Are Forced Reset Triggers Legal in South Dakota?

South Dakota Codified Law section 22-1-2 defines a machine gun as any firearm, whatever its size and usual designation, that automatically discharges two or more cartridges by a single function of the firing device. The definition does not create a separate forced-reset-trigger or rate-increasing-device category.

Section 22-14-6 addresses possession of a controlled weapon, with exceptions for law enforcement and the armed forces on duty and for a person who holds a federal license for the weapon or has registered it with the proper federal authority.

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 2026-10-20. 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.