Obama did this via E/O or at least this was procedural correct? Would be nice if our President who undid everything else his predecessor did would undo this as well. Not holding my breath on that though.
41F was actually an overall improvement in the process. Prior to 41F, individuals needed permission from their local law enforcement to buy a NFA item. If you lived in a place where the CLEO’s wouldn’t give permission, you were forced to use a trust or corporation.
Yes, and "NFA trusts" were devised as a workaround for non-signing CLEO's. Before that, gun trusts were unheard of.
Absolutely. Removing the CLEO permission was a huge improvement. Of course, by the time this change came about, a lot of people had a vested interest in what I would call the "trust industry." And there was inertia among rank-and-file gun buyers, who had come to see these trusts as normal. That's why there was so much blowback to 41F, which IMO was unjustified.
To be fair, much of the blowback was to the initial stages of the proposed 41P, which sought to require trusts and corporations to follow the same requirements as individuals did at the time. And that would mean no more NFA items for anyone who couldn’t get a CLEO sign-off (like most of WA state, where I lived at the time). Trusts would no longer be a workaround.
