I went down to my FFL on Saturday to start my portion of the cluster that is NFA Paperwork. It took 65 days for the NFA branch to decide it was okay for Gemtech to send a .22 suppressor down to a shop that makes suppressors for .50s. Whatever.
Since I am a total n00b at this stuff, I brought all my trust paperwork. After the clerk went back and handled their end of the Form 4 stuff, he came back with some instructions. Sign here, date here, etc. Then he said I would need to take the blank Schedule A form to a notary and add the suppressor’s serial to it. Then, I should come back to the store and they would send everything off. I asked him if the ATF would need the original or if a copy would do, and he was unsure. I decided to email the lawyer who drew up the trust and ask him about it before proceeding.
On my way back home, I thought that surely I could find the answer on the internets. NFA trusts are become more popular, so people on forums must have run into this before.
Ho. Lee. Crap.
This is what that exercise taught me:
- The ATF needs to see my trust’s blank Schedule A to approve my transfer.
- A trust with a blank Schedule A is illegal, and sending a blank Schedule A will cause my transfer to be denied.
- The ATF needs to see my trust’s Schedule A listing the item I am trying to buy.
- I cannot add the item to the Schedule A until the transfer is approved.
- It is illegal for the ATF to ask for my Schedule A.
Yeah, so I decided to wait for a legal opinion. Turns out, they don’t need to see the Schedule A, and the clerk was confused by my handing him a Schedule A along with my other trust paperwork.
Form 4s are in the mail as of today. I’ll let you know who was right, but I’ll take NRA Lawyer over anonymous gun forum dude any day.
Such bullshit! I would love to suppress one of my 1911 (or maybe an M&P45 built specifically for a can) but I’m starting to think that even if I lived in a free state I don’t know if I’d want to bother until they are rightfully removed from the NFA.
Thanks for making suppressors more common. Hopefully this snowballs into regular people wondering why this is such a mess.
Sorry to hear about all the hoops you jumped through. I count myself lucky that my Class 3 dealer is very organized.
I’ve gone through the process twice. I sent Schedule A, but it did not have the serial # of the item I was buying at the time. For NFA #2, my schedule A had to have NFA #1 serial. Had zero problems except the long wait.
Here is hoping NFA is the next gun-control item on the chopping block. It is a burden for us consumers, and it distracts the ATF from their gunrunning operations. Eliminating it would be a win-win.
Here is hoping NFA is the next gun-control item on the chopping block. It is a burden for us consumers, and it distracts the ATF from their gunrunning operations. Eliminating it would be a win-win.
Indeed.
The schedule A requirement, as explained by my trust’s lawyer, is that in some states the trust is invalid if it doesn’t own anything. For those states you need to show the trust owns something so the ATF can see it’s valid.
Florida is such a state.
Trust assets can be a simple as a $1 bill sealed in an envelope.
Put a dollar in an envelope, and keep it with your trust documents. List that on your Schedule A as the trust’s first asset.
There is no requirement that a trust have a schedule A. The ones David Goldman does do not have one.