White House Looking At Restricting Gun Trusts

The Hill reports:

The Obama administration is working to close a loophole in the nation’s gun laws that allows for some machine guns and sawed-off shotguns to be sold without the buyer submitting fingerprints or photographs. 

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is working on a new regulation that would require more background information when the weapons are sold to someone through a corporation or legal trust. 

... Normally, when an individual buys a machine gun or short-barreled shotgun, they have to submit their fingerprints and picture to the ATF, and the local chief law enforcement officer has to assert that there is no reason to believe it would be illegal for the buyer to own the gun. 

However, those same requirements don’t apply when the gun is bought in the name of a corporation or legal trust instead of an individual person.  

... The trusts can be formed relatively easily by a lawyer and cost a few hundred dollars. Aside from the ease of securing restricted weapons, they also assure that gun owners’ firearms will be transferred to their loved ones when they die without going through bureaucratic channels. 

A spokesman with the ATF declined to detail the measures of the new proposal, since it is still in draft form. 

However, an online notice said that it will require “responsible persons” designated by the legal trusts to submit forms, photographs and fingerprints to the ATF and forwarded to the local chief police officer. The rule will also define the term “responsible person.” 

I know gun trusts have developed a certain cachet among owners of NFA weapons, mostly because of the ability to cut the local law enforcement approval out of the process, but my concern with them has always been that trusts would be afforded less protection than a person.