The anti-gun media is at it again, this time spinning away the decision by a group of Democratic attorneys general to drop their request for injunctive relief in the DOJ’s settlement with Rare Breed Triggers as a victory when that’s far from the case.
As we wrote last week, the AGs dropped their request to halt the return of forced reset triggers seized by the ATF if they would be shipped to states where they’re banned after a federal judge essentially told them they had no case.
Weeks ago, and shortly after the DOJ and Rare Breed Triggers announced that a settlement had been reached over the devices (which the ATF had previously determined were machine guns, prompting mutiple lawsuits and competing decisions by federal judges over the ATF’s classification), the DOJ gave details on the terms of the settlement; explicitly stating that no FRTs sold to buyers in states where they’re still prohibited would be shipped there. That mooted much of the federal lawsuit filed by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin and several others, but it wasn’t until last week that the AGs dropped their request before the judge could officially rule against them.
Those are the facts, but I’ve seen multiple headlines ignore reality and substitute a narrative that’s far more favorable to the anti-gunners.
Hoodline, for instance, reported the ATF “halts distribution of machine gun conversion devices” in 16 states following a legal challenge by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul.
KHQ-TV in Washington State reported “Washington Attorney General blocks redistribution of forced reset triggers in Washington”, whille Fox45 in Baltimore, Maryland declared it was Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown who blocked “sales of machine gun conversion devices” in the state.
Attorney General Anthony Brown announced that Maryland will be excluded from a plan by the Trump administration to distribute machine gun conversion devices to communities across the country.
The announcement came after Brown and a coalition of 16 attorneys general filed a lawsuit challenging the federal government’s plans to release thousands of Forced Reset Triggers (FRTs), a type of device that effectively turns semi-automatic weapons into machine guns.
In court filings, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives confirmed it will not return FRTs into Maryland or any of the other plaintiff states.
Rare Breed Triggers, the largest manufacturer of FRTs, has also agreed to halt all sales of the devices in those jurisdictions.
The ATF and DOJ had confirmed that several weeks ago. In fact, the AGs filed suit before the terms of the settlement were made public, but within 24 hours the Justice Department released the details, including the fact that FRTs would not be sent to any state where they’re currently banned.
Instead of bothering to do any sort of independent reporting or verification of the anti-gunners’ spin, Fox45 basically just ran with Brown’s press release.
“When our Office filed this lawsuit, we warned that thousands of forced reset triggers would flood our streets and leave Marylanders vulnerable to more senseless gun violence. Our case led the federal government to block their redistribution into Maryland and other states where they’re banned,” said Attorney General Brown. “This victory protects Maryland families from the devastation these dangerous devices have been used to inflict in our communities.”
These devices, which dramatically increase a firearm’s rate of fire, have been linked to a rise in violent crime and mass shootings in recent years.
No they haven’t. Even the anti-gun website The Trace admitted as much when it covered the settlement, quoting a former ATF special agent who said the “ramifications of the device itself are going to be miniscule,” adding that “most of the time, you’re not going to see them showing up in crimes.”
This wasn’t a victory for Brown, Raoul, Platkin, or the other attorneys general who filed suit. They were about to get their rear ends handed to them by a judge because of mootness, so they dropped their motion for injunctive relief before that could happen and decided to declare victory anyway.
I’m not surprised to see the anti-gunners try to spin a loss into a win, and I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at the willingness of local media to just parrot their talking points instead of, you know, doing actual reporting. I’m not sure if this is overt bias by reporters, sheer laziness, or a combination of the two, but either way, their “victory” is still fake news.
Editor’s Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.
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