Re:Twilio incident: What Signal users need to know
by Volundr on Monday August 15, 2022 @11:12PM
(#32478796)
This is the site that I was looking at: https://nationalfirearmsact.com/nfa-regulated-items/destruct..., which seems to spell out the background check as a requirement. It also says you need to be a resident of the US. Am I missing something?
Re:Twilio incident: What Signal users need to know
by int_19h on Tuesday August 16, 2022 @01:33AM
(#32479510)
Background check is a requirement for regular gun sales as well, except private person-to-person sales - in practice, this is the vast majority of transfers.
ATF can be more thorough with NFA items because the law doesn't have a limit on how long they can look at you, unlike those regular NICS checks which have a hard limit - but the list of things that makes one ineligible to own is the same.
As far as residency, you have to be a resident somewhere in US, but you don't need to be a permanent resident / green card. A student or a work visa is good enough, combined with proof of current residency (such as utility bill with your name and address).
This isn't quite what OP asked for, of course - you can't have one "shipped to your doorstep" - but this is also true for most regular firearms (there's a collector license that enables this for some old guns).
It's not a "permit", though. And there are no special limits on who can own one - if you can legally own a gun, you can legally own a DD or any other NFA item. One doesn't even need to be a US citizen or a permanent resident for that, even people on student and work visas can do it.