An NFA trust client of mine recently contacted me to ask whether or not he had to register his SBR with the Commonwealth once he received his approved Form 1 and tax stamp.
He reported that he had posed the question to several Virginia State Police troopers and had received conflicting answers.
One of the troopers had informed him that all NFA items had to be registered with the Commonwealth as well as with ATF. The other had said that only machine guns had to be registered with the Commonwealth.
My client, law-abiding citizen that he is, wanted to make sure that he was fully complying with the law.
So what is the answer?
The Commonwealth of Virginia only requires that machine guns be registered with the state. All other NFA items may be possessed so long as they are owned in accordance with the NFA, the GCA, and any other applicable federal laws and regulations.
§ 18.2-295. Registration of machine guns.
Every machine gun in this Commonwealth shall be registered with the Department of State Police within twenty-four hours after its acquisition or, in the case of semi-automatic weapons which are converted, modified or otherwise altered to become machine guns, within twenty-four hours of the conversion, modification or alteration. Blanks for registration shall be prepared by the Superintendent of State Police, and furnished upon application. To comply with this section the application as filed shall be notarized and shall show the model and serial number of the gun, the name, address and occupation of the person in possession, and from whom and the purpose for which, the gun was acquired or altered. The Superintendent of State Police shall upon registration required in this section forthwith furnish the registrant with a certificate of registration, which shall be valid as long as the registrant remains the same. Certificates of registration shall be retained by the registrant and produced by him upon demand by any peace officer. Failure to keep or produce such certificate for inspection shall be a Class 3 misdemeanor, and any peace officer, may without warrant, seize the machine gun and apply for its confiscation as provided in § 18.2-296. Upon transferring a registered machine gun, the transferor shall forthwith notify the Superintendent in writing, setting forth the date of transfer and name and address of the transferee. Failure to give the required notification shall constitute a Class 3 misdemeanor. Registration data shall not be subject to inspection by the public.
