NFA Gun Trust Lawyer Blog
Recently the ATF updated their final action date from December 2015 to January 2016. For a complete list of articles and issues on ATF-41P see our 41P update page.
The most significant comments are listed on the 41P page link above. What does the update mean? We believe that ATF will attempt to move forward with changes sometime within the next few months. If you are considering forming a Gun Trust for NFA purchases, now may be the time to create your gun trust before changes are made.
Many people have been reporting that 41P will end the opportunity to take advantage of the benefits of a Gun Trust. This is simply not true, it will not end gun trusts nor do away with many of the advantages of a gun trust. ATF is talking about making responsible parties provide a modified CLEO authorization and other information, but this proposal was made prior to the ATF stating that the person purchasing an item with a Gun Trust sill needs a NICS check. The new position on the NICS requirement seems to do away with the CLEO certification as it is more comprehensive.
Joshua Prince has written a review of many of the issues which can be found here.
His summary states
Hence, all information currently suggests that if your application is pending at the time any new regulation goes into effect, your application will be grandfathered, as it complied with the regulations, when it was submitted. Obviously, everyone will want to know what constitutes pending (e.g. mailing, receipt or cashing of one’s check). Again, unfortunately, we don’t know; however, there are pretty good arguments that it should be triggered upon ATF’s receipt. For this reason, if you’re planning to file a Form 1, you may want to do such electronically through the eForms system and as soon as possible.