10(c); St. 2024, c. 135.
The controlling law is Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 140, § 121 (definitions); ch. 269, § 10(c); St. 2024, c. 135. Prohibited as a rapid-fire trigger activator under the 2024 firearms modernization act.
Massachusetts's rule took effect 2024-10-02. 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.
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. Chapter 135 added independent state definitions for rapid-fire trigger activators, automatic parts, and automatic conversion.
Massachusetts made Chapter 135 effective by emergency preamble on that date, so the later ordinary effective-date calculation does not govern these definitions.