Are FRT Triggers Legal in 2026? The Real State-by-State Answer (Texas, Florida & Beyond)

What an FRT Actually Is

A forced reset trigger is a drop-in replacement trigger, most commonly built for the AR-15 platform, though versions exist for a handful of pistols too. A standard semi-automatic trigger needs the shooter’s finger to travel forward and reset before the gun can fire again. An FRT flips that: the rearward movement of the bolt carrier group physically pushes the trigger back into its reset position after every shot. The shooter still has to pull the trigger once for every round fired. Nothing about the mechanism lets the gun fire continuously on a single pull, which is the exact line that separates a semi-automatic accessory from an illegal machine gun under federal law.

That distinction sounds technical, and it is, but it is also the entire reason FRTs spent five years bouncing between the ATF, federal courts, and eventually the Supreme Court.

Why FRTs Were Illegal, Then Weren’t: The Short Legal History

Rare Breed Triggers released the original FRT-15 in late 2020. The ATF’s position within months was that the trigger let a shooter achieve automatic fire “by a single function of the trigger,” which is the statutory definition of a machine gun under the National Firearms Act. That kicked off years of cease-and-desist letters, seizures, and litigation across multiple federal districts, including a closely watched case out of the Eastern District of New York.

The turning point arrived in 2024, when the Supreme Court decided Garland v. Cargill, a case about bump stocks rather than FRTs directly. The Court held 6-3 that a bump stock does not meet the statutory definition of a machine gun because the shooter is still, mechanically, initiating a separate trigger function for every shot fired. Lower courts almost immediately applied that same reasoning to FRTs, since an FRT’s one-pull-per-shot mechanism fits the Cargill framework even more cleanly than a bump stock does. Facing a string of losses it was not going to win on appeal, the Department of Justice settled with Rare Breed Triggers in May 2025. The settlement formally ended federal enforcement against FRT owners, set up a return process for triggers the ATF had already seized, and confirmed that FRTs requiring a distinct trigger pull per shot are not NFA-regulated machine guns.

That is where things stand federally today.

Are FRT Triggers Legal Federally in 2026?

Yes. As of 2026, an FRT that requires a separate, deliberate pull of the trigger for every round fired is not classified as a machine gun under federal law. It is not subject to NFA registration, the $200 tax stamp, or the 1986 Hughes Amendment ban on new machine gun manufacture for civilians. The ATF cannot pursue federal charges against someone for simple possession of a compliant FRT.

Two caveats matter here. First, the settlement is an executive branch action, not a statute passed by Congress. A future administration could, in theory, take a different enforcement posture, and Congress could still amend the NFA’s definition of “machinegun” to explicitly capture FRTs, though no bill along those lines has gained real traction as of this writing. Second, and more importantly for anyone actually holding one of these triggers, federal legality never overrides a state’s own criminal code. That is where most of the confusion, and most of the actual legal risk, lives.

What States Are FRT Triggers Illegal In?

Roughly fourteen to sixteen jurisdictions restrict or ban FRTs outright, depending on which state’s ambiguous rate-of-fire language you count. Sources differ slightly on the exact number because several states never named FRTs specifically; they wrote broad statutes years ago aimed at bump stocks and trigger cranks, and those definitions turned out to be worded broadly enough to sweep in forced reset triggers too. The jurisdictions that consistently show up as restricted or banned across current legal summaries include:

• California — banned as a “multiburst trigger activator” under Penal Code sections 16930 and 32900. The California Attorney General’s office has specifically confirmed FRTs remain illegal in the state regardless of the federal settlement.
• New York — restricted under the SAFE Act’s broad ban on devices that increase a semi-automatic’s rate of fire.
• New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Washington, D.C. each bans FRTs, binary triggers, or similarly defined rate-of-fire devices under its own statute.
• Minnesota and Nevada — increasingly listed as restricted as well, either through statute or through the state having joined 2025-2026 multistate litigation against the federal settlement, which manufacturers treat as a signal not to ship there.
• Colorado — banned outright as of April 2025 under SB25-003, which criminalizes rapid-fire devices as a class 5 felony with no grandfather clause. Some counties, including Boulder and Broomfield, layer additional local restrictions on top.

If your state is not on that list, the general rule is that federal law controls and an FRT is legal to own, subject to the underlying firearm itself being legal in your state. That said, “not on the list” is not the same as “guaranteed safe,” which is exactly the trap Florida sets.

Are FRT Triggers Legal in Texas?

Yes. Texas has no multiburst trigger activator statute, no rate-of-fire enhancer law, and no state-level ban that reaches forced reset triggers. Texas firearm law defers to the federal classification, and since FRTs are not machine guns under current federal law, they are legal to own in Texas the same way any other compliant semi-automatic trigger group would be. This makes Texas one of the more straightforward states on this entire list, alongside Arizona, Idaho, Ohio, Georgia, and most of the rest of the country.

Are FRT Triggers Legal in Florida? (And Is the FRT-15L3 Legal There?)

This is genuinely the most misunderstood state on the map, and it is worth slowing down on. Florida passed SB 7026 in 2018, after the Parkland shooting, banning “bump-fire stocks” and any device that lets a firearm discharge multiple shots in a burst by activating the device, classified as a third-degree felony. Florida’s statute was written before FRTs existed as a commercial product, and it was clearly aimed at bump stocks, not one-pull-per-shot trigger mechanisms.

