[UPDATE: Another reason to have a gun trust: This memo warns that gun owners using a common revocable joint living trust may be at even more risk of incurring criminal liability.]
Although gun trusts are now a popular means of obtaining Title II weapons (machine guns, short-barreled long guns, etc.), they offer important protection for families owning guns of ALL types, from the most humble handgun or shotgun to the most extensive collection and dynastic family armory.
How many attorneys will ask whether a beneficiary (or trustee, or agent under power of attorney) is a non-resident alien or renounced US citizenship, or is under a restraining order, or mentally defective, or convicted of a felony or misdemeanor domestic violence, or is a dishonorably discharged vet, or uses medical marijuana or another banned drug?
Prevent “Accidental Felony”
What kind of legacy do you want to leave to your family? Certainly not a legacy of prison time! Yet if a firearm is transferred to a “prohibited person” under state or federal law, that is exactly what could happen—not only to the ben-eficiary but to the transferring trustee as well, or perhaps other fiduciaries such as agents under a power of attorney. The transfer of a firearm differs from the transfer of, say, a stock certificate, and failing to follow the rules can potentially lead to an unintentional “accidental” felony along with serious prison time, stiff monetary penalties, and steep legal bills. Will the surviving spouse know about these risks?
Don’t Play Telephone with Your Descendants
Given the near unanimity in how the Founders viewed the right and DUTY to bear arms as essential to the American concept of ordered liberty—more than a doomsday provision under the Constitution, more than balance of power, it was a daily sacrament maintaining the dignity and character of a free people trained to bearing arms and worthy of that Constitution—it is shocking how quickly the militia ethic died out. By the War of 1812, it was obvious the militia system had problems of laziness, drunkenness, absenteeism and lack of discipline. Values tend to dilute over time, and the Founders failed to pass on their militia ethic.
Your family can succeed where the Founders failed. Set your values down in writing with a family constitution incentivizing values such as firearms training, competition, daily carry and instructional activity. A gun trust, with limited assets set up as one component of your overall plan, can be the perfect incentive trust.
These are just a couple of the reasons why every gun owner needs a gun trust.
Get started now at: http://OrangeCountyLivingTrust.com
[Click here for examples of kids using guns to defend themselves and their families.]
