After several years of proposing changes to their NFA regulations, ATF has finally moved forward in the rulemaking process. ATF was expected to eliminate the chief law enforcement official (CLEO) sign-off and make a few other tweaks. Instead, they are merely changing the substance of what the CLEO is signing off on, applying the CLEO sign-off requirement to all applicants instead of just individuals, and making it more burdensome to use trusts and business entities to register and keep NFA firearms. The 90-day notice and comment period for the proposed regulations began on September 9th.

Under the proposed changes set out in ATF 41P, all responsible persons for trusts and business entities would be subject to the same fingerprint, photograph, and CLEO sign-off requirements currently in effect for individuals. This means that while trusts and business entities would still offer co-ownership and estate-planning benefits over individual registration, the process of getting approval to make or transfer an NFA firearm will become significantly more onerous. Additionally, the extension of the CLEO sign-off requirement to non-individual applicants will mean that NFA collectors living in jurisdictions with uncooperative law enforcement will find themselves out of luck altogether, as they will be unable to complete the application paperwork. Furthermore, additions of new co-trustees and other “responsible persons” who have authority to possess NFA firearms under the terms of a trust agreement or other governing document will similarly be subject to these additional bureaucratic hurdles, even if the trust or business entity was already in existence prior to implementation of the new rules.

Pennsylvania attorney Joshua Prince and his colleagues at the Firearms Industry Consulting Group have done excellent work keeping up with the proposed changes and providing gun owners with information about the Administrative Procedures Act process for implementing new regulations that is now underway. Be sure to join their Facebook group Americans Opposed to ATF 41P to coordinate with other advocates for firearms freedom in opposing these changes.