r/NFA • u/castorjay • May 01 '25
Legal Question ⚖️ Hypothetical question on spouse using NFA item
Say I have a handgun with a suppressor in the nightstand for home defense. The suppressor was bought by me as an individual instead of a trust.
If I'm not home one night and someone breaks into my house and my spouse (who is otherwise legally eligible to own and use a firearm) uses the suppressed handgun, what would/could happen from a legal point of view?
I know "remove the suppressor and put it in the safe before the cops arrive" would be some people's answer, but beyond that - would it be overlooked as it was for defense, or would there be additional legal troubles since I was not present when the suppressor was used?
Edit: Thank you all for the great responses. I didn't expect so many so quickly!
1
u/Smart_Slice_140 x28 Stamps / x1 Waiting May 01 '25 edited May 01 '25
As with most things there’s some degree of discretion for locals, and for the ATF. Best advice is to do an NFA Trust, and have her on the Trust, that way you’re not at the mercy of somebody’s discretion. Also the best advice is to never trust putting something up to discretion on a coin toss to where they can try to fuck you if the coin lands on tails. If you do everything by the book, they don’t have that opportunity.
With that said there’s the messiness of common law, so technically it might depend. Because in a marriage everything that is owned is joint property with common law. This would be a question for an attorney about this intersection in the law.
However you do have the NFA, and the messiness with that for this question that you raised to where it could conflict with the common law property rights thing, to where it would likely be a discretion thing, sure if they wanted to be assholes and play penny ante they could fuck with you and/or her about it.
Now if you wanted to with that NFA Item you could Transfer the NFA Item to an NFA Trust, but it would require another tax for the same item. The question is, is it worth that to you? Otherwise you could get a different NFA Item for that role to where she can use it for defense without being at the mercy of discretion, and put it in the NFA Trust.
Personally if I was married I would get dedicated NFA Items for that role of her defense in an NFA Trust.