Obama's New Restrictions on Gun Trusts

Obama's New Restrictions on Gun Trusts

         The Obama Administration has recently made an announcement that they plan to implement new laws that will further restrict the rights of American gun owners who seek to possess firearms through a NFA Trust or “gun trust.”  The laws will supposedly be in the form of an executive order, which essentially allows a president to make laws without Congressional approval.  The proposed executive order has not been published in the Federal Register and is not yet a law.  (Executive orders take effect 30 days after they are published in the Federal Register).  The only information available regarding the proposed executive order includes statements made by the president and vice-president.  According to recent news reports, the substance of the new law is as follows:

1.     The Obama administration says the executive order closes a loophole that allows felons and other ineligible gun purchasers to skirt the law by registering certain guns to a corporation or trust.  “At present, when the weapon is registered to a trust or corporation, no background check is run.”  The new rule requires people associated with those entities, like beneficiaries and trustees, to undergo a fingerprint-based background checks before the corporation can register those guns.

2.    On August 29, 2013, in a seemingly combined effort with the Obama Administration, ATF issued a new proposed regulation that requires individuals associated with trusts or corporations that acquire Class III weapons to undergo background checks, just as these individuals would if the weapons were registered to them individually.

         The public will have to wait until the executive order is actually published in the Federal Register to fully understand how it will affect those individuals named under NFA trusts.  Nonetheless, President Obama’s repeated calls for more restriction on gun ownership should serve as a signal to the American people that more laws restricting gun ownership are coming.  Some of these laws will undoubtedly be targeted at gun trusts; as such, we advise our clients to secure a gun trust while it is still a viable method of obtaining and owning certain firearms. 

         The natural response to such attempts to limit gun ownership will be a larger black market for firearms.  The demand for guns will be met through smuggling, theft from weapons manufacturers, bribing government officials, and private manufacturing.  Private ownership of private unregistered (and therefore untraceable) weapons will likely continue to increase, thanks to the now obvious intentions of the Obama administration to wage its war on guns.

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