The National Firearms Act Trade & Collectors Association (NFATCA) is the only organization that champions the interests of the entire NFA community. It doesn’t matter if you are a collector, a dealer, manufacturer, importer or just an enthusiast. We take on the issues that no other organization would even consider.
If you own or are planning on owning NFA firearms you should consider joining this organization.
Paul Clark has written an article where he notes that if you use of most Title II firearms during a crime of violence or drug trafficking you are subject to a 30 year mandatory minimum sentence. It appears that the 30 year sentence applies to the possession and its use is not required. Note this applies even if you are legally in possession of the silencer by ownership in a NFA Trust, corporation, LLC, or individual ownership.
While the data appears to show that the use of a silencer or most other Title II firearms in a crime is a rare occurrence, individuals might take this into consideration when using silencers on personal firearms when there is a chance that they might be charged with a crime of violence, such as defending yourself.
While many states have stand your ground statutes or castle doctrines, its possible that overzealous self-defense can lead to criminal charges. If the charges are in the federal court, you could be looking at enhanced penalties like those described in 18. U.S.C. Section 924(c)(1).
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.
No CLEO Signature Required
The ATF requires that all individuals obtain approval from their Chief Law Enforcement Officer (the “CLEO”) as part of the application process to obtain a Title II firearm from another individual or Class 3 dealer. Many CLEOs around the country are refusing sign or even acknowledge the ATF Forms. There is no legal remedy in most states to force the review of these forms. If using an NFA Firearms Trust to purchase a weapon, the Form 4 does not require the CLEO’s signature.
NFA firearms and Constructive Possession. Some said it would never happen, but it seem that just recently Jesus Amador was arrested for possession / Constructive possession of an SBR.
Florida law does not allow individuals to possess the pieces to readily build an SBR, SBS, or Machine Gun unless permitted to do so under Federal law. While he may have been enticed by the police to take an action that he would not have taken, he eventually showed up to unknowingly sell the items to a police officer. Upon doing so 7 police officers at gun point slammed him to the ground and arrested him (as reported by Joshua Prince on his gun blog and by Mr Amador on Florida Gun Trader)
While some may say that this is a possession issue and not constructive possession, the fact is that constructive or actual possession are only ways to prove possession and as such there may be little significance between the two.
David Olofson owned what he thought to be a normal AR15. Unfortunately his AR15 as many do, misfired and shot off a three round burst. The NFA has no intent required and as such David was in the illegal possession of Machine Gun. He was arrested, convicted and his appeal was denied. He is now in prison serving 30 months. I guess he is lucky in that he was not fined nor did he receive the 10 years that the NFA authorizes.
If anyone thinks that BATFE will ignore improper transfers or possessions of items restricted by the NFA, they need look no farther than at his case outcome. For complete information on this issue and all transcripts, an interview from prison, and how the ATF appears to have framed David check out the JPFO website.
of the National Firearms Act defines a Transfer as: This term and the various derivatives thereof shall include selling, assigning, pledging, leasing, loaning, giving away, or
otherwise disposing of.
There seems to be much confusion over the violations of the National Firearms Act over this term because the typical legal definition of transfer involves a change in the possession and / or legal title of; convey.
Section 479.11 of the NFA defines a Machine gun as. Any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger. The term shall also include the frame or receiver of any such weapon, any part designed and intended solely and exclusively, or combination of parts designed and intended, for use in converting a weapon into a machine gun, and any combination of parts from which a machine gun can be assembled if such parts are in the possession or under the control of a person.
Is a fully automatic 6mm air soft gun a machine gun under the NFA? Of all the terms defined in the NFA, one of the most frequently used ones is the term weapon which is not defined. I have submitted this question to the ATF and will update the site when we obtain an answer.
Section 479.11 of the National Firearms Act defines a Person as: A Partnership, company, association, trust, estate, or corporation , as well as a natural person.
We have created a quick link to the NFA: https://www.guntrustlawyer.com/nfa.html
Click to download a copy of the National Firearms Act NFA.pdf
NFA Gun Trust Lawyer Blog