Several of our attorneys are under the ARAG and / or Hyatt Legal plan and can offer NFA Gun Trusts for individuals who are under the plan. If you have ARAG you may qualify for a discounted and if you have Hyatt Legal Plans you may qualify for a Free or discounted Gun Trust. Your individual plan will describe your benefits. Not all states have a Gun Trust Lawyer® who participates with these plans,
The NFA Firearms Trust that we and our lawyers use is a copyrighted document. We have had several individuals ask us what this means in regards to its use.
When you purchase a NFA Gun Trust, you are permitted to make a copy of the trust for your own use and for submitting to the ATF. You are not permitted to copy the text and post it online, provide it to another individual for their use, or provide it to an attorney to copy to create trusts using our language. In addition, you are not permitted to remove our copyright notices from the documents and doing any of the above can result in civil damages for lost profits or statutory damages of up to $30,000 for each act of infringement. If a court determines that a violation is willful or intentional the liability increases up to $150,000 plus attorney’s fees under Title 17, United States Code Sections 504 and 505.The copyright covers the text of the trust as well as the instructions / memorandum.
Recently it has come to our attention that a lawyer is using our copyrighted text and incorporating our wording and protections into their own trusts. We take this very seriously and expect others to do the same.
If you purchased a GSG 5 SD model with a barrel shroud (Fake Suppressor) ATF has now determined that this is regulated by the NFA and must be replaced.
To all retail customers:
On January 2010 American Tactical Imports Inc received official notification from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and explosives that the original barrel shroud (aka: fake suppressor) supplied with your GSG 5 SD model must be replaced. It has been determined that this shroud is regulated under the National Firearms Act. American Tactical will provide a replacement shroud at no charge for each GSG 5 SD model sold or currently in inventory.
NOTE: because of a recent law change the following information will be obsolete as of September 2011. Starting 8/28/2011 you will be able to use a NFA trust to purchase NFA firearms in Missouri without the need of a C & R, FFL, or use of a Corporation or LLC.
A trust may not obtain a C&R license. In some state like Missouri, to purchase Title II firearms you must have a FFL. Missouri considers a C&R a FFL for this purpose. A trust may not obtain a C&R or other FFL.
If you want to use a NFA Trust in Missouri, it must be done in conjunction with a Corporation or LLC. The Trust can be the member and the Manager of the LLC or Corporation which adds the ability to deal with incapacity, death, and easily changing the authorized users.
As a Life member of the NRA, I was recently given the opportunity to offer my family and friends a Life membership for only $300. The normal price for a life membership is $1000. If you are a client of ours and would like to take advantage of this please contact me using the contact form and I will let you know the details. This is a limited time offer so if you are interested let us know soon.
The ATF has recently made a decision to review Trusts for legal sufficiency. While this may slow things down for those using generic trust for NFA purchases (Quicken, Legal Zoom, Gun Store Trusts) I think its a good idea and will protect many from unknowingly violating the NFA.
We have seen several issues where the ATF is declaring trusts to be invalid that are in fact valid under various state laws. They claim they are not practicing law in those states and will not give legal advise. They suggest that you have the trust reviewed by a lawyer to tell you why it is invalid or make changes to the trust to make it valid.
If your trust was rejected by ATF we can help by reviewing and or amending the trust with our network of 75 attorneys in more than 40 states.
Today I received an email from someone who was forming a trust to transfer assets from their father’s estate. There were NFA items in the father’s estate. The person’s estate planning lawyer had advised them that it was OK to transfer NFA firearms to a trust using a general assignment of personal property. A general assignment of personal property is a standard form that transfers all personal property not requiring a deed or special documentation to a trust and is commonly used with a standard revocable living trust.
Unfortunately his lawyer must not have been familiar with the NFA because no one should ever do such a thing. This would be a violation of the National Firearms Act, and subject the individual to confiscation of all firearms, 10 years in jail for each violation, and up to a $250,000 penalty for each violation.
At this time of the year, we are often short of time and rushing to take care of things before the holidays. Before making a mistake with an NFA firearm, learn about them and the additional restrictions placed upon the use, possession, transfer, and purchase of them in your state and around the country.
NOTE The 5330.20 has been integrated into the Form 4 and Form 1 as of July 12, 2016 so this is no longer necessary.
While ATF has previously stated that a certification of compliance is not necessary for trusts, they have now changed their mind or at lease in some cases. For this reason we are now recommending that you send in the 5330.20 with your Form 4 or Form 1 application to purchase or make a firearm restricted under the NFA.
We will create a sample Form 5330.20 to review. Here is a link to download a Certification of Compliance with 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(5)(B) ATF 5330.20
A California Gun and & Trust Lawyer, (not currently a NFA Gun Trust Lawyer®) has written an interesting article on creating language in your trust to specifically permit the trust funds to be used for firearms education and training along with the typical K-12, college, or post-graduate study that most trusts would allow for. After all it was George Washington who said that “firearms deserve a place of honor with all that’s good.”
David R. Duringer, a firearms trainer, and attorney licensed in CA and WA goes on to state:
Such training can provide your children with the comfort of skill at arms so they can protect themselves and their own children, and furthermore, passes on American values necessary to preserve political independence of families in our society. Other benefits of such training can include increased personal responsibility and lower juvenile delinquency rates.
In a recent decision (US v. Miller), the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals suggested transferring firearms into a trust to resolve an issue involving firearms that were confiscated. The owner of the firearms was not legally able to be in possession and the government was not able to return his firearms because of the felony conviction. In this case, the government failed to institute a forfeiture within the 120 days permitted under 18 U.S.C.924(d)(1).
If the guns were owned in a Firearms Trust prior to the problems, there would be no problem in returning them to the Trust as long as the Trustees were changed to exclude the felon before the return of the firearms.
