Just the responsible party. Not everyone. A process identical to the FFL system. An FFL can have 100 employees, but must have one or more responsible parties.

Doing a NICS check on pick up is problematic. ATF's guidance on the actual 4473 says "No NICS check was required because the transfer involved only National Firearms Act firearm(s)." in Box 22. ATF added in the NICS check for corporations thing in 12.6.1 in the NFA Handbook some time ago. Now, the written statement thing (affadavit) has been in place for a long time and is something that most FFL's forget to do. That's why I talked about it in our newsletter. It's part of the regulations.

But the NICS check thing: "The FFL must also initiate a background check of the individual under the Brady Law. 193" Footnote 193 refers to 5300.4 (Federal Firearms Regulations Reference Guide 2005), page 195, Question P60 as justification for this requirement. A couple of things...


  1. Question P59, just before it: "Is a NICS check required for the sale of firearms registered under the National Firearms Act (NFA)? No, assuming all NFA requirements have been satisfied. 18 USC 922(t), 27 CFR 478.102(d)"
  2. Question P60 asks: "An organization without a firearms license wishes to acquire a firearm from a licensee for the purpose of raffling the firearms at an event. How does the licensee comply with the Brady law?" P60 does not have anything to do with an NFA NICS question!
  3. The 4473 *still* confirms and corroborates the no NICS check requirement of P59.


This is very concerning on a number of fronts! There are at least two places where it is *confirmed* that no NICS check is required for an approved NFA transfer (the 4473 and 5300.4 P59) and the reference in the NFA Handbook refers to a QA involving raffling a Title I firearm.

Most conscientious FFL's have actually been doing the NICS check as a matter of course, even though there appears to be a great deal of conflicting information promulgated by ATF and no actual regulations in place. This is troubling because, technically, the Handbook is juts guidance, not regulation.