In September 2013, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (“ATF”) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking to revise regulations regarding the documentation required to be submitted together with a Form 1 or a Form 4 on behalf of a trust or other legal entity. As readers of this blog know, ATF received more than 9500 submissions from the public regarding the proposal (more than 10% of which ATF has refused to make available for public viewing) which ATF designated as docket number ATF 41P.

Although as early as January 2014 ATF officials were making statements that no final regulation should be expected for another one or two years, some blogs continued to suggest that a new regulation could be implemented as early as next month — June 2014. In the latest publication of the Semi-Annual Regulatory Agenda, ATF has now put in writing its projection that it will not publish a final rule until 2015. http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaViewRule?pubId=201404&RIN=1140-AA43

Even once a final rule is published, there are very few exceptions to the statutory requirement for a delayed effective date. Even once any new regulation becomes effective, there are likely to be significant judicial challenges in light of the number of procedural mistakes ATF has already made in the rulemaking process as well as questions about ATF’s authority to promulgate the regulation.