One benefit of using a Gun Trust that is often overlooked is the ease of changing authorized users or managers of the firearms in the event of a charge relating to domestic violence or other Lautenberg amendment violations. We all know people who have been involved in a divorce and had claims of domestic violence or child abuse made to potentially bolster the other spouse’s position regarding the divorce, alimony, child custody, or child support. Unfortunately, the way in which your divorce attorney deals with this issue, could cause you to lose your firearms rights. It is very important to make sure your divorce attorney understands these issues or consults with an attorney who does so that you do not lose your rights over a technicality.
More importantly, if you do lose your rights, you may lose your investment in your firearms as they may not be transferable in time to lose them to a confiscation. With a Gun Trust, even though you can be a manager, you do not technically own them. Therefore, if you lose your rights to own or possess firearms, we simply need to amend your trust to deal with the possession issue as you are no longer the owner anyway.
This becomes much more important with Title II firearms (those sold by Class III Dealers) because of the time it takes to transfer these firearms. For more on this you may want to read the Jacksonville Divorce Attorney Blog’s article on Domestic Violence and Gun Rights written by Kelley Ryan a Jacksonville Divorce Lawyer.