Trust or no trust?
This is an evolving conversation. As it will deal with legal matters, the decision to establish a trust or not can often be daunting. This is where many would-be silencer owners get flummoxed and walk away.
You have two primary choices for how to initiate a purchase: as an individual or as a legal trust. The main considerations here relate to how you intend to use the silencer and what happens to it, legally, upon your ultimate demise.
As an individual, you can buy and use a suppressor, travel with it (where doing so is legal)—everything you’d expect as an owner. As the registered owner, though, you have limitations on who else can possess the silencer. You can’t loan your suppressor to a
friend or relative unless you are there to accompany it. And—no way around the morbidity of this topic—when you pass, your estate will have a headache to deal with even if you have a named beneficiary.
Registering as a trust allows you to add others to the trust. These other people can possess and use the can at your discretion. And you can name, in your trust documents, who the silencer (and trust) will pass to when that time eventually comes.
Silencers can also be registered to corporations. This is another tier of paperwork that isn’t available to those who aren’t already affiliated with an incorporated business entity.
This is a much longer conversation, of course, and one that is best begun by casual research like this. Do your due diligence. When in doubt, seek expert advice.
