This Little Light of Mine - Issue #8 - February 2022
The subscriber-only newsletter for the week of February 20th, 2022.
3D Printing & DIY
FRT Cease & Desist
Rare Breed Triggers, maker of a popular forced reset trigger, sent a cease and desist letter to 3D gun guy Tim Hoffman, aka Hoffman Tactical, demanding that he remove the 3D print files for his own forced reset trigger design from his website.
Rare Breed is no stranger to legal battles, as the company is currently embroiled in a fight with ATF about the very legality of forced reset triggers. Forced reset triggers use a mechanism to force the reset of an AR-pattern trigger group, which allows for extremely rapid-fire if operated skilfully. Factually, an FRT does not convert the firearm into a machine gun, but the ATF contends that it does.
The Rare Breed FRT-15TM trigger can be purchased for $380 from the manufacturer. Or, you could, uh, buy an entire 3D printer, download the 3D file for free, print Hoffman's trigger in less than an hour, print a lower receiver to put it into, buy a lower parts kit, and still not spend $380.
It's easy to see why RBT would feel threatened, but I think this is a pretty weak move. Rare Breed has been commercially popular, and to me, it's unrealistic they'll face any material loss of sales revenue because 3D gun guys are printing a mechanism that does the same thing as their trigger.
A bonus about the 3D printed FRT is that it drops into a standard milspec trigger kit. This means that instead of requiring a standalone/proprietary assembly like the Rare Breed trigger, the 3D kit can simply turn 90% of AR-15's into FRT-enabled rifles. Nice.
I support Rare Breed in their fight against ATF, but their choice to send a cease and desist letter to a young guy who's bringing innovation to the 3D printing space makes it clear that Rare Breed are not the martyrs for the cause they position themselves to be.
