For those of us serving overseas and interested in setting up an NFA trust, the process may seem a little bit daunting, especially if you are in an area without a legal officer, or the availability to get to a legal office. After a little bit of research, I found a bit of information that is certainly encouraging.
Article 136 of the UCMJ, as well as Title 10 Section 936 and Title 14 Section 636 of the United States Code state that any Commissioned Officer serving on active duty in the United States military have legal authority to administer oaths and to act as notary.
It’s just a tidbit of information I came across that I thought I would share. This came from the fact that I had an NFA trust drawn up and the lawyer that did it asked if I had access to a notary out here. Being that it’s somewhat difficult to get to get to the legal officer, I did a little bit of searching. Here is the citation straight from the big book:
10 USC Sec. 936 01/07/2011
-EXPCITE-
TITLE 10 - ARMED FORCES
Subtitle A - General Military Law
PART II - PERSONNEL
CHAPTER 47 - UNIFORM CODE OF MILITARY JUSTICE
SUBCHAPTER XI - MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
-HEAD-
Sec. 936. Art. 136. Authority to administer oaths and to act as
notary
-STATUTE-
(a) The following persons on active duty or performing inactive-
duty training may administer oaths for the purposes of military
administration, including military justice:
(1) All judge advocates.
(2) All summary courts-martial.
(3) All adjutants, assistant adjutants, acting adjutants, and
personnel adjutants.
(4) All commanding officers of the Navy, Marine Corps, and
Coast Guard.
(5) All staff judge advocates and legal officers, and acting or
assistant staff judge advocates and legal officers.
(6) All other persons designated by regulations of the armed
forces or by statute.
(b) The following persons on active duty or performing inactive-
duty training may administer oaths necessary in the performance of
their duties:
(1) The president, military judge, trial counsel, and assistant
trial counsel for all general and special courts-martial.
(2) The president and the counsel for the court of any court of
inquiry.
(3) All officers designated to take a deposition.
(4) All persons detailed to conduct an investigation.
(5) All recruiting officers.
(6) All other persons designated by regulations of the armed
forces or by statute.
(c) The judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the
Armed Forces may administer the oaths authorized by subsections (a)
and (b).
I’m no lawyer, but I did spend 25 years as an active duty Army officer. I can indeed administer oaths–in fact, I administered the oath of enlistment to a new soldier earlier this week. Nevertheless, an NFA trust lies outside the realm of “military administration.”
I think you’re going to have to wait until you can get to a JAG officer.
The information originally came from a JAG officer currently serving that is an avid firearms enthusiast and advised me that in a situation where a legal officer isn’t available or feasible, one can go to his Commanding Officer for signature on his paperwork if need be.
Speaking with my legal officer out here, he didn’t know how to write up a trust, let alone an NFA trust, so I had to go elsewhere to get the paperwork drawn up, but this information is essentially to let other military folks know that we have the option, if you can get ahold of reputable paperwork, to have it signed by your CO, should the need arise.
Your post is very timely. I’m up in Wardak and am trying to have my trust done by the time we head back stateside. I agree that having the JAG guys that have no idea about NFA set the trust up makes me nervous. You said you “had to go elsewhere” to draw up your paperwork; mind if I ask what your plan is? The best I can come up with is have the stateside attorney draft the trust, mail it to me, sign & notarize, and hope it doesn’t get lost in transit.
I’ve has personal (non military related) legal documents witnessed and notarized by my S1 (admin) officer. She was not a notary public and cited some UCMJ or USC when she signed it.
If you can get your unit to purchase the Notary tool an officer can in fact serve as a Notary.
When I did my trust I was fortunate to have a JAG that was a big gun guy. He had one of his CPTs go through it line by line (after studying up on trust law for a week) and make sure that it was legally sound. Some 14 transfers later no issues…
The big questions is what to do when you move then want to do a Form 1 at a new address. I have been told that you just need to amend the trust to state your new address. I guess that means you would have some lowers with say a FT Stewart engraving and some with say a FT Hood. Anyone know the answer to this?
Please share with us where this came from? Never heard of it either. I have also looked at some of your other posts and you have made a few other questionable statements. Hopefully your screen name doesn’t indicate that you are involved in the legal profession.
I have known a few Soldiers to be denied a clearance due to a mountain of debt. A trust is a legal document similar to a will (but different). It would have no bearing on an investigation.
A trust will not affect you background investigation for a security clearance no matter what level. A trust is a trust. It isn’t credit and it isn’t a business. One of the reasons having a trust for NFA items is so great.
I talked to my investigator last week about this question. He said having a trust doesn’t mean squat.
For my trust, I have my home, permanent address listed. I don’t see an issue with your method. Although, if you can prove that you have a permanent address or home of record other than where you’re stationed, I would venture to guess that it may be acceptable to put your permanent residence. That would be something I would follow up with, however. It’s better to be sure than sorry.
With as many active military people that are active firearms enthusiasts, I would like to think that there would be consideration for our situation, with the fact that we move every couple of years. I’ve never had a “physical address” for my unit either, only a mailing address. I don’t understand how a firearm could be registered to a non-physical address. In my mind, that would be like manufacturing a firearm out of a P.O. Box, with the way the military mailing system works.
