What Happens To My Guns When I Die?

What Happens To My Guns When I Die? What happens to your firearms if they're not in your last will and testament? What if you die intestate (without a will) How do you keep heirlooms in the family for generations to come? Are your guns safe in your estate? Do you have to transfer guns before you die? The Armed Attorneys explain the steps you can take to leave your firearms to your loved ones.

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PARTIAL AUTO TRANSCRIPT

Today we're talking about what happens to your guns when you die … to kick off our conversation Emily what firearms are considered part of your estate yeah so we're talking about here your firearms that are not community property in your firearms they're not held in trust so for the purpose of this discussion we are not talking about NFA items here we are talking about everything else that is not community property and so when we see the distribution of assets it really falls into two big buckets that's either if you die with a will and the the courts are going to administer that will or dying without a will what's called dying intestate and that kind of leaves it up to the government of how your property is distributed now if you want someone specifically to get your guns obviously you're going to have to execute a will and direct the court hey these are my these are my wishes this is how i want my property to be distributed now we have this kind of important federal law and what does that say Emily yeah so and interestingly enough your firearms that pass through your estate are exempted from the general federal transfer laws so we're not worried about interstate transfers here we're not worried about 4473s background checks as far as federal law is concerned and now of course states can get more restrictive here but as far as federal law is concerned these pass like any of the rest of your it passes like your microwave and your coffee table i mean it is it is the same thing so really what we need to worry about and of course state-by-state basis so you know if you're in California or Massachusetts or New York or new jersey you know this is not directed at you but generally for most of us what we have to worry about is is the person i'm leaving this to prohibited or maybe do they live in one of those restrictive states can they own it there do you want to elaborate on that yes and so what we're talking about is 27 CFR 478.30 and that's saying that hey these firearms can pass in the customary manner but that's not the end of the story if the firearm is prohibited in the state where you know the beneficiary lives let's say i live in the state of California they have all kinds of restrictions i may not be allowed to inherit that gun or take possession of it and the same thing goes for let's say you know you live in maybe not a restrictive state but you're a prohibited person let's say i lived in the state of Texas but i have a felony conviction well then obviously under federal law i wouldn't be allowed to possess … pro tip of the day and how we make sure the firearms we want to give to somebody you know it's a it's a family heirloom you want it to stay in the family how do they get it Emily yeah so the best way is in that will to make a special bequest so you want to make sure that the firearm that you're talking about make model and serial number is specifically bequeathed to the person you want it to go to and why is this important because when you make a special bequest those items are some of the last items to be liquidated to pay the debts of your estate so if you let your firearms pass in with just you know the rest you know all of my possessions to richard well those firearms might be liquidated to pay my estate's debts whereas if i specifically bequeath those guns they are some of the last things to be liquidated they're far more likely to make it to their intended destination …

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