Form Your Gun Trust Now - How does a Gun Trust Works?
As background checks are in the news regarding guns, people are sharing information on how best to manage your guns.
The content below was shared with me, it is not legal advice from me, and is published as received. I do not own a gun and suggest you check with the relevant authorities or your local lawyer before acting on the advice below as it is not inline with my understanding of an NFA Gun Trust:
I suggest that you create an individual REVOCABLE TRUST for EACH FIREARM you own and assign ownership of a firearm into the given trust. This means each trust you create will own ONE firearm. If you have 10 firearms, you have 10 trusts. You can also assign ammo into the trust if you like.
They can even be named in numbered order:
OK Coral Firearms #1 Revocable Trust
OK Coral Firearms #2 Revocable Trust
OK Coral Firearms #3 Revocable Trust
...etc
You will need at least one Trustee (you) and a beneficiary.
Trusts cost NOTHING to form (unlike filing a LLC or corporation) and do NOT have to be part of any public record. To establish the date the trust was created so it can not be disputed later make sure your signature is NOTARIZED when you form the trust.
Now... once you do this you no longer technically own the firearm, the trust does. This means that if you wish to transfer that trust to anyone else in the future you simply add a Trustee to the trust and then you can resign from the trust. That is not a transfer or sale of the firearm.
The new trustee now has control of the trust, and the firearm, and no "transfer" has taken place.
How does a Gun Trust Work?
Any trustee legally representing the trust can legally possess a firearm registered to the trust. A gun trust also allows gun owners to keep information about their guns private. Trusts are not subject to probate; therefore, the firearms owned through a trust are never listed in a person's probate estate.
NFA Gun Trust
The National Firearms Act (NFA) regulates the sale, possession, and transfer of certain firearms. NFA Firearms, also known as Title II firearms, include short-barrel rifles, short-barrel shotguns, machine guns, and silencers (otherwise known as suppressors). In order to possess, transfer, or create any of these firearms, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives must provide approval. The approval also entails a $200 tax and registration under the National Firearm Registration and Transfer Record (NFRTR).
An NFA Gun Trust is a legal instrument with the capability of owning an NFA firearm. When an NFA Gun Trust is the lawful owner of an NFA weapon, multiple people may have access to or benefit from the use of an NFA firearm, whereas only the individual listed on the NFRTR may possess the firearm if owned individually. A Gun Trust can properly and legally direct who and how NFA firearms may be used and possessed. Improperly registering or unlawfully possessing NFA firearms carries penalties such as fines of up to $10,000 under the National Firearms Act and up to $250,000 under the Gun Control Act, imprisonment, forfeiture, and a bar on owning future firearms.
NFA Gun Trusts are largely beneficial to owners of a firearm regulated under the National Firearms Act or those that are planning to come into possession of such a firearm in the future through either creation or a transfer. Outside of possessory benefits, other advantages of NFA firearm ownership under an NFA Gun Trust include privacy in gun ownership, the avoidance of probate, and no annual fees such as ones that accompany ownership through a limited liability company. Further, beneficiaries who are distributed firearms from an NFA Gun Trust are excused from paying the $200 tax stamp imposed by the ATF.
