More than a dozen Democratic AGs say they'll defend gun regulations
ahead of Trump's 2nd term
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 [January 17, 2025]
By MIKE CATALINI
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — More than a dozen Democratic state attorneys
general said Thursday they plan to defend two gun regulations now being
challenged in court, including one banning devices that enable
semiautomatic guns to fire more quickly.
New Jersey Democratic Attorney General Matt Platkin said his state and
others with Democratic attorneys general, plan to intervene in cases
already in the court system ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's
inauguration Monday.
One case involves devices known as forced reset triggers, or FRTs, which
can be installed on weapons, functionally turning them into machine
guns, according to Platkin. The other centers on a Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives regulation that came out of a 2022
law. The rule aims to close what is sometimes called the “gun show
loophole,” by requiring up to an estimated 95,500 firearm sellers to
conduct background checks.
Second Amendment advocacy groups and Republican-led states have
challenged the rules in court.
“The incoming Administration has threatened these common-sense
protections, so States are stepping in,” Platkin said in a statement.
It's uncertain exactly how Trump would proceed, but he told an NRA
audience during last year's campaign that “no one will lay a finger on
your firearms."
The action comes just a day after New Jersey and other Democratic state
attorneys general sought to intervene in cases involving so-called
Dreamers, young adults who were brought to the U.S. illegally as
children, and coincides with Democratic efforts to push back against
Trump's second administration.
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The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives building is
seen in Washington, Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, file)
A federal judge in Texas held in 2024 that the trigger devices don't
count as machine guns, blocking the ATF from enforcing a ban of the
devices. The case is awaiting a decision before the Fifth Circuit
Court of Appeals.
In 2024, a federal judge in Texas held that FRTs do not qualify as
machine guns and issued a court order prohibiting ATF from taking
criminal or civil enforcement actions regarding FRTs against a broad
swath of entities, and ordering ATF to return FRTs to distributors
by Feb. 22, 2025. The United States appealed that decision, and the
parties are awaiting a decision from a federal appeals court.
Joining New Jersey in intervening in that case are Colorado,
Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island,
Vermont and Washington.
The second case centers on a rule implementing the 2022 Bipartisan
Safer Communities Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law.
The ATF rule expanded the category of people defined as “engaged in
the business” of dealing firearms. It meant that an estimated 26,000
to 95,500 dealers would be required to get federally licensed and
therefore be required to conduct background checks before sales. In
May, 26 GOP attorneys general filed suits aiming to block the rule,
arguing it violates the Second Amendment.
Along with New Jersey, other states intervening in that case are
Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland,
Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island,
Vermont and Washington.
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