Posted: 4/24/2010 12:22:31 PM EDT
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How hard is it to get a SBR in Austin?
Who do I go talk to and who signs the forms? |
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If you have a clean record it is very easy to get a SBR in Austin. The Travis County Sheriff will sign off on SBR F1 applications without issue as long as you pass a local background check which is a bit more stringent than just not being a felon. Thing like DWI, Public Intoxication, misdeamor assault, etc. while not disqualifying you at the federal level "can" preclude you from obtaining a signoff from the Sheriff.
In order to get a sig in Travis you will need to complete the F1 application, attach your pictures to it, bring your fingerprint cards and take it down to the Travid County Sheriff office on Airport Road. You can find the exact address and map via the TCSO website. Once there let the ladies at the front desk know that you are there to drop off ATF paperwork for the Sheriff to sign and they should give you an additional Travis County CLEO sig application form. If they look at you cross-eyed and the receptionist doesnt know what you are talking about tell them you need to get this paperwork to Jessica Sannons. Fill out that local application form and ask to get fingerprinted (it costs $20 last I remember). If they have somebody available to do fingerprinting they will take you in back and you can get your cards rolled. Sometime between a week and a month later the Travis County Sheriff office will contact you and let you know your forms are ready to pick up. That is about it. James Austin, Texas |
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Does having a CHL help speed the process? Having a CHL does not speed up the process that I am aware of. My first sig about 10 years ago was without a CHL and somewhere between the first sig I got many years ago and the 30ish something I am at right now I got a CHL and I noticed no difference in speed. The big thing that helped from a speed perspective was when the former Sheriff (Margo Fraiser) did not run for re-election and Sheriff Hamilton replaced her. I beleive my longest wait was about 6 months with Margo. My understanding on how the process works is that the Sheriff's liason for these requests collects a bunch of paperwork together, performs all the background checks for the new applicants, and enters your application into the Travis County Sheriff database. She then forwards all the approved for sig applications along in "batches" to the Sheriff to sign. Depending upon his schedule he signs them all and gives them back to his administrator of the program to contact and distribe back to the applicants. Depending upon where your application hits the pile you could be waiting under a week or if they just did a batch and you missed the last set than you could be first in line for the next wave to get approved and signed. Running NFA forms is not the program admins primary job and NFA applications are somewhere on the bottom of the TSCO priority totem pole of things to get done. Depending how busy they are, time of year (such as Christmas when they are running Brown Santa and other holiday programs, etc.) than you should be prepared to wait longer. That is just what I have noticed over the years anyway anyway. Quoted:
Out of interest, since im from Austin Tx. Can you get an SBR when on a greencard and a permanent resident? I am not a lawyer so don't take this as gospel.... but it is my understanding that as long as you can "own/purchase" a handgun that you are legal on a Federal Level to register and own a NFA firearem (SBR, MG, etc.). I beleive a green-card holder can purchase firearms if they hold a valid hunting license. I don't know if this just applied to rifles and shotguns or whether this also covers handguns and NFA firearms. You may want to ask over on the Subguns NFA board or the NFA board on this site for more information regarding the legalities of owning an NFA firearm with a greencard as there are more legal-type folks who may be able to help. That said, given the TSCOs higher standard for a CLEO sig on a F1/F4 than what is legally required at the Federal Level you may or may not be able to get them to sign off on the paperwork, even if you are technically legal to own the firearms. Similar as it is legal for an 18 year old to F1 a AR15 into a SBR but I highly doubt that the Travis would sign off for anyone under 21 unless you made a good case for it. Granted at the end of the day you could always form a Texas LLC to bypass the CLEO sig requirement as long as you were legal to own the NFA SBR in the first place. Hope this helps. James Austin, Texas |
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If you have a clean record it is very easy to get a SBR in Austin. The Travis County Sheriff will sign off on SBR F1 applications without issue as long as you pass a local background check which is a bit more stringent than just not being a felon. Thing like DWI, Public Intoxication, misdeamor assault, etc. while not disqualifying you at the federal level "can" preclude you from obtaining a signoff from the Sheriff. In order to get a sig in Travis you will need to complete the F1 application, attach your pictures to it, bring your fingerprint cards and take it down to the Travid County Sheriff office on Airport Road. You can find the exact address and map via the TCSO website. Once there let the ladies at the front desk know that you are there to drop off ATF paperwork for the Sheriff to sign and they should give you an additional Travis County CLEO sig application form. If they look at you cross-eyed and the receptionist doesnt know what you are talking about tell them you need to get this paperwork to Jessica Sannons. Fill out that local application form and ask to get fingerprinted (it costs $20 last I remember). If they have somebody available to do fingerprinting they will take you in back and you can get your cards rolled. Sometime between a week and a month later the Travis County Sheriff office will contact you and let you know your forms are ready to pick up. That is about it. James Austin, Texas No offense, but that seems like a whole lot more work then paying about $600 to get a lawyer to write up a legit trust. |
