Updated August 26, 2026. Quick answer: a gun trust does not spare anyone a background check, and since ATF rule 41F took effect it has not even spared them the fingerprints. The regulation reaches through the trust: every responsible person files their own form, their own photograph and their own two fingerprint cards, and notifies their own local police chief. The one person the rule may leave out is a beneficiary with no power over the firearm — and that exclusion is also the reason a beneficiary is not a lawful possessor.
Who is a responsible person
The definition sits in the regulation’s own dictionary at 27 C.F.R. §479.11, and the first thing to read there is not the responsible-person entry at all — it is the entry for person, which is what makes the rest of it bite: “Person. A partnership, company, association, trust, corporation, including each responsible person associated with such an entity; an estate; or an individual.”
So the trust is the applicant, and each responsible person is part of who the applicant is. The definition itself: “In the case of an unlicensed entity, including any trust, partnership, association, company (including any Limited Liability Company (LLC)), or corporation, any individual who possesses, directly or indirectly, the power or authority to direct the management and policies of the trust or entity to receive, possess, ship, transport, deliver, transfer, or otherwise dispose of a firearm for, or on behalf of, the trust or legal entity. In the case of a trust, those persons with the power or authority to direct the management and policies of the trust include any person who has the capability to exercise such power and possesses, directly or indirectly, the power or authority under any trust instrument, or under State law, to receive, possess, ship, transport, deliver, transfer, or otherwise dispose of a firearm for, or on behalf of, the trust.”
The regulation then names them: “Examples of who may be considered a responsible person include settlors/grantors, trustees, partners, members, officers, directors, board members, or owners.”
Two things follow that trip people up. A settlor or grantor is on that list, so the person who created the trust is a responsible person even if they never intend to touch the item. And the test is capability, not title: the definition reaches anyone with the power — under the trust instrument or under State law — to direct the trust’s firearms. Naming someone a co-trustee for convenience is not a paperwork-free act.
The one person who may be left out
The regulation supplies exactly one worked exclusion: “An example of who may be excluded from this definition of responsible person is the beneficiary of a trust, if the beneficiary does not have the capability to exercise the powers or authorities enumerated in this section.”
Read the condition, because it is the whole trade-off. A beneficiary is outside the definition only if they cannot exercise the powers the section enumerates — which are the powers to receive, possess, ship, transport, deliver, transfer or dispose of the firearm. A beneficiary who cannot do those things files nothing. A beneficiary who cannot do those things also cannot lawfully hold the item. You do not get both.
What each responsible person files
The making side is 27 C.F.R. §479.63(b) and the transfer side is §479.85(b). The two read almost identically, and both attach to the entity’s application:
| Attachment | How many | What the regulation says |
|---|---|---|
| Entity documents | one set | “Documentation evidencing the existence and validity of the entity, which includes complete and unredacted copies of partnership agreements, articles of incorporation, corporate registration, and declarations of trust, with any trust schedules, attachments, exhibits, and enclosures” |
| ATF Form 5320.23 | one per responsible person | “A completed ATF Form 5320.23 for each responsible person. Form 5320.23 requires certain identifying information, including each responsible person’s full name, position, home address, date of birth, and country of citizenship if other than the United States” |
| Photograph | one per responsible person | “a 2 x 2-inch photograph of each responsible person, clearly showing a full front view of the features of the responsible person with head bare, with the distance from the top of the head to the point of the chin approximately 1 1/4 inches, and which shall have been taken within 1 year prior to the date of the application” |
| FBI Form FD-258 | two per responsible person | “Two properly completed FBI Forms FD-258 (Fingerprint Card) for each responsible person. The fingerprints must be clear for accurate classification and should be taken by someone properly equipped to take them.” |
The word to notice in the first row is unredacted. The trust instrument goes to ATF whole — every schedule, attachment, exhibit and enclosure. Whatever privacy a trust buys, it is privacy from the probate file, not from the agency.
Which chief law enforcement officer, and whose
Under 27 C.F.R. §479.84(c) for a transfer and §479.62(c) for a making: “Prior to the submission of the application to the Director, all transferees and responsible persons shall forward a completed copy of Form 4 or a completed copy of Form 5320.23, respectively, to the chief law enforcement officer of the locality in which the transferee or responsible person is located.”
