Are Forced Reset Triggers Legal in Virginia?

Virginia's Uniform Machine Gun Act defines a machine gun by automatic fire of more than one shot, without manual reloading, through a single trigger function.

Current Code section 18.2-308.5:1 separately defines an auto sear and a trigger activator. Its trigger-activator definition covers a device designed to allow a semiautomatic firearm to fire more than one shot from a single trigger pull by harnessing recoil so the trigger resets and continues firing without additional physical manipulation. The section does not name forced-reset triggers as a product category.

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.