Gun Trust: Upholding the Second Amendment

As many of you now realize, there is a growing push to change drastically the landscape of gun ownership in our country. The President has vowed to do all he can to advance his agenda without the involvement of the Congress. This means that new gun regulations may come faster than many anticipate because the regulations will not go through the constitutional process of bicameralism and presentment. We will have to argue the constitutionality of this another day.

Whether or not the new rules and/or legislation would actually have an impact on what the white house terms "gun violence" is likely beside the point, since if the President has his way, the gun rights of American citizens will have already been reduced. The logical soudness of reducing a magazine from 30 rounds to 10 and whether that will have an impact on society, by that point, is no longer relevant--the regulation is already in place.

Now more than ever, may be the time to place your firearms within a trust. One of the main goals of this administration is to make the transfer of assault-style firearms illegal. We are not yet sure if this includes non-monetary transfers, such as an inheritance or gift; however, it is clear the President wants to make firearms like the popular AR-15 unavailable in a retail capacity. Fortunately, one of the beauties of a gun trust is enhanced transferability. Yes, the trust can transfer the firearm to another individual or trust just as a person could buy or sell one, but there is also another way, which could make non-transferable items alienable again. Since the trust owns the firearm, the firearm can be "transferred" to another by transferring ownership of the trust itself. However, since the registered owner of the firearm--the trust--has not changed, there has been no "transfer" of the firearm. This is only one advantage to ownership through a trust vehicle. There are many others.

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