Copyright by James O. Bardwell, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997. Permission is given to reproduce this document or portions thereof with attribution, for non-commercial, or non-governmental use only. No claim to U.S. statutes or regulations quoted herein. This is accurate, to the best of my knowledge, as of 3/29/97. Nothing written here should be taken as legal advice. If you have a legal problem, you should talk to a lawyer.
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Transporting NFA firearms
In terms of moving the weapons around, the following applies. If you are transporting the weapons within your state, it is wise to keep a photocopy of the registration paperwork, whatever it is, (can be Form 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 10, as well as other more exotic forms of registration, except you probably would never have a gun on a Form 10, unless you were the police, in which case no one is likely to hassle you about a gun you might have anyway) with the gun. Federal law does not expressly require it, but it would be foolish not to have ready proof the gun is legal. Many states do require it, they ban all or some NFA weapons, and exempt from the ban those possessed in compliance with federal law. In such a state you need the federal paperwork to be legal under state law. If you were a SOT you should keep a copy of your proof of being an SOT with the paperwork when you move the guns around. But an individual who surrenders his SOT can still have weapons that will be registered on a Form 2 or Form 3 legally, so not having a copy of the SOT with such paperwork proves nothing. You need not ask ATF for permission when you move to a new address within the same state, nor must you advise them of your new address.