The UMGA has been enacted in seven states including Viriginia, where a recent Attorney General's advisory opinion erroneously created confusion about registration of machine guns by trusts. Based on our analysis, trusts may continue registering machine guns, and we will be working with Virginia State Police to ensure their compliance standards are clear and communicated to our clients.  Machine gun collectors across America should take note of these development. Similar confusion could arise elsewhere due to the wording of the UMGA. In this case, fortunately, Virginia law and Virginia State Police policies should provide clarity. To avoid confusion in the future, we proposed legislation to Virginia Delegate David LaRock (33rd District) to introduce legislation to make machine gun registrations by trusts unambiguously valid. The other UMGA states, Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland, Montana, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, should pursue similar reforms. Pictured are Virginia Delegate LaRock and Arsenal Attorneys' Matthew Bergstrom meeting at the Virginia State Capitol to discuss these issues.

Read our discussion of these issues and HB 1266 at this link.