N.Y. Times Looks at Gun Trusts

In The New York Times Erica Goode reports on the increasing use of trusts when purchasing firearms and related equipment.

A growing number of shooting enthusiasts are creating legal trusts to acquire machine guns, silencers or other items whose sale is restricted by federal law….

The trusts, called gun trusts, are intended to allow the owners of the firearms to share them legally with family members and to pass them down responsibly. They have gained in popularity, gun owners say, in part because they may offer protection from future legislation intended to prohibit the possession or sale of the firearms. 

But because of a loophole in federal regulations, buying restricted firearms through a trust also exempts the trust’s members from requirements that apply to individual buyers, including being fingerprinted, obtaining the approval of a chief local law enforcement officer and undergoing a background check.

Most gun trusts are benign. Target shooters, for instance, may use gun trusts to purchase silencers –classified as sinister because of their popularity among hit men – simply to CUT DOWN ON THE NOISE.

A few are not. Christopher Dorner, the former Los Angeles police officer turned murderer, apparently used a gun trust to acquire a silencer and a short-barreled rifle.

Model 1795 musket
the first to be manufactured in the U.S. by Eli Whitney.