Non NFA Burst Trigger?

The Steyr AUG has a pull-through trigger. You pull the trigger a little bit for a single shot, and you can pull it farther to continue firing in full auto. I thought this was interesting on a number of levels, but recently it got me thinking about similar systems in a new way.

USC 26 § 5845(b) defines the term machinegun:

The term “machinegun” means any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger. The term shall also include the frame or receiver of any such weapon, any part designed and intended solely and exclusively, or combination of parts designed and intended, for use in converting a weapon into a machinegun, and any combination of parts from which a machinegun can be assembled if such parts are in the possession or under the control of a person.

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A hand cranked Gatling gun isn't a machinegun because it's not a single function of the trigger, the shooter must continually perform an action, in this case cranking, to fire it. A double barreled double triggered shotgun is not a machinegun because you need to continue to pull your finger back through the second trigger after you fire the first shot in order to fire the second shot. Combining all these ideas, what if you had an auto loading firearm with a single trigger that had multiple sears in it that disengaged in succession the farther you pulled back on the trigger?

This otherwise overly complicated mechanism could give you the effect of a multiple round burst, hopefully without being classified under the National Firearms Act as a machinegun. Do you know if a design like this has been submitted to the ATF for classification? I suppose if they classified the Akins Accelerator as a machinegun they would classify this as one also, regardless of whether it technically deserved to be or not.

With the M16 or other typical bursts modes, you always get same number of rounds fired. Once you activate the trigger, the gun will fire by itself until it has shot the full burst, or runs out of ammo. With my idea you would get a different number of rounds depending on how far you pulled the trigger. That is a key difference.

I may have misspoke. With a normal burst trigger, if you let go of the trigger quickly mid way through a burst, you won't get the full burst. Or it could run out of ammo, jam, etc. My point is, with that system, once you have pulled the trigger, you only need to continue to hold it for subsequent rounds to be fired. Since holding is not a "function of the trigger." you have one function of the trigger, and multiple shots. Clearly a machinegun. With my idea, you must continue to pull the trigger farther for each subsequent shot. One function of the trigger per shot, it's just that the trigger doesn't always move forward between functions. So I would think it would not be a machinegun.

Jorg, no one has suggested building one without either getting the ATF to confirm in writing that it wouldn't be a machinegun, or doing the appropriate NFA paperwork. So there wouldn't be a prosecutor involved. The ATF could spin the crank on a Gatling gun and call that a single function of the trigger, but they don't.