Over the past few months, our gun trust law firm reviewed the proposed federal gun trust changes, reported the delays of these changes (originally anticipated for the summer of 2014), and broke down the reasons why these delays occurred. Now, rumors were heard in Las Vegas at the popular SHOT Show in mid-January that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) may be delaying gun trust regulation changes for another year or two.
The inciting event responsible for the delay revolves around non-compliance. The Administrative Procedure Act requires a specified amount of time for public comment. With the government shutdown near the end of 2013, the public was not provided with adequate time to make comments. Deciding how to manage and resolve compliance issues delayed the announcement of changes to gun trust requirements to June 2013.
However, discussions at the SHOT Show point to an additional delay. The new gun trust rules allegedly will not be implemented until the ATF completes processing the comments made during the time period that was unaffected by the government shutdown.
How many of these comments are there to process? Approximately 8,500.
How many people are processing these comments? According to the rumors: One.
Although there is a delay—right now with a cloudy timeline—don’t let that delay the creation of a gun trust or modifications to your current one. With or without the pending changes, gun trusts are smart estate planning tools that offer much more protection than a revocable living trust. When our lawyers create gun trusts for firearms owners and collectors in North Carolina, Florida, and Tennessee, we review different gun trust options and create custom trusts suited to their particular needs. Implementing the right estate planning tool for your firearms now may help avoid potential new federal fees and—more delays.