a friend of mine has a suppressor (he has a number of them). And this particular one he has not ever used, just did not like the report.
(I personally think he was changing to many things at a time and blamed the suppressor).
It runs and sound great on my PCC.

so the plan is to wait until January and file the Form 4 paperwork. Is there another way to do the transfer that may go faster? should I just eat the $200 and do it now?

Sig Sauer MODX-9

Due to the federal "shutdown", ATF has halted the processing of applications for NFA items. While stamps were previously being returned at a record pace, I don't believe there would be an advantage to submitting your Form 4 now and paying the $200 tax. Should the shutdown end sooner than later however, it may be worth paying the tax to expedite approval. At this point it's a crap shoot based upon the shutdown. Until I knew they were once again processing forms in a timely manner, I'd save the $200.

Is this suppressor registered to your friend or on a trust? If on a trust, he could add you as a trustee…no ATF involvement.

There's still most of three whole months before the BBB goes into effect and I highly doubt the shutdown is going to last that long. At this point, it's a gamble as to whether it's worth it to spend the extra on the tax stamp. Since person to person is still filed via paper, you're not going to have a five day approval if the government reopens tomorrow. I haven't looked at what individual to individual approval times were looking like, but the time frame I seem to remember was about a month. If the shutdown ends this week and your paper filed forms are already in the mail, maybe you have your stamp in a few weeks or a month. Or, maybe you file now, the shutdown breaks all records because it's Trump 2.0 and they really want to stick it to him, and it goes something like ninety days and you get lost in the massive queue of people who file after New Year's.

My predictions: A tidal wave of submissions on New Year's, whether the government is up and running or not. Absolute best case scenario is the shutdown ends soon, and the ATF goes into the new year with little or no backlog, they hire a bunch of contract examiners to deal with the impeding surge, and they keep approval times within a few weeks or a month. Worst case scenario is the shutdown goes long, ATF goes into the new year with a backlog of everyone who was trying to beat the clock, no contract examiners to deal with the surge, a bunch of layoffs to boot, and approval times shoot up to nine months, a year, or even more. Could be something in between, could be none of the above. Nobody honestly knows.

What I do know is I started two cans a week ago knowing they probably wouldn't clear before the shutdown, and I'm neither worried about it, nor feel like I wasted the money. I'm in line, and whatever else happens after that, I have no control over. I do know that waiting until the new year to save money was not a situation I wanted to get into to save a few tax stamps. I got spoiled on sub-30 day approvals and I wanted to get all I could while the getting was still good. Depending on what I can raise the funds for before then, I may yet start a DD PCC and an integral 10/22 can before New Year's if the shutdown ends and approval times resume at the pace they were a week ago, if that tells you anything. At least you know that can isn't going anywhere, so you don't have to worry about back orders and waitlists and all that nonsense like with new cans.

He has a trust that has all of his stuff in it. So I dont think I can create a trust and then add him to it that way (as it is already in a trust).

I am looking into creating a trust to put my two other suppressors and SBR in as well. I will probably get it all together and send it off in January so it wont cost me another $200 each.

quote:

Originally posted by redstone:
He has a trust that has all of his stuff in it. So I dont think I can create a trust and then add him to it that way (as it is already in a trust)....

Go at it the other way, I'll give the long form answer of what C_D above was saying. No one can transfer anything today, due to the govt shutdown. If the suppressor is owned by your friend's trust, he can add you as an "RP" (meet one of the NFA definitions of Responsible Person, ie Trustee) to the trust and then you can be in possession of it. If the original trust is set up the right way, it's a one page addition to the trust that takes maybe one minute (I don't know if that page would need to be notarized). You don't need ATF approval. The only minor hangup would be if he were to buy a new suppressor while you are on the trust, you both have to go thru fingerprints and background check. He can take you off the trust just as fast next year after you transfer to your trust.

I'm really glad I paid for stamps this year as I think 2026 will be 6+ month wait for approvals. If we weren't in a shutdown and someone wanted their first suppressor, I would still say pay the $200 stamp even in December. For this situation (you have a way to use it) and it being a used suppressor, I would wait on paperwork till January. Many of us on the board are using a trust made by member HeavyD. He's an attorney in Georgia, but his trust will work in any state that NFA items are legal. He includes forms for adding items later, address change, changing trustees, beneficiaries, etc. I think I have laid out an example of how valuable a trust is, I highly recommend going the trust route.

Thanks guys, I have started a trust with HeavyD and then in the new year I will transfer all my current stamps into it.

I will talk to my friend about adding me to his trust and then doing the stamp transfer next year.

I really appreciate you guys, thanks.