Team member prebans, who has dealt with this issue several times, posted this great plan of attack, for anyone who is ever in this situation. (Thanks, Mike!):

The usual LE or museum response is to register any MG with an unknown history that they come across on a Form 10.

DO NOT EVER USE A FORM 10 FOR ANYTHING.

There are two reasons for this:

1. Once on a Form 10, that gun is 100% completely and totally NON-transferable. I know of one case where a .410 H&R Handy Gun was put on a Form 10 once it was donated to a PD. Guess what papers we found THREE WEEKS LATER? Yup, the original 1968 amnesty registration paperwork.

Yes, thank God that it wasn't a machine gun. But still, a formerly transferable piece of history is now even more restricted than a post-86 DS MG.

2. A Form 10 is for registration BY the PD. Non-PD use of the form isn't legitimate. Furthermore, since it's the form used to register an otherwise contraband firearm, you're essentially admitting to the feds that you have a contraband firearm. It is generally poor practice to admit to a federal law enforcement agency that you're in violation of any law, much less a felony-level law.

Okay, moving away from the F10, anybody who finds themselves in possession of a potentially undocumented firearm is in a legally precarious situation. I am NOT an attorney, nor do I claim to be one. This is not legal advice.

So what am I? I am a SOT who hates seeing history destroyed, restricted through F10 registration, or simply driven underground unnecessarily.

Let me say this a second time: It's not proper for me to offer legal advice because I am not an attorney.

This is what many of my clients have done:

1. They put the firearm away. It doesn't go out, doesn't go to shoots, and nobody is told about the firearm or firearms' existence.

2. They search through each sheet of paper, under every rock, behind every drawer (TWO sets of papers were found behind or under drawers in old dressers), etc. Remember that registration forms are tax papers. Many folks filed them with their old taxes, not with their gun stuff. So don't just dump your deceased relatives' ancient taxes! Search, search, SEARCH. Treat this like looking for a lost winning lottery ticket. In a way, it IS–– find papers and suddenly a weird questionable gun becomes very, very valuable.

3. The search continues. This search part is put in twice because my previous clients spent twice the time searching. They tore into that attic, the garage, and through every individual file in every file cabinet, in every sock and junk drawer... THEY SPENT GREAT TIME AND TOOK GREAT CARE.

One other point- while it's helpful to look for a strange "stamped" legal document, NOT EVERYTHING WAS STAMPED. Your relative may have papered that gun as a DEWAT, or "deactivated war trophy." Those transfer TAX FREE. No tax means no stamp. Or, if it was live, it could have been papered during the 1968 Amnesty. I don't believe that those 1968 amnesty forms had stamps either. Finally, the old stamp may have fallen off over time. So while it is helpful to "look for a form with a stamp," you and your well-meaning helpers could inadvertently toss the registration papers aside because they are unstamped. This is going to take TIME. My successful clients STOPPED, READ, AND ANALYZED EVERYTHING.

4. Okay, so no papers? And you've searched? REALLY searched? Like looking for a misplaced winning lottery ticket searched? The next step most people take is to contact a helpful SOT and/or a NFA-FRIENDLY attorney. Look, there are plenty of attorneys out there. Too many! You do NOT want to pick an attorney who just wants rid of the firearm or, worse yet, an anti-freedom anti-firearm attorney. A friendly SOT may be able to give recommendations. Or ask on firearms-friendly web boards. My clients had no need to tell the whole story–– they just asked for a "gun friendly attorney - bonus for one who is into NFA/Class III or knows more about that." With any luck, you'll get to meet one who even has a few NFA items of their own! Any how, once you get to meet with the attorney or that friendly SOT (do NOT take the firearm to their office!), folks fully explain the situation. They ask that attorney or that friendly SOT to help contact ATF to determine if the firearm is papered. FAMILIES NEVER DO THE CONTACTING THEMSELVES.

The friendly SOT and/or attorney will call ATF's NFA Branch. They will give the firearm's make, model, type (MG, SBR, DD, etc.) AND COMPLETE SERIAL NUMBER. ATF will punch this into their computer. If it's registered, hooray! If not, there's a problem.