The problem is that nobody has tested that statute against an FRT in a Florida courtroom. Some legal summaries list Florida as effectively legal by omission, since the state has no FRT-specific ban. Others list it as banned outright, reading SB 7026’s “discharge two or more shots in a burst” language broadly enough to capture the rapid split times an FRT produces even though the mechanism itself does not fire more than one round per trigger pull. A number of manufacturers and retailers, reading that ambiguity as real legal exposure, simply decline to ship FRTs to Florida addresses at all.

That ambiguity applies directly to the FRT-15L3 and every other model in the Rare Breed lineup (FRT-15, FRT-15L2, FRT-MR3, FRT-RD3). Federally, the FRT-15L3 is legal, covered squarely by the 2025 DOJ settlement. Whether it is legal to possess in Florida specifically is an open question that has not been resolved by any Florida court or a clear legislative fix, which means anyone in Florida asking “is the FRT-15L3 legal in Florida” deserves a straight answer: legally untested, and risky enough that a firearms attorney’s opinion is worth more than any retailer’s shipping policy.

Other States Worth a Second Look

A few states get flagged inconsistently across different legal summaries because their statutes are old, broad, or both. Virginia’s rate-of-fire language has been described as potentially reaching FRTs, though no enforcement action has confirmed that reading. Nevada’s statute requires a device to both eliminate the need for a separate trigger movement per shot and materially increase rate of fire; whether a one-pull FRT satisfies the first element has never been tested in a Nevada court, even though the state joined the multistate lawsuit against the federal settlement. When a state’s answer depends on how aggressively a local prosecutor wants to read forty-year-old statutory language, “probably fine” is not the same as “confirmed legal.”

2026 Litigation Still Moving Through the Courts

Two separate legal fights are still active this year, and it is easy to confuse them. The first is a coalition of state attorneys general who filed multistate litigation in 2025 challenging the federal DOJ settlement itself on public safety grounds. That case is still working through the courts and could, in theory, affect the federal settlement’s staying power, though it has not done so yet. The second is a private intellectual property dispute between Rare Breed Triggers and a competing manufacturer, Partisan/Peak Tactical, over patent rights to their respective FRT designs. A federal court denied Rare Breed’s request for an emergency injunction against Partisan in February 2026, meaning that litigation is proceeding on the merits without an immediate sales freeze. Neither case has any bearing on whether an individual owner can legally possess an FRT today; both are worth watching if the legal landscape shifts again later this year.

What Happens If You Get the State Law Wrong

Penalties vary sharply by state. Florida’s bump-stock statute treats a violation as a third-degree felony. Colorado’s 2025 law makes possession a class 5 felony with no exceptions for triggers acquired before the ban took effect. California treats an FRT as contraband regardless of when or where it was purchased. None of these states care that the device is federally legal; state prosecutors enforce state statutes, and a federal settlement does not create a defense to a state charge. Crossing state lines with an FRT packed in a range bag, even briefly passing through a restrictive state, can expose you to the same criminal liability as a resident who bought one locally.

Final Word

The federal question is genuinely resolved: FRTs are legal, the Cargill decision and the 2025 DOJ settlement made sure of that, and no serious challenge to that federal position is currently succeeding in court. The state-by-state picture is where the real risk sits, and it is not static. A trigger that is completely legal in Texas, Ohio, or Arizona can be a felony in California or Colorado, and Florida remains a genuine gray area rather than a clear yes or no, whatever a product page selling the trigger might tell you. If you own an FRT, are thinking about buying one, or are already facing a charge tied to one, the smart first move is the same one that applies to almost every unsettled area of firearm law: talk to a licensed firearms attorney in your state before the statute gets tested on your case instead of someone else’s.

FAQ: FRT Trigger Legality

Are FRT triggers legal in 2026?
Yes, at the federal level. The May 2025 DOJ settlement with Rare Breed Triggers ended federal enforcement against FRT owners after the Supreme Court’s Garland v. Cargill decision established that a device requiring a separate trigger pull per shot is not a machine gun under the National Firearms Act.

What states are FRT triggers illegal in?
Most current legal summaries list California, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon, Rhode Island, Colorado, and Washington, D.C. as banning FRTs outright, with Minnesota and Nevada increasingly listed as restricted as well. Always confirm the current statute in your specific state before purchasing.

Are FRT triggers legal in Texas?
Yes. Texas has no state statute restricting forced reset triggers, so federal law controls and FRTs are legal to own there.

Are FRT triggers legal in Florida?
It is unsettled. Florida has no FRT-specific ban, but its 2018 bump-stock statute (SB 7026) is written broadly enough that some attorneys believe it could be applied to FRTs, while others read it as limited to true bump-fire mechanisms. No Florida court has ruled on the question either way.

Is the FRT-15L3 legal in Florida specifically?
Federally, yes, it is covered by the 2025 DOJ settlement. In Florida, its status is untested and ambiguous under the existing bump-stock statute, which is why many retailers decline to ship there and why a consultation with a Florida firearms attorney is the safer route before purchasing or possessing one.

Is an FRT considered a machine gun?
No, under current federal law. An FRT requires a distinct trigger pull for every round fired, which is the legal test the Supreme Court applied in Garland v. Cargill. A true machine gun fires continuously from a single trigger pull without a separate function for each shot.

Can I travel across state lines with an FRT?
Only if every state on your route permits them. An FRT that is perfectly legal in Texas or Ohio can trigger felony charges the moment you cross into a banned state, even if you are only passing through.

Could FRTs become illegal again federally?
It is possible, though not imminent. The DOJ settlement is an executive action rather than a statute, so a future administration could revisit enforcement, and Congress could theoretically amend the NFA’s machine gun definition. Neither has happened as of this writing.