“The chief law enforcement officer is the local chief of police, county sheriff, head of the State police, State or local district attorney or prosecutor.” Two consequences. First, this is notification, not permission: nothing in the section asks the officer to sign, approve or reply. Second, responsible persons who live apart notify different officers, because the rule attaches to the locality of each responsible person, while the trust itself is treated as located somewhere else again — “if the transferee is not a licensed manufacturer, importer, or dealer qualified under this part and is a trust, for purposes of this section, it is considered located at the primary location at which the firearm will be maintained.”
The 24-month certification, which is the one published shortcut
Both sections end with the same relief at paragraph (c), and it is rarely mentioned: “If the applicant entity has had an application approved as a maker or transferee within the preceding 24 months, and there has been no change to the documentation previously provided, the entity may provide a certification that the information has not been changed since the prior approval and shall identify the application for which the documentation had been submitted by form number, serial number, and date approved.”
So the fingerprints and photographs are a per-application cost only for a trust that applies rarely. A trust that filed an approved application inside the previous two years, and has not changed, certifies instead — naming the earlier application by form number, serial number and approval date.
What 41F changed, in ATF’s own words and numbers
The rule is Machineguns, Destructive Devices and Certain Other Firearms; Background Checks for Responsible Persons of a Trust or Legal Entity With Respect To Making or Transferring a Firearm, 81 FR 2658 (15 January 2016). Its summary states the whole change in two sentences: “The Department of Justice is amending the regulations of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) regarding the making or transferring of a firearm under the National Firearms Act (NFA). This final rule defines the term “responsible person,” as used in reference to a trust, partnership, association, company, or corporation; requires responsible persons of such trusts or legal entities to complete a specified form and to submit photographs and fingerprints when the trust or legal entity files an application to make an NFA firearm or is listed as the transferee on an application to transfer an NFA firearm; requires that a copy of all applications to make or transfer a firearm, and the specified form for responsible persons, as applicable, be forwarded to the chief law enforcement officer (CLEO) of the locality in which the applicant/transferee or responsible person is located; and eliminates the requirement for a certification signed by the CLEO.”
Two halves, and people usually remember only one. It added the responsible-person background check for trusts and entities, which had not existed. It also removed the old requirement that an individual get a signature from their chief law enforcement officer — a certification some officers simply refused to give, which is why trusts were popular in the first place. “This rule is effective July 13, 2016.”
ATF put a number on the scale of it: “Accordingly, the estimated cost increase per trust or legal entity is $218.71 (cost of increase ($25,333,317) / number of trusts and legal entities (115,829)).” The arithmetic is the agency’s own, and it reproduces — $25,333,317 of increase divided by 115,829 trusts and legal entities is $218.71 per entity, and the 231,658 responsible persons it counted is exactly 2 times that many entities.
What is proposed, and is not law
ATF has proposed removing the CLEO notification entirely: Removing CLEO Notification Under the National Firearms Act, 91 FR 24471 (6 May 2026). It is a proposed rule — the Federal Register types it that way, it carries no effective date, and its comment period closed on 6 July 2026. Until a final rule says otherwise the notification in the section above is still required, and this page will not report a proposal as law.
What this page does not tell you
- How long an application takes. No figure here, because no primary source read for this page publishes a current processing time.
- What a lawyer charges to draft the trust. Not published by any government source either; the cost page says so at length rather than repeating a survey number.
- State law. The responsible-person rule is federal. Whether the item may be possessed at all where you live is a separate question, answered state by state.
- ATF’s own form. Form 5320.23 is described here only as the regulation describes it. atf.gov refuses a scripted request, so the form itself was not read for this page and is not quoted.
Sources
- 27 C.F.R. §479.11, §479.62, §479.63, §479.84, §479.85 — official eCFR, title 27 issue of 2026-08-24.
- Machineguns, Destructive Devices and Certain Other Firearms; Background Checks for Responsible Persons of a Trust or Legal Entity With Respect To Making or Transferring a Firearm, 81 FR 2658 (15 January 2016) — Federal Register full text.
- Removing CLEO Notification Under the National Firearms Act, 91 FR 24471 (6 May 2026) — Federal Register, proposed rule.
Federal statutes read from the Office of the Law Revision Counsel; regulations from the official eCFR and the GPO edition of the Code of Federal Regulations; rules from the Federal Register. General information, not legal advice. State law adds requirements this page does not enumerate, and it varies.