FFLGuard Provides Service to Educate and Support Class III Retailers and Enthusiasts
OutdoorHub 06.21.12
FFLGuard, the firearms industry’s premier legal compliance services program, has been educating and defending federal firearms licensees since 2008. Participants gain helpful, apolitical legal advice in the form of tips and hints that serve as the cornerstone of the FFLGuard program. FFLGuard has established itself as the ‘gold-standard’ in firearms compliance, legal training and defense. The program offers a multitude of Additional Services so that retailers gain customized support to address any specific firearms concerns they might have.
One of these Additional Services is the NFA-Legal Service Plan (“LSP”), an option afforded to clients who already pay a yearly fee to participate in the FFLGuard program. The NFA-LSP is uniquely tailored to deliver legal advice to retail business owners, who have, or are interested in obtaining, their SOT license. Clients and end-consumers gain an understanding of the legal processes to easily own, transfer and possess Class III products. To add value to the NFA-LSP program, participants are furnished a companion piece to FFLGuard’s “Law Plus Guidelines” related solely to NFA products and sales. Presentation materials provide additional retail support by educating both the retailers and their end-consumers on the benefits of NFA Trusts as a legally-sound and practical way to purchase Class III products. Also included are discounted trust formation certificates and end-consumer certificates good for the formation of NFA trusts.
Christopher Chiafullo, Attorney and founder of the FFLGuard program, is FFLGuard’s National Coordinating Counsel and Director of Special Operations. By working with other professionals, subject matter experts and firearms-specific counsel, Chiafullo delivers this unique FFLGuard program nationwide, affording cost-effective compliance solutions to over 300 FFL’s in 38 states. Chiafullo, states, “If we can make our clientscomfortable with the legal nuances of selling Class III items – by both teaching our heightened compliance techniques to clients and standing behind them while they learn – we then are simultaneously promoting firearms sales across not only different markets but different products, which makes everyone happy.”
Each year a licensed firearms retailer may easily make an addition to his Federal Firearms License (FFL) that will allow them to add silencers and any other items regulated by the National Firearms Act into their business plan. A firearms retailer who holds a type 1, type 7 or type 8 FFL may become an NFA retailer by paying the Special Occupational Tax (SOT) and filling ATF Form 5630.7 to receive a tax stamp from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (“BATFE”). As a reminder to interested parties and current SOT holders, the tax year runs from July 1 through June 30 and the BATFE form is due on or before July 1st each year.
For more information on the FFLGuard program and any of its Additional Services, visit www.fflguard.com or call 1-888-FFL-GRD1 (1-888-335-4731), follow them on Twitter @FFLGuard, or “like” them at www.facebook.com/fflguard.
