NFATCA newsletter:
"As of right now, the NFA Branch in Martinsburg, West Virginia is reporting an average turnaround time for a Form 1 or 4 to be pushing seven months. This is mostly attributed to the surge in suppressor ownership, with suppressors now making up almost 70% of all transfer requests. The tide does not seem to be diminishing, so NFA Branch has secured assistance.
"The NFA Branch will be placing 10-12 “Examiner Assistants” as part of a contract employee program for an initial period of one year. This placement will begin immediately and it is expected that they will begin having an impact on the paperwork mountain as early as this summer. In addition, NFA Branch is seeking permission to create a posting announcement for fiscal year 2013 for the placement of 5 new Examiners. This will be difficult, considering that ATF is still facing a hiring freeze. Contact your representatives and express your support! Hopefully, these measures will result in improved turnaround times."
FWIW, NFATCA member and good friend Bob Howell noted in a post elsewhere:
"I spoke to the folks from NFA Branch at the creek last October (I go there to speak on Dealer Set Up day for the NFATCA about NFA Trusts every year). Believe me they are trying their best. The figures they passed out at that meeting indicated that their volume has pretty much more than doubled in the last 2-3 years (suppressors mostly). The highest volume of transfers in the history of the NFA was the month prior to that meeting, the next highest month was the month before that, and so on.
"Basically it is due to all the new folks coming into the hobby because of the ease of using a trust. When I started writing about them I was the only one out there, now there are more NFA trust "experts" than I can count in every NFA friendly state. So the numbers of folks entering ino the hobby has grown exponentially over the last couple of years
"And unfortunately, as the govt is on a hiring freeze they are having to do more work with the same amount of resources. But this latest news (by way of the NFATCA) is a good start."
For those who might not know:
The NFATCA is the National Firearms Act Trade & Collectors Association, which works on behalf of all NFA owners to try to improve the NFA process.
NFATCA was the group that convinced ATF to write its NFA Handbook, which for the first time since 1934 actually addressed the NFA process in writing (before that, we had to guess and learn to read tea leaves). More recently, NFATCA was the moving force behind the now-imminent removal of the CLEO signing requirement.
And Bob Howell is the FFL/SOT/attorney who first discovered that trusts were legal, viable NFA ownership vehicles, and he pushed NFA Branch to get them accepted. He also worked in the effort to write ATF's NFA Handbook.
"As of right now, the NFA Branch in Martinsburg, West Virginia is reporting an average turnaround time for a Form 1 or 4 to be pushing seven months. This is mostly attributed to the surge in suppressor ownership, with suppressors now making up almost 70% of all transfer requests. The tide does not seem to be diminishing, so NFA Branch has secured assistance.
"The NFA Branch will be placing 10-12 “Examiner Assistants” as part of a contract employee program for an initial period of one year. This placement will begin immediately and it is expected that they will begin having an impact on the paperwork mountain as early as this summer. In addition, NFA Branch is seeking permission to create a posting announcement for fiscal year 2013 for the placement of 5 new Examiners. This will be difficult, considering that ATF is still facing a hiring freeze. Contact your representatives and express your support! Hopefully, these measures will result in improved turnaround times."
FWIW, NFATCA member and good friend Bob Howell noted in a post elsewhere:
"I spoke to the folks from NFA Branch at the creek last October (I go there to speak on Dealer Set Up day for the NFATCA about NFA Trusts every year). Believe me they are trying their best. The figures they passed out at that meeting indicated that their volume has pretty much more than doubled in the last 2-3 years (suppressors mostly). The highest volume of transfers in the history of the NFA was the month prior to that meeting, the next highest month was the month before that, and so on.
"Basically it is due to all the new folks coming into the hobby because of the ease of using a trust. When I started writing about them I was the only one out there, now there are more NFA trust "experts" than I can count in every NFA friendly state. So the numbers of folks entering ino the hobby has grown exponentially over the last couple of years
"And unfortunately, as the govt is on a hiring freeze they are having to do more work with the same amount of resources. But this latest news (by way of the NFATCA) is a good start."
For those who might not know:
The NFATCA is the National Firearms Act Trade & Collectors Association, which works on behalf of all NFA owners to try to improve the NFA process.
NFATCA was the group that convinced ATF to write its NFA Handbook, which for the first time since 1934 actually addressed the NFA process in writing (before that, we had to guess and learn to read tea leaves). More recently, NFATCA was the moving force behind the now-imminent removal of the CLEO signing requirement.
And Bob Howell is the FFL/SOT/attorney who first discovered that trusts were legal, viable NFA ownership vehicles, and he pushed NFA Branch to get them accepted. He also worked in the effort to write ATF's NFA Handbook.