ETA If only for comic value, it would be somewhat humorous to pull someone’s leg if they noticed where the gun was “manufactured”, especially for Marines at Quantico, or Soldiers at Ft. Benning.
I’m not sure that folks realize just how restrictive the military environment is when it comes to privately-owned firearms. Possession, registration storage and transportation are all significant problems for those on active duty, and you’re subject not only to state law, but to the full force of federal law and military regulations while on an active installation. Even in cases where an effort is made to extend opportunities through rod and gun clubs, you still have to deal with a dizzying array of often contradictory (or just plain illogical) restrictions and local policies. Depending upon the PMO, you might also be dealing with somewhat overzealous enforcement of same, to say nothing of the problems you might have at the unit level, should a question ever arise.
Where NFA law is concerned, you can usually find a way to thread the legal needle if you are dilligent about researching the law and keeping up with your paperwork. I was an NFA owner living on Fort Bragg for the better part of a decade; that said, I was also married and living in quarters. Things become much more difficult, if not impossible, when you are living in the barracks, living off-post but trying to use on-post shooting facilities or moving to an overseas posting – pretty much regardless of where it is. I spent the better part of another decade overseas, with no access to my “black rifles” whatsoever.
I suppose the great irony in all of this, is that, of all of the places I go in the course of a given week, I am probably most vulnerable while on a military installation, and in the wake of recent events, the laws and policy restrictions dealing with private arms have only gotten worse. To get back onto the NFA question, however, I found that taking transfers to my Home Of Record, and then subsequently filing to move the weapons to my state of residence (wherever I happened to be PCS’ed to) worked well, provided (a) I was careful about the law, and (b) stationed in an NFA-friendly state. Obviously, BATFE would not knowingly approve move paperwork to a state which restricted ownership, and the associated “rub” in all of this is that you generally don’t get a lot of say into where you are moving every 36 months, so you can still end up spending years at a time with your weapons under lock and key (be careful about these storage requirements, too) back in your Home Of Record.
Welcome to the world of the United States military where, when we want you to have a weapon, we will hand you one. If the situation is dire enough, we might even give you some ammunition. =]
Sorry been out of country. I remember one of the questions asks you personally if you have a trust. It is in the financial section. I had to fill out a (Think) SF86 for some SCIF access and remember it on it. It caught my attention because I was working on my trust at the time. It was part of CIV background checks also. Not trying to enable the anal retentive but just passing out some FYI. Information off the internet is worth what you paid for it.
I 100% completely agree with your statement. I don’t mean to open a can of worms here, but also, along the lines of concealed carry. Civilian LEOs are afforded the opportunity to concealed carry off duty, some departments even require it. Now, at least with the Marine Corps, all MP’s are getting credentials, including a .mil concealed weapons permit. I think it is a step in the right direction, the only dilemma is whether we carry our duty weapon, or a personal, and where we are supposed to store it, considering the Marine Corps’ policy on personally owned firearms and the barracks. I personally don’t want to try to conceal a full size Beretta.
Back on topic though, I think that with the advent of shooting sports becoming more mainstream and more widely accepted as legitimate sports, the Marine Corps (and hopefully the DoD) is going to reevaluate it’s stance on personal firearms. The two Fort Hood incidents, the shooting and the one that was diverted, are two black eyes that are ammunition that can go either way. An individual that was lawfully carrying a personal weapon may have been able to stop the shooter before he had the chance to gun down innocents, but on the flip side, with the head shed’s infinite amount of irrational logic, the restriction on firearms on-base as a whole “should” be a reasonable deterrent.
In the times we live in, “banning” firearms only takes away the rights of the law-abiding, trained individuals, and leaves them in the hands of the crazies and the criminals. I personally don’t want my NFA weapons being left back in Texas, only supervised by my father, who spends most of his time away from the house, or my step-mother, who is a tiny little petite thing that probably wouldn’t know how to defend the house if she tried (that’s changing here shortly).
I understand that certain states aren’t NFA friendly, but if a service member is stationed in one of these states that has commie laws, at least make some sort of arrangement to allow the person to store the weapons safely and securely where they can be monitored. A Federal institution falls under Federal law long before it falls under State provisions. I feel that there should be some consideration in that aspect.
I didn’t mean to get into that much of a tangent, but I completely agree with what you were saying, and certain considerations should be made available. I wish more young service members knew their rights and would contact their Senator, or request mast and bring up these issues to the headquarters command elements. Personally, if I was in the position to make a decision like this, I would rather give my Marines a safe place to store their weapons than have them get ripped off from 1000’s of miles away and end up in prison because they weren’t afforded an opportunity to keep their weapons as closely guarded as we both know that we all want to, especially when it comes to NFA.
I’m about to PCS to a non-NFA friendly state. There is an NFA friendly state bordering my new duty station. I have a friend who lives in the NFA friendly state. Is it legal to store them at his house provided they are under lock and key and the 5320 paperwork is filled out?