Are Binary Triggers Legal In Washington?

[GWS]

Like the title says.
I was looking at ShootingIlustrated and saw an ad by Franklin Armory and they have them for CZ Scorpion as well asARs and others.
So...Legal or not?

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[slimmer13]

AFAIK, I dont know. It's enough of a gray area that some companies wont ship them here based on the Wa def of machine gun.

Machine gun" means any firearm known as a machine gun, mechanical rifle, submachine gun, or any other mechanism or instrument not requiring that the trigger be pressed for each shot and having a reservoir clip, disc, drum, belt, or other separable mechanical device for storing, carrying, or supplying ammunition which can be loaded into the firearm, mechanism, or instrument, and fired therefrom at the rate of five or more shots per second.

RCW 9.41.010: Definitions.

 

[mortar maggot]

My understanding is no, not legal.

You can argue it is a "press" gun goes bang and a "release" gun goes bang.

But that arguement may cost you your freedom and easily $100,000 inlegal bills to be the guinea pig.

I would donate some to help out a person.

 

[ACO]

Yeah, I thought any trigger mods were now illegal. As of maybe 3 years ago?

 

[CountryGent]

From what I've read they are not legal and I remember some talk here about vendors not shipping to WA residents. But I don't really follow the binary triggers all that closely.

 

[Flopsweat]

...
at the rate of five or more shots per second.
...

LOL, Jerry can beat that with a revolver

 

[Eric in Oregon]

My understanding is no, not legal.

You can argue it is a "press" gun goes bang and a "release" gun goes bang.

But that arguement may cost you your freedom and easily $100,000 inlegal bills to be the guinea pig.

I would donate some to help out a person.

Agreed, but even that argument wouldn't get far anyway since it's only the federal pre-bumpstock definition that specifies multiple automatic shots "per operation of the trigger". The WA definition for machine gun includes (emphasis mine) "any other mechanism or instrument not requiring that the trigger be pressed for each shot".

Binary triggers seem to fit that definition rather specifically. The law is certainly an infringement, but as MM says you'd potentially end up having to give up a lot to fight it in court.

 

[GWS]

Oh well.
It looked like fun.

 

[Diamondback]

Be grateful they even let you keep semiautos at all for now, you uppity pissant prole...

 

[tmeyer007]

Agreed, but even that argument wouldn't get far anyway since it's only the federal pre-bumpstock definition that specifies multiple automatic shots "per operation of the trigger". The WA definition for machine gun includes (emphasis mine) "any other mechanism or instrument not requiring that the trigger be pressed for each shot".

Binary triggers seem to fit that definition rather specifically. The law is certainly an infringement, but as MM says you'd potentially end up having to give up a lot to fight it in court.


There is a "catch all" in the RCW which (I paraphrase) says that anything that enables the firing of 5 or more rounds per second is illegal. It's a pretty nebulous definition because maybe I fire more slowly than you. It needs to be challenged and hopefully will be.