Bonded Warehouse Questions.

[Honky]

Say you run a "Bonded Warehouse" for the purpose of storing guns that were seized by law enforcement due to citizens losing their MA state licenses to have them. And, you have the required FFL and state license to sell at retail.
Under the law, law enforcement (police dept's, etc.) can bring you firearms, rifles, shotguns, and machine guns that they have seized so you can store them because they don't have the room to do it themselves.
Let's focus on the machinegun (and other NFA items) part.
Assumption number 1 would be that you would also have to have a License to Possess a Machine Gun in order to take possession and store them.
Assumption number 2 would be that the PD (police dept.) would have to hang on to it/them until an ATF approved transfer form (Form 3 or Form 4) has been processed and comes back approved, transferring ownership from the person they were seized from to you (the bonded warehouse owner).
Assumption number 3 would be that if they were to be transferred on a Form 3 (tax free), you would have to have paid the annual Special Occupational Tax (SOT) to the ATF in order to deal in these types of guns.
Assumption number 4 is that if you have not done Assumption number 3, then you would have to do a Form 4 (tax paid) and pay the $200 transfer tax on the gun in order to get it transferred to you.
Here's the crux of the matter--some people think that a bonded warehouseman can take in a machine gun without having a state License to Possess a Machine Gun. That's question number 1.
And, some people think that a bonded warehouseman can take in a machine gun without it having been transferred to him first. That's question number 2.
In talking to NFA Branch (they're checking with their lawyers), Ms. Brown said that if there was a court order that ordered them delivered to XYZ Warehouse, that there may not be a problem if ATF Compliance came around for an inspection and found that the warehouse had a machine gun in storage that was not registered to them. However, she felt that with no court order, the warehouseman could be charged with possession of a machine gun that was not registered to him or the company.
My view has always been that you had to have the License to Possess a Machine Gun and you had to do an approved ATF transfer BEFORE you took possession of the machine gun.
As I say, ATF is looking into it.
I believe the License to Possess a Machine Gun is a non-issue--you have to have it to comply with state law. If you disagree, let me know why.
As such, the real question--is can a bonded warehouseman store a machine gun without it being registered to him. He might get away with it under state law since he would be viewed as "helping law enforcement." However under federal law, the keys to his jail cell may be sitting over there in safe #5.
I'll let everyone know what ATF says if and when they get back to me.
In the meantime, what do you think?
HONKY

 

[NFD9]

Sounds correct, but I honestly don't know.
I would love to know the answers though, please post when you hear from ATF.

 

[Len-2A Training]

Why don't you ask some of the NFA Dealers here on NES how they have to deal with taking in a NFA item for resale. In essence, that's what I think (IANAL) the bonded warehouses are doing. No way a judge will issue an order that xyz bonded warehouse take possession of Mr. Jones' guns. The order is for the PD to confiscate. MGLs ALLOW the PD to dispose of the guns to a bonded warehouse of their choosing or store them indefinitely at the PD . . . but it is the PD's choice as to what to do and who to deal with.
Per MGLs, the bonded warehouse only has to hold the guns for 6 months and then if the "owner" doesn't pay up, they confiscate the guns and sell them for whatever they please.

 

[drgrant]

I would bet the typical scenario is that the PD just keeps the NFA item(s) in evidence locker (as police always have full indemnity with this sort of thing) and the rest of it goes to the dowd/cohen extortion wareheouses, depending on the city. Many PDs in MA don't use bonded warehouses at all.

This whole "scenario" is somewhat of a non starter, as most NFA owners in MA go out of their way to keep their nose clean. Even if they do smell something bad most of them are going to have a competent firearms lawyer on speed dial.

This is kind of like asking "If a cat is riding on the roof of my car and I am DUI and the cat gets killed, am I now guilty of animal cruelty?" You'll probably never get a real answer, because it's probably never been an issue.

I'd also bet that NFA dealers have some provision for "exigent" intake of NFA firearms into their inventory without having to wait for approval, as long as paperwork is filed ASAP. BATFE probably has administrative procedures/rules for dealing with this, as such exigent circumstances likely happen all the time.

I doubt BATFE is going to bring down a world of hurt on an NFA dealer intaking a firearm that is in the NFRTR if the dealer makes a good faith effort at compliance.

-Mike