5. Assuming the firearm is NOT registered, wise families repeat steps #2 and #3. ATF lost plenty of registrations over the years. Should the family find the paperwork, they can prove that it's registered, fix the registry, and life is good. If there's still no paperwork (and the family really, REALLY put your heart and soul into #2 and #3), the firearm is contraband. Contraband can be donated to an acceptable museum or government entity. Some folks have been able to claim a tax write-off. If no one wants the firearm, most folks completely strip the receiver of all parts. The receiver is then either surrendered, torch-cut, or otherwise destroyed.

6. Families who find paperwork generally have to treat the firearm in accordance with any will. If someone is named in the will, that person gets that firearm tax-free on a Form 5. ATF bends over backwards to help estates with the disposition of legally papered firearms. No, seriously! It's in their (ATF's) best interests to do this to keep the firearm from ending up at a yard sale or sold randomly at a gun show. That said, most families find it in their best interests to keep that SOT handy to assist with the sale, the necessary paperwork, etc. And if nobody is named in a will, the firearm will transfer on a tax-paid Form 4 or, if a DEWAT, on a tax-free Form 5.

I've written more than I expected. Please accept my apologies for the excess verbiage, but hopefully this helps folks down the road. Thank you to everybody who recommended me as a resource. I am grateful that you would trust me enough to recommend me for assistance.

Sincerely,

Mike

Excellent Post.

If the reason that there's no paperwork is that it was never registered, then yes, you must destroy it.

The exception to that rule is that if it was a war bring back with war trophy paperwork signed by the commanding officer. In these cases, even though it is not in the Registry, ATF has in several instances been pursuaded that the signed trophy paperwork constitutes legal permission from the U.S. government to possess the item, and thus should be added to the Registry. This requires hiring a very good attorney, and works only if the present owner is the vet who brought it back, or his direct heirs.

HTH.

If LE can prove you owned it while it was intact, then you are still liable to criminal prosecution.

By request, here are pdfs of some historical forms, to give you an idea what to look for when going through estate papers:

Original 1934 registration form.

Original 1938 form

1961 Form 1

1965 Form 1

pre-Form 5 from 1969

And just for fun: 1946 Notice to Returning Veterans

I'm guessing that about 15% of attic guns were once legal, and could be again.

Most came back from wars -- World Wars 1 and 2, Korea, Vietnam.

The World War 1 guns were legal to bring back, because the National Firearms Act was not passed until 1934.

World War 2 bring backs fall into two crucially different categories: Those which have "capture papers" signed by a superior officer, permitting the GIs to bring them home; and those possessed by GIs whose superiors would not sign, so instead they were sent/brought back with no paperwork (a.k.a. "duffle bag" guns). The former are lawful and can be entered into the NFA Registry today if owned by the GI or his descendants; duffle bag guns never were legal, and remain contraband today.

Korea and Vietnam bring backs are all duffle bag guns: U.S. military policy since WWII has been to prohibit trophy capture guns from being returned to the U.S.

There were two amnesty periods when GIs could register duffle bag guns: When the NFA was initially passed in 1934, and when the Gun Control Act was passed in 1968. Each was brief -- a period of a few months -- and many GIs never heard about them until it was too late. Others heard, but were afraid that .gov would take them away eventually, so they did not register them.

Today, it is to late for duffle bag guns.

This is a thread in the NFA forum, about machine guns. It has nothing to do with Title 1 firearms, and thus the only bringback guns I was referring to were NFA items, primarily machine guns.

The federal government, and most states, do not require the registration of Title 1 firearms, and thus they are of no concern in this forum or this thread.

With official capture papers, it is possible that it can be added to the Registry and be transferable.

But there is no official procedure, and I've never heard of an individual accomplishing it without hiring an NFA-savvy attorney. Of course, with the value of transferable machine guns today, you will still come out far ahead after paying the lawyer's fees.