Monday, October 28, 2013

Comment period open on ATF 41P/Proposed Gun Trust Rules

As I have previously discussed, the public comment period for the proposed rules that affect "Gun Trusts" is currently open, but only until December 9th. If you have not done so already, please take the time to comment on the proposed rule.

If you are too lazy to scroll down or click to read my previous post, here is a recap:

Current system:

"Gun Trusts" are a special trust used to own and purchase National Firearms Act ("NFA") items. These include silencers/sound suppression devices, short barrel shotguns and rifles, and machine guns.

The current system requires you to apply to the ATF, pay $200, and wait 9 months. What they do is a mystery, but if you use a trust or LLC, you can name multiple authorized users, and you can bypass getting fingerprinted and having your sheriff/chief of police sign off on the form. The real benefit is if you borrow someone's NFA item outside of their presence, it is a felony. The trust fixes that. It does not, and should not, bypass the background check.

New Proposed Rules:

The new rules would require every "responsible person" in a trust or LLC (settlor, trustees, even beneficiaries) to have to get fingerprinted and have their chief law enforcement officer sign off on the application. This costs roughly $15 per set of fingerprints (more or less) and will require time with the law enforcement officer, if you can get it. The fear is the added cost and time on local officials will result in a blanket "no" that will be a defacto ban on all NFA items.


Recap:

This is an attempt at gun control that misses the mark. It just will make it harder, more expensive, if not outright impossible, for legal citizens to posses legal items.  The fix is requiring the ATF to run background checks on all "Responsible persons" if they do not already do so (which baffles me), and require the vendor who sells the items to run the NICS background check as well. This is easy, simple, and would accomplish the same goal without the additional time and expenses to both citizens and local governments.



Should you wish to comment, a full text of the rules and the comment page are available here.

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