Potential buyers try out guns which are displayed on an exhibitor’s table during the Nation’s Gun Show on Nov. 18, 2016 at Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, Virginia. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Attorney General Dan Rayfield has joined other states in Texas gun rights cases in support of Biden administration rules requiring background checks and banning conversion devices that turn handguns into rapid-fire weapons.
One case centers on enforcement by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives of a rule that cracks down on so-called forced-reset triggers that can be made with a 3D printer and turn handguns into machine guns with one pull of the trigger. The other case in a Texas district court is focused on overturning a Biden administration rule that aims to close the “gun show loophole” by requiring anyone who sells guns to pass a federal background check by getting a license.
“Both actions are proactive steps that state attorneys general are taking to protect gun safety efforts if the incoming Trump administration abandons its defense of these two important federal policies,” Rayfield’s office said in a release.
The conversion device rule classified guns with so-called forced-reset triggers as machine guns prohibited by federal law. Last year, a federal judge in Texas blocked ATF enforcement and prohibited the bureau from taking criminal or civil action linked to the conversion devices in a lawsuit brought by the National Association for Gun Rights, Texas Gun Rights, Inc. and others. The defendants, including officials from the U.S. Justice Department and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Oregon and the other states seeking to intervene in the case in support of the Biden administration, filed a motion saying they stand to face higher law enforcement and health care costs if the rule is overturned.
Rayfield’s release said the motion aims to protect communities from military-style weapons in the event the Trump administration reverses the rule.
“Any decision that (forced-reset triggers) are legal under federal law would be a major step backward in the effort to reduce gun violence, at a time when the people of Oregon are demanding more federal action on common sense gun violence protection measures,” the release said.
In 2022, Oregon voters passed Measure 114, banning the sale of high-capacity magazines and requiring consumers to undergo gun safety training and a federal background check before buying a firearm as part of a permit process. The measure has been tied up in court challenges ever since, however. A judge in Harney County ruled against the law and the state appealed. A three-judge appeals panel heard their arguments in October.
Attorneys general in New Jersey, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington joined Oregon in the conversion motion.
In the other case, 14 states joined Oregon in favor of requiring people selling guns to be licensed and pass federal background checks. The ATF estimates that closing the gun show loophole would force up to nearly 100,000 people to obtain a gun license.
President-elect Trump said on the campaign trail that he would undo any Biden administration rules against gun rights.
A total of 15 states joined the motion, including Oregon. The other states are Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
The motions mark the second and third legal actions by Rayfield since he took office, following his intervention with 13 other states in a case involving the right of Dreamers to buy health insurance on the federal marketplace.
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