Short barrel rifles, or SBRs, are becoming increasingly popular among gun owners. Their compact size makes them more maneuverable in confined spaces, and a short upper also helps balance the weight and length of a suppressor—another firearm enjoying incredible growth in popularity.
In this blog, Gun Trust USA™ presents a tip for simplifying the registration of an SBR. We particularly want to provide this advice to the person who might not have easy access to a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL, i.e. a gun dealer) or has a limited budget.
Perhaps the most obvious option for obtaining an SBR is the retail purchase of a complete firearm. This requires full payment of the SBR to an FFL up front, but the buyer may not take possession of the SBR until ATF issues a tax stamp for its registration. When a new person registers ownership of a pre-existing NFA firearm, it is a ‘transfer’. ATF Form 5320.4 (‘Form 4’) is the application that ATF requires for a transfer. In such a situation, the FFL is the ‘transferor’, and the buyer is the ‘transferee’. Not every FFL may transfer an SBR. You must use a Class 3 FFL, otherwise known as an ‘SOT’ because these gun dealers pay a special occupational tax. If there is no FFL/SOT nearby, or if you do not want to incur the immediate cost of the full retail purchase price, there is an alternative.
Instead of submitting a Form 4 for a transfer, you may instead submit a ATF Form 5320.1, also known as a ‘Form 1’, to build an SBR yourself. Instead of buying an entire rifle, you only need to identify a stripped lower receiver on the Form 1. Like a Form 4 transfer, a Form 1 for an SBR requires payment of a $200 tax. Please note, a Form 1 for an AOW requires only a $5 tax payment. A Form 1 may not be used to make a new machine gun.
An applicant may submit Form 1 directly to ATF, so no FFL/SOT is involved. A Form 1 submitted by a trust may be submitted using ATF eFile, a particularly easy online system. Our customers have used Gun Trust USA™ to create their own trust, and then used ATF eFile to submit their application and tax payment. For eFile applicants, ATF will issue the tax stamp by email. This approach was particularly convenient in the case of a US Marine submitting a Form 1 and his trust using ATF eFile while he was deployed overseas. He could then build his SBR after his return home. For that matter, amy person could be proactive and submit numerous Form 1s and save the lower receivers to be built as SBRs in the future.
Remember, any firearm made using a Form 1 must be engraved by the gun maker. When our customers use Gun Trust USA™ to create their own trust, we provide helpful tips, including the importance of keeping the name of the trust short so it is easy to engrave.
Create your own NFA gun trust now using Gun Trust USA™. Simply complete our online questionnaire at this link. You can complete your documents in minutes for as little as $99.95. You will be offered additional options, including our popular Turnkey Package, and at any time you take advantage of our “Ask a Lawyer” program to request a discounted consultation with an attorney in our support network.
