Firearm Inheritance Protection Act

When it comes to estate planning and guns, there are a couple of things that you need to know if you are going to serve as the administrator of the estate. The first thing you may need to address is the issue of whether or not it is safe for rifles, pistols or handguns to be in the house? Are the guns secure? There are many cases where an elderly person becomes depressed or does not understand the danger in handling a gun and the gun is misused or it discharges and someone can be injured. It maybe necessary for you to remove all firearms from the house or make arrangements for the guns to be locked up, especially if they are not being used. Ultimately, as the administrator, you will be required to oversee the transfer of these firearms to a family member or someone identified in the will or Trust. With the recent legislation by Governor Snyder, we are seeing more protections for the transfer of firearms. In November 2015 Governor Snyder signed into legislation some new laws that take the burden off of the administrator of the estate to be licensed before they can transfer the pistol. In essence, the law allows the administrator the right to secure the firearm, predominately handguns, because they are registered, and oversee the transfer of them to the family member or beneficiary. The family member then has 30 days from taking physical possession of the registered firearm to register the gun in their own name. Years ago, if the procedures were not properly followed, or if the firearm was in the hands of the unlicensed individual, that firearm could be destroyed, sold or confiscated. In many situations, these firearms have never been registered but have been passed down from generation to generation well before registration was even a law. When it comes to handling the administration of an estate, you need to be prepared to deal with just about any kind of personal property.