Firearms Industry Consulting Group to fight ATF 41P

Firearms Industry Consulting Group (FICG), a division of Prince Law Offices, P.C., recently launched a new website in order to draw awareness to the BATFE's pending implementation of ATF 41P. With it they're also endeavoring to raise money to fund litigation seeking to overturn any final rule promulgated by ATF.

If you have any skin in the NFA game and acquire your silencers, machine guns, SBRs, AOWs or other goodies via Trust, LLC or corporation you may want to start paying attention.

 What is ATF 41P?
ATF 41P is a proposed rule which seeks to designate any person who could control a legal entity (trust, corporation, LLC, partnership, etc.) as a Responsible Person and would require those Responsible Persons to submit fingerprints, photographs, and obtain the Chief Law Enforcement Officer (CLEO) signature with any application submitted to the National Firearms Act (NFA) Branch.

It has not been specified whether Responsible Persons will be one person or every person named in the legal entity. Certain entities that span numerous jurisdictions, be they cities, counties or states, may find themselves having trouble obtaining signatures because many CLEOs flat out refuse to sign applications.

According to FICG, this will equate to a de facto ban for people in those affected areas.

The Fallacy of the CLEO Signature
The NFA became law in 1934. During that time period, communities were more tightly knit, and the Chief Law Enforcement Officer was likely to know if an individual was a problem or a criminal in the community. The only way of conducting an effective background check in the 1930s was to ask local law enforcement (at that time, all law enforcement in the United States was local) if the applicant was a law abiding citizen. Even with the introduction of the NICS System (which is plagued by its own problems) the CLEO signature requirement lives on.

Despite state legislatures passing “shall sign” legislation, not all CLEOs abide by the law. Some of the CLEOs refuse to sign forms because they are anti-gun, others due to fear and others because they don’t wish to be potentially liable for an individual using an NFA firearm in an unlawful manner.

This is the first I have heard of it, why wasn’t I told?
As with any proposed federal rule change, there was a comment period and FICG spearheaded the opposition to ATF 41P at that time. FICG first declared September 3, 2013 as NFA Day of Reckoning which was a success. Shortly thereafter, Americans Opposed to ATF 41P was started.

Two comments were filed by FICG during the rule making process. FICG’s initial comment was the largest and most comprehensive in the docket, exceeding 500 pages. The supplemental comment was an additional 60+ pages. Attorney David Goldman of www.guntrustlawer.com retained FICG to draft a comment to be filed on his behalf. During the comment period, FICG published almost three dozen blog articles on ATF 41P, the comment period, and ATF’s actions post-comment period.

According to Adam Kraut, Esq. of Prince Law Offices, P.C./Firearms Industry Consulting Group, the pro-bono work in those 500 + pages amounted to over 400 hours. That's the low six-figures in legal fees had there been a price tag placed on this kind of work!

So what now?
Litigating a case against the United States Government is complex and requires competent counsel, who are versed in Administrative Law as well as firearms law. FICG’s attorneys dedicate, concentrate and focus their practice around the Second Amendment. Additionally, Attorney Tom Odom worked for ten years in the District of Columbia handling administrative and regulatory matters, until becoming a Law Professor, where he taught Administrative and Constitutional Law and published three books on federal constitutional law.

FICG is currently reaching out to industry members to help bring the fight to ATF, but they need help from more importantly, people like yourself to show ATF that we will not tolerate its overreach and violations of the U.S. Constitution and Administrative Law.

For more information visit the following sites:

http://www.FightATF41p.com
https://www.facebook.com/firearmsindustryconsulting
https://www.facebook.com/ATF41P

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