With yesterday’s executive actions by the president, and rumors floating around about the ATF’s new recommendations for the acquisition of NFA items (short barreled rifles/shotguns, silencers, machine guns, etc), we knew something like this was coming.

However, what everyone expected was for the ATF to remove the ability of Revokable Living Trusts and Corporations to buy these items. This process is much simpler than an individual buying them.

The trust process also does not require sign-off from the chief law enforcement officer in your area, something an individual application requires. Many CLEO’s refuse to sign these under any conditions, so a trust is the only options for many.

It was expected that as a trade off of removing the trust purchase process that the ATF might remove the CLEO sign-off from their individual requirements, making the process more uniform and streamlined.

However, according to documents released today, that is not the case. From page 14 of the ATF’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking,

ATF does not propose to eliminate the CLEO certification at this time. Rather, ATF proposes extending the CLEO certificate requirement to responsible persons of a legal entity.

This was in response to a direct request to remove the CLEO sign off requirement as it is redundant given the independent checks the ATF does on each purchaser.

So the ATF wants everyone who is a member of a trust or corporation applying for a tax stamp to get CLEO signoff.

So much for making the NFA process easier…