Are Forced Reset Triggers Legal in Tennessee?

Tennessee Public Chapter 513, enacted in 2025, added machine-gun-conversion-device provisions. The law targets a part or combination of parts designed and intended to convert a weapon into a machine gun, using the automatic multi-shot definition.

The conversion-device offense does not create a generic category for every semiautomatic trigger that increases cadence. Device design and the resulting firing cycle remain the operative facts.

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.