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If you have a clean record it is very easy to get a SBR in Austin. The Travis County Sheriff will sign off on SBR F1 applications without issue as long as you pass a local background check which is a bit more stringent than just not being a felon. Thing like DWI, Public Intoxication, misdeamor assault, etc. while not disqualifying you at the federal level "can" preclude you from obtaining a signoff from the Sheriff. In order to get a sig in Travis you will need to complete the F1 application, attach your pictures to it, bring your fingerprint cards and take it down to the Travid County Sheriff office on Airport Road. You can find the exact address and map via the TCSO website. Once there let the ladies at the front desk know that you are there to drop off ATF paperwork for the Sheriff to sign and they should give you an additional Travis County CLEO sig application form. If they look at you cross-eyed and the receptionist doesnt know what you are talking about tell them you need to get this paperwork to Jessica Sannons. Fill out that local application form and ask to get fingerprinted (it costs $20 last I remember). If they have somebody available to do fingerprinting they will take you in back and you can get your cards rolled. Sometime between a week and a month later the Travis County Sheriff office will contact you and let you know your forms are ready to pick up. That is about it. James Austin, Texas No offense, but that seems like a whole lot more work then paying about $600 to get a lawyer to write up a legit trust. my thoughts precisely |
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I need to do some research into what a trust is all about. Its a different way to go about getting NFA items. Don't have to worry about CLEO sign off!! If you want a trust, talk to this guy. He did my trust, and several other members trusts. He's in Houston though. From the website : The Trust does not require a filing fee, fingerprints or photographs and best of all you do not have to get a signature from your Chief Law enforcement Officer. In fact, many if not the majority of chief law enforcement officers will not sign a form 1 or a form 4. |
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No offense, but that seems like a whole lot more work then paying about $600 to get a lawyer to write up a legit trust. To each their own and if you don't want to wait in line for the CLEO sig that works even better for me as that is less folks in line a head of me at the Sheriff's office. However a couple things to note about Trust vs. Personal ownership. 1. While I am a relative newcommer compared to many folks who collect NFA firearms, when I first started collecting in the late 90's Trusts were not a valid entity to submit for a F1/F4 application. A couple years back a laywer out of Florida made the case and I beleive eventually sued the ATF to accept Trust transfers. The only option for many years was either a sig or form a corp, (which I also did). 2. I have a corp that has owned a handful of guns and could use it at any time to "bypass" the CLEO sig, but my personal take is that the Sheriff sig and personal ownership (if you can get it) is the safest route to owning these firearms. A. There have been rumblings/rumor that the ATF may "re-examine" many of these trusts, especially ones created via software programs or laywers who didnt follow the law to a "T" and may try and invalidate these transfers down the road. My personal take is that if you need to bypass the CLEO I would go with a Corp which has decades of acceptance/transfer precedent vs. something that has been relunctantly acceptable to the ATF for just a couple years. B. The ATF paperwork is your get out of jail free card if you are even pulled over and found in posession of these firearms. Like it or not, NFA firearms are "Illegal" in Texas and it is only a defense to prosecution that they are lawfully registered, which basically means the burden of proof is on you. That said, I would personally prefer my forms to be as legit looking as possible when I am staring at a potential weekend in jail and having all my toys confiscated. To me, having the back of the form not appear to be half blank with the picture missing and my legal name front and center on the front page is worth something in terms of validity, and may just swing the odds in my favor and keep me out of jail instead of getting arrested and waiting for the NFA branch to open on Monday. The conversation with you average LEO could already be an uphill battle when the NFA form doesnt appear to be missing information, matches your DL name, and his bosses name/sig is on the back vs. the alternative of trying to explain that this machinegun is owned by a "Trust" and you are the beneficiary, etc. If you are into this hobby long enough, eventually you wil most likely be having that LEO conversation when somebody calls the cops for machinegun fire or you get pulled over for some random traffic violation. I understand why people use these entities when they flat out can't get a sig and there is no other options (even thought my personal take is that a Corp is a better alternative to a trust). If you can get a sig than I guess I just don't see what is the upside to spending $600 to $1000 on a Trust when on average you can get a sig from the sheriff in a couple week and that changes your whole wait time from 6 months to 6 months and two weeks. On top of that, if you are just SBRing one rifle, that Trust turns the $200 tax stamp into an $800 registration exercise. My two cents anyway. James Austin, Texas |
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NFA items are like Lays potato chips . . . . you just don't stop at one.
It was a machiengun for me, then an SBS, then a couple of silencers, then another Machinegun and several SBRs . . . . So the time saved by not having to stand in the line and get photos, fingerprints and beg someone to allow me to exercise my RTKABA is worth it. |
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I got one last question seeing as I now have the paperwork. Technically, my home is situated in Round Rock (Williamson County), but my address says Austin. Which sheriff do I go to? has to be Wilco Sheriff, seeing the Travis County Sheriff has no jurisdiction where you reside. there are many cities where the city spans multiple counties or is simply situated across the county line. I believe Austin has annexed so much land they span across Travis, Williamson, and now Hays County. |
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I got one last question seeing as I now have the paperwork. Technically, my home is situated in Round Rock (Williamson County), but my address says Austin. Which sheriff do I go to? has to be Wilco Sheriff, seeing the Travis County Sheriff has no jurisdiction where you reside. there are many cities where the city spans multiple counties or is simply situated across the county line. I believe Austin has annexed so much land they span across Travis, Williamson, and now Hays County. In that case, how is Sheriff James Wilson when it comes to signing off on Form 1s? |
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... you need to get this paperwork to Jessica Sannons. Jessica Sammons 
Also the Sheriff's Office is at 5555 Airport Blvd, right next door to Quality Seafood. Please thank the ladies in the office for handling this paperwork. Yes, we all know the Sheriff SHOULD do this, but he doesn't have to. Part of keeping all this going for everyone is making everyone in the process know you appreciate it. Especially Jessica and the other girls in the office. Trust me, they work their butts off! Doc |