That is partner in the business sense. They are addressing sole proprietor, partnership, corporation, etc. You must have at least one responsible party in an FFL. Somebody who will be... responsible for the FFL's activities. Your FFL employees may or may not fulfill this role and likely will not, so they are not responsible persons, even though they are legally handling weapons and the property of the FFL. The responsible party is on the hook if he/she allows a prohibited person to be an employee...

Part of the stupidity of what the White House proposes in their NPRM is the concept that every party in a trust or corporation is a potential responsible person. That's BS and unworkable. The different components have widely varying levels of responsibility from state to state and in many cases never have a possesory interest. A trust beneficiary could be an 8 year old. The 8 year old certainly has a current contingent financial interest, but in no way has a current possession interest or even the ability to make decisions for the trust...

The state does not administer federal statutes and regulation in the case of FFL's and approving NFA transfers.