BLOG: Assault Weapon Ban and Background Checks

Congress has been fiercely debating the issue of assault style weapons and background checks since the Newtown massacre. Neither have much of a chance of passage, however, despite polls showing that 92 percent of Americans support background checks, 52 percent support stricter gun laws and 56 percent support "a ban on the sale of assault weapons."

What most people don’t know is that many assault style weapons are already banned from individual ownership.  Or are they?

Congress loves “loopholes.” When passing legislation Congress, in its infinite wisdom, made sure that the majority of us could own that long-sought after machine gun and silencer when they enacted the National Firearms Act (NFA) – 72nd Congress, Sess. 2, ch. 757, 48 Stat. 1236, on June 26, 1934, currently codified as amended as 26 U.S.C. ch. 53.

If I want to purchase a NFA-designated weapon, all I have to do is fill out a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) application (Form 4). I'll have to submit photos of myself and fingerprints, as well as get my local Chief Law Enforcement Officer (CLEO) to sign off on the application.  Then I'd have to pay a $200 tax for each NFA weapon I am purchasing.  Filling out the ATF application and paying the $200 tax is no problem, but the majority of CLEOs refuse to sign these forms in today’s security conscious world.  So, I am effectively prevented from purchasing that long dreamed after machine gun with a silencer, unless I am a relative or a close-friend of my CLEO, in which case I might get lucky.  For all intents and purposes, however, the majority of individuals will be banned.

Congress, on the other hand, does not want to deprive you of your second-amendment rights to own that machine gun and silencer.  So they made sure way back in 1934, to provide you the means to not only circumvent that old nasty CLEO, they provided us with the means to avoid having to be photographed and fingerprinted as well. All we will have to do is pay the $200 NFA tax.

How do you do it?

You start by finding an attorney familiar with NFA Trusts, and you pay him to create one for you.  The NFA allows for NFA trusts and corporations to purchase firearms without any sort of background check whatsoever, including NFA items such as machine guns and silencers.  Furthermore, the NFA trusts can be blind, therefore, protecting the trustee and anyone else listed within the trust.  In other words, if a NFA Trust or corporation is purchasing the gun(s), the individual’s rights to own various types of firearms without limitations, hassles or even the outright denial of ownership that we see so often these days is circumvented. The only thing necessary is the $200 tax stamp.

NFA trusts are often used when the CLEO of an NFA buyer’s home city refuses to sign a Form 4 authorizing the transfer of an NFA weapon. Since the trust is the actual purchaser of the NFA item, not the individual, CLEO approval is not required. Likewise, no fingerprint cards or photographs are required for transfers of Class 3 items to a trust.  You walk in and purchase a machine gun equipped with a silencer and name those in the trust who can have access to them and you’re done.

Nobody is talking about this in the media or apparently in Congress. If I have a crazy brother, prone to aggressive violent behavior and psychotic breaks, and I have a trust full of machine guns, he could probably obtain access to them if he was crafty enough.  This was demonstrated in Newtown, when the shooter killed his mother and took her guns.  And, if someone stole your machine guns, well . . .  Technically, they are not yours, so you can’t be held liable.

Has anyone in Congress considered the above? Most-likely not.