Forum Editorial: North Dakota should ban a trigger modification that enabled rapid-fire bursts of bullets

The gunman who killed one Fargo police officer, critically wounded two other officers and seriously injured a bystander unleashed this carnage in a matter of seconds.

We now know he was aided by what’s called a binary trigger — a modification that fires a bullet not only when the trigger is pulled, but also when the trigger is released, doubling the gun’s lethal potential.

The gunfire in the July 14 shooting spree was so rapid that witnesses said it sounded like an automatic weapon.

The gunman had an arsenal of three semi-automatic and four semi-automatic handguns. But only one had been modified with a binary trigger — the one he chose for the bloodbath he unleashed.

North Dakota legislators, always happy to oblige the gun lobby and gun enthusiasts, passed legislation four years ago to clarify that such binary triggers are legal in North Dakota, as they are in most states.

The supposed problem: One manufacturer didn’t sell guns equipped with the devices — horror of horrors — so legislators decided to make it perfectly clear that binary triggers are legal in North Dakota.

Two shots fired for every pull of the trigger, sanctioned by law.

Let’s be clear. Despite flimsy arguments to the contrary, there is no legitimate need for a trigger that fires twice with each pull. None.

The devices supposedly are used by target shooters. We’ve seen how lethal a binary trigger is when the targets are people.

North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley had it exactly right when he said the two-for-one capability is “purposeless” and could approximate a burst from a machine gun in the hands of a proficient shooter.

Machine guns, of course, are illegal for obvious reasons.

A binary trigger does just one thing: it increases a gun’s firing speed — and therefore its killing speed.

Now that we have a painful lesson in the lethality of a rifle with a binary trigger, North Dakota lawmakers should reverse course and ban binary triggers.

Unfortunately, only 10 states outlaw binary triggers. The best solution would be a national ban, something North Dakota officials should advocate. The lack of a national ban could well be an example of how laws and regulations haven’t kept up with innovations in the gun industry.

But we can’t wait for a national solution.

Banning binary triggers would be a modest step toward more sane gun laws, but a welcome start. Target shooters will just have to do without binary triggers.