How to Purchase a NFA Title II (Class 3) Firearm

November 9, 2011

Gun Trust Lawyer and Funding Your Trust

Gun Trust Lawyer Funding a trust is a basic concept that is necessary for a trust to be valid. The legal concept is that the trust does not exist if there is nothing in the trust. A Gun Trust can be funded with a firearm, money, or any other asset. Typically a Gun Trust will be used to acquire firearms and is often used for Title II Firearms. When you put money in or assign money to the trust, you have funded it and it is now valid. If you never assign property to a trust, it can create problems.

For example, if your trust is unfunded, and you purchase a Title II Firearm from a dealer personally you will own it personally. An Assignment sheet may fund the trust, but if the AFT has not approved the assignment or an additional fee is not paid, you may have created a legal problem.

Funding a NFA trust, purchasing NFA Firearms, and proper use of a Gun Trust are very important to understand and something you should ask your Gun Trust Lawyer® about.

September 11, 2011

Benefits of Gun Trust over LLC in Most States

by David M. Goldman

We are often asked about the advantages of a Gun Trust by one of our Gun Trust Lawyers® over a LLC. I have compile a quick list of the most common advantages.

no federal or state tax or reporting requirements with a trust
no annual fees with a trust

June 22, 2011

Schedule A or Assignment Sheet

by David M. Goldman

Recently I received a question from a client that I thought I would share. His dealer questioned the use of the Assignment Sheet because they were not familiar with it and stated that the Gun Store’s lawyer said it was not necessary. ( A full detailed explanation is included in our detailed instructions and users manual) Here is a brief explanation for those who are not using our Gun Trust documents.

While the lawyer is correct, the ATF has confused the issue of funding a trust with documents which evidence the trust and mistakenly requires either a Schedule A or Assignment sheet or they reject the trust as invalid. While most trusts contain a Schedule A or a Schedule of Assets there are several issues with using a Schedule A in regards to the flexibility of our trust and privacy.

You can put a schedule of assets in the trust, but then you would have to keep it updated and if you decided to put your regular firearms in the trust, you would be creating a de facto registration of your firearms. Most gun owners do not wan’t to provide the ATF a list of all of their firearms and as such we have elected to use the “Assignment Sheets”. Our choice has increased privacy and allows for additional flexibility for the use of the trust without unnecessary disclosures.

April 11, 2011

New NFA Gun Trust Brochure Available

by David M. Goldman

We have a new version of our NFA Brochure available to download and review. if you are interested in finding out more about NFA Trusts download the new NFA_Gun_Trust_brochure.pdf.

We would appreciate any feedback on the document.

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February 11, 2011

How to purchase a Title II Firearm from an out of state person.

by David M. Goldman

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.

February 4, 2011

Individual Sentenced to more than 8 Years in Prison for Illegal Machine Guns…

by David M. Goldman

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.

November 30, 2010

Have NFA Gun Trusts or Revocable Living Trusts Been Successfully Challenged by ATF?

by David M. Goldman

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.

September 25, 2010

Pennsylvania Gun Trust Lawyer®

by David M. Goldman

Joshua Prince, a Pennsylvania Gun Trust Lawyer®, has an article on his blog talking about using us for Florida Gun Trusts. We also have a network of Gun Trust Lawyer®s in more than 43 states. Mr. Prince is a NFA Firearms owners and really understands the unique issues involved in PA Gun Trusts. If you need help in the state of Pennsylvania, Mr. Prince can provide a PA Gun Trust by email and telephone in a few days and we have heard nothing but praise over his trusts.

If you need help finding an attorney in your state, Contact Us and determine if a gun trust is appropriate for your needs. If so, we can draft the trust under the NFA rules and then have a local attorney or one licensed in your state review and make changes based on your state’s laws and requirements.

September 12, 2010

Recent ATF Rumor regarding Revocable Gun Trusts- Don’t be fooled by ATF Approval of Invalid Trusts

by David M. Goldman

Recently we have begun hearing that the ATF is no longer requiring a Schedule A and/or an Assignment of Assets with a Trust. While we have not been able to verify this with ATF at this time, we would still suggest sending in these documents with your trust for approval. Remember that just because ATF approves your trust, they are not stating your trust is valid, only that it meets their limited review of criteria. We have seen many cases where the ATF approves trusts that are not valid and subject the individuals to potential criminal charges, confiscation, and fines of up to $250,000 per offense.

There are significant advantages of using an Assignment sheet over a schedule of assets or as some trusts refer to it “a Schedule A”. While most believe that the registration of firearms has been shown to be one of the first steps in the confiscation of firearms by the government, there are many individuals who unknowingly and freely give the ATF a complete list of their firearms by using a Schedule A. An assignment sheet can still transfer assets into a trust, but not create a full list of the assets and become part of the trust document. This additional privacy is an important advantage to using a NFA Gun Trust like we have created. To find out more about Gun Trusts or have your trust reviewed for problems with the NFA contact a Gun Trust Lawyer® by email or call us.

September 11, 2010

Texas Gun Trust Lawyer®: How to purchase Title II firearms from a Class III Dealer.

by David M. Goldman

We have several Texas NFA Gun Trust Lawyer®s that we work with. While it is not necessary to visit the lawyers office, we have Texas Gun Trust Lawyer®s we work with in Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, Midland, and Houston. If you are talking with a lawyer about a NFA firearms trust for the purchase of Title II firearms from a Class III dealer remember to ask them if they are using the copyrighted Gun Trust from https://www.guntrustlawyer.com. If you would like more information on the What a NFA Firearms Trust is and why it is significantly different that an standard revocable trust, contact a Gun Trust Lawyer® and we would be happy to send you information and answer any question relating to the NFA and Title II firearms ownership, transfer, possession, or use.

To create a Texas Gun Trust Contact Us by phone or email and we can begin the process. Typically we draft the trust for the NFA and have the local attorney modify it for Texas. Depending on your situation, a specific Texas attorney may be chosen. The cost of the trust includes the local counsel and the fees are shared with the local attorney. Our Fee is for the National work and the Texas Gun Lawyer is compensated for the Texas legal work.

Updated 9/11/10 We have relationships with Several Texas Gun Trust Lawyer®s including: