NFA legality issues

The thing to remember about NFA is that it isn't really a gun law. It's tax code.

It doesn't address things like who can or cannot have things, just how the transfers and taxes are dealt with and what things are included.

From a Federal standpoint if you are able to possess a standard Title 1 firearm you can possess NFA tax paid firearms.

That is contained in 27 CFR 478.32

The part dealing with aliens says prohibited persons are:

(5) Being an alien —
(i) Is illegally or unlawfully in the
United States; or
(ii) Except as provided in paragraph
(f) of this section, is a nonimmigrant
alien

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(f) says this, but I've never heard of anyone doing this:

(f) Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. 922(y)(3), any
nonimmigrant alien may receive a waiver
from the prohibition contained in paragraph
(a)(5)(ii) of this section, if the Attorney
General approves a petition for the
waiver.

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So it doesn't appear there are any restrictions other than those (not a lawyer blah blah)

http://www.atf.gov/pub/fire-explo_pub/2005/p53004/27cfr_part478.pdf


http://www.atf.gov/pub/fire-explo_pub/2005/p53004/26usc_chap53.pdf

If you can buy a pistol from a dealer, you can buy NFA from a dealer.

Kharn

Notice how the citizenship field has already been completed with U.S.A.

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That's an example on a non government web page. The actual form from ATF is not pre-filled.

You will notice that the form asks for a lot of other information if you are NOT a citizen.

That is not a "citizenship form", it's a form verifying compliance with 18.922 g5b

USC 18.922 g5b:

(5) who, being an alien—
(A) is illegally or unlawfully in the United States; or
(B) except as provided in subsection (y)(2), has been admitted to the United States under a nonimmigrant visa (as that term is defined in section 101(a)(26) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 (a)(26)));

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So again, unless you a person who is on a non-immigrant Visa or here illegally there is no problem. That's what the form certifies.

And, even if one IS on a non-immigrant Visa one can get a firearm if here for hunting. That's the exception mentioned above as "(y)(2)"


That is also the old version of the form.

Here is a link to the current form, not pre filled out:

http://www.atf.gov/forms/pdfs/f533020.pdf

When registering a NFA item with the BATFE as an individual, the 'citizenship certification form' must be completed.

Here is a link to the form:
http://www.titleii.com/pdf/5330-20.pdf

Notice how the citizenship field has already been completed with U.S.A.

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Yes, what TexasRifleman said. I simply completed that form with "United States of America" when I put it up on TitleII.com a few years ago because the vast majority of the folks completing that form are US citizens. I really should delete the old forms, but every once in a while receive a request for an older form. So I just leave them in the directory and update the links. The old links are generally still active.

Also, if you visit the forms page at TitleII.com (http://www.titleii.com/TitleII.com/Forms.html), you'll see that the link to the 5330.20 points to the ATF website. For years ATF did not have the embedded form fields, so I created them and put them up at TitleII.com. Within the last few years they have started to host forms with embedded fields (thus, putting me out of work and causing my $2,000,000 annual empire to crumble...) so I simply link from TitleII.com to their form if it is current and has embedded fields.

danbrew