There are several type of Class 3 items that are restricted by the National Firearms Act.
Each state can impose additional restrictions on the sale, purchase, and transfer of class 3 firearms in addition to the compliance that is required with the national Firearms Act.
In Missouri you can own the following items that are regulated the the National Firearms Act
The ATF National Firearms Act (NFA) Branch is pleased to announce that as of July 2011, ATF Forms 1, 2, 10 and ATF Form 5320.20 will be assigned to a legal instruments examiner for processing according to the State of the applicant’s address. The NFA Branch also will begin assigning ATF Forms 3, ATF Form 4 and 9 applications to examiners by the State of the transferor’s address. Applications already pending at the time of the change will continue to be processed by the examiner to whom they were previously assigned. Historically, applications in the NFA Branch have been assigned to legal instruments examiners alphabetically based on the name of the transferor or applicant. A chart showing the new assignment distribution is below.
The ATF expects this change in the assignment of applications to better enable NFA examiners to develop State law expertise and more knowledgeably and effectively respond to our customers during an era of unprecedented and ever increasing application volume. Please contact the NFA Branch at 304-616-4500 with any questions about this change.
NFA Examiner Assignment Distribution (effective July 2011)
When you are purchasing a silencer, SBR, SBS, Machine Gun, AOW, or DD from an out of state resident there are two ways of accomplishing the transfer.
The first and slower way is to do a Form 4 transfer to a local Class 3 SOT dealer. Once this is approved a tax free transfer can be made from that dealer to one in the purchaser’s state and then a second Form 4 transfer can be done from the buyer’s dealer to the buyer. This will involved 2 transfer fees and generally each dealer will charge a fee for the paperwork and transfer.
The second method involves transferring it directly on a Form 4 to the buyers Class 3 dealer who is located in the same state as the buyer. Once this is approved a second Form 4 transfer can take place from the dealer to the buyer. This will involve 2 transfer fees and fees from the single dealer. This method should be quicker since the dealer to dealer transfer is eliminated.
The US Department of Justice today announced that
A man in Berlin, Connecticut, was sentenced to 101 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for illegally possessing machine guns, a sawed-off shotgun, silencers, grenades and improvised explosive devices or IEDs.
These items are controlled by the National Firearms Act and you must purchase them using a Form 4 or manufacture them with a Form 1 and pay the tax. If you are in possession of them, are using them, or sell them without complying with the requirements you can face prison sentences and fines.
The ATF Study on the Importability of Certain Shotguns was published today.
Many of you have been following the supposed ban on imported Shotguns like the Saiga that was announced by the ATF during the Shot Show in Las Vegas last week. Instead ATF announced a study which may some a little extra time to purchase these firearms before a ban goes into place and states that
A change in ATF’s position on practical shooting has potential implications for rifle and handgun classifications as well. Therefore, the working group believes that a more thorough and complete assessment is necessary before ATF can consider practical shooting as a generally recognized sporting purpose.
Last week Taurus introduced the Raging Judge a 28 Gauge Revolver. There are conflicting reports as to if this item will be restricted under the NFA by the ATF and whether if restricted, Taurus will make the firearm available. Many are reporting that because the bore size is around a 55 caliber that it might be restricted as a Destructive Device or a SBS. Recently the ATF came out with a new classification of firearm called a smooth bore pistol grip firearm. I think if it ends up being restricted that the ATF will restrict it as an AOW because it is less than 26″ and seems to fit the same category as the Serbu Super Shorty.
Thanks to the Alaska Machine Gun Association for letting us know about this. The Municipality of Anchorage has just imposed at $150 fee, effective 1 Jan 11, to process BATFE forms for CLEO signature.
Many might think that this is a Tax on a Tax and would violate Alaska’s preemption statute.
While CLEO sign off is often the initial reason individuals begin to look at trusts, We have found that the other advantages of a NFA trust are the overriding reason most end up using a NFA Firearms trust over a revocable trust.
AWC, a silencer manufacture had a nice map of where currently legal to own.
Silencers are legal for civilian ownership in the following states Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri (C&R Required), Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Civilian ownership is prohibited in the District of Columbia and the following states: California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has proposed that it be given emergency authority for six months, beginning January 5, to require about 8,500 firearms dealers along the border with Mexico “to alert authorities when they sell within five consecutive business days two or more semiautomatic rifles greater than .22 caliber with detachable magazines.” A Washington Post story reporting on the BATFE proposal described that definition as being applicable to “so-called assault weapons,” but it would also apply to many rifles that have never been labeled with that term.
The reporting requirement will apparently be imposed under the “authority” the BATFE has used in the past to demand reporting of other types of transactions from certain limited groups of dealers over the past 10 years, but the new proposal is far broader than any previous use of this authority. Of course, there’s no law today that prevents dealers from reporting suspicious transactions (or attempted transactions) to the BATFE, and dealers often do so. The BATFE is also free to inspect dealers’ sales records–either for annual compliance inspections or during a criminal investigation.
We often get questions regarding the use of NFA Trusts in regards to legal challenges to show that they are permitted under the NFA.
While there are no successful challenges that stand for the positive or negative use of a NFA Trust, Trusts are not generally denied because the Federal statutes specifically authorizes the use of a trust for ownership of a item restricted by the NFA. There have been many applications with the ATF by people using other forms of Trusts that have been denied because the application or the trust was improper.
The more troubling issue with a Trust is that there are many invalid trusts that have been approved by the ATF. The reason this is problematic is that many individuals feel there possession and use of these firearms valid because ATF approved the transfer. They do not realize that the ATF’s approval is to a valid trust and while they may disapprove an obviously invalid trust, there is no requirement for the ATF to validate (nor do they validate) a trust.
NFA Gun Trust Lawyer Blog