to empower the ATF as part of his efforts to curb gun violence nationwide.
They said they had consulted with former ATF employees and lawyers who believed the device was legal before the company started to sell the devices. The executives also defended their decision to keep selling the triggers even after the ATF classified them as illegal machine guns, because they thought the agency’s assessment was incorrect.
Anthony Ciravolo, the ATF firearms enforcement officer who wrote the official report that classified the FRT-15 as a machine gun, said he came to that conclusion because the FRT-15 will keep firing rounds as long as the shooter applies “constant rearward pressure” on the trigger. In other words, the bullets will only stop flying when the shooter stops pulling the trigger backward, the firearm runs out of ammunition or there’s a malfunction.
The ATF official who delivered the letter also testified that one of his agents received a call from a phone number connected to the owner of the company, Kevin Maxwell, about plans to come to the ATF offices with a “rocket launcher.” Maxwell said he did not place that call.