By John Brown
During the Knob Creek event this October, the National Firearms Act Trade and Collectors Association (NFATCA) held a meeting with a large number of dealers and collectors who were present on Thursday evening during set-up for the shoot. The group addressed an audience of approximately 100 guests at the range. The President of the NFATCA, John Brown, of Battlefield Sports, began the meeting by summarizing the short history of this non-profit trade association whose primary mission is to work collaboratively with ATF and the NFA Branch to advance the interests of the NFA community. The meeting focused on the many achievements of the group since its formation in early 2005.
Among its more substantial accomplishments, the group contracted two former ATF employees to write the first NFA Handbook focusing on providing dealers, manufacturers, and collectors with a wealth of information, currently undocumented, concerning the rules, regulations, and procedures governing the NFA community. To date, the contractors and the NFATCA have provided four draft chapters of this handbook to ATF for review. The NFATCA continues to work with ATF to review and approve the content. Once complete, ATF agreed to publish this handbook as a formal handbook much like the current “Green Book”. Both ATF and the NFATCA believe the content will be extraordinarily helpful to ATF and the dealer, manufacturer, and collector community.
In addition, the NFATCA continues to provide substantial input to ATF in order to assist with the development of electronic Form 3 and Form 5 transfer applications. We will all see the progress on this program at SHOT in 2006.
After the President’s opening remarks, Mr. Brown introduced the current members of the NFATCA Board of Directors and special guest Ken Houchens, Chief of the NFA Branch.
Mr. Houchens explained the move process from Washington, D.C. to Martinsburg, West Virginia and the changes and additions in personnel that have taken place with the move. Mr. Houchens addressed the group on many of the transfer issues that face our community and answered a series of questions from the assembled dealers and collectors. At the conclusion of his presentation, those present applauded Mr. Houchens’ efforts on behalf of the NFA community.
The NFATCA concluded the meeting with an appeal to the community to get involved by joining the NFATCA. Mr. Brown announced that the NFATCA would be actively participating in the Small Arms Review Show in December and the SHOT Show in January. Mr. Brown also announced that the NFATCA is actively seeking new members to continue to push an agenda for the entire NFA community that preserves the rights and interest of every dealer, manufacturer, and collector in the community. For more information please visit www.nfatca.org.
| This article first appeared in Small Arms Review V9N4 (January 2006) |
