How to Complete and Submit the Silencer Shop Trust Amendment Form

The Silencer Shop trust amendment form is the document you use to formally update an NFA gun trust when you need to add or remove a trustee, change a name or address, swap a beneficiary, or rename the trust itself. Silencer Shop emails the templates to you after purchase, you sign the amendment in front of a notary (and a witness, if it is a Single Shot Trust), and the updated paperwork gets submitted to the ATF the next time you file a Form 1 or Form 4. You do not notify the ATF separately when the amendment is executed.

When an Amendment Is the Right Tool

The most common trigger is adding or removing a co-trustee (called a “supporting trustee” on a Single Shot Trust). Federal regulations treat anyone with the power to direct trust management or to possess, transport, or transfer a trust firearm as a “responsible person,” and each one must clear a background check when the trust next acquires an NFA item.¹ Keeping the roster accurate is what the amendment exists for.

Other changes that require a formal amendment:

A trustee’s legal name changes through marriage, divorce, or court order.
You add or remove a beneficiary, even one who never handles the firearms.
You name a different successor trustee to take over if you die or become incapacitated.
The trust’s principal address changes.
The trust itself is renamed.

You cannot make any of these fixes by writing on the original trust document. Hand-editing a notarized trust invalidates the change. A separately executed amendment is the only route.

One boundary worth naming: an amendment handles targeted edits. If your trust has deeper structural problems (missing Rule 41F language, no provision for co-trustees as responsible persons, or no mechanism allowing amendments at all), you need a full restatement instead, which replaces the trust’s text while preserving the entity and its registered items. Rough test: if the fix fits on a one- or two-page form, it is an amendment.

Where To Find the Forms

Silencer Shop sends all supplemental paperwork, including amendment templates, by email after you buy your trust.² They are not stored in an online dashboard you log into. Search your inbox for the original trust delivery email. If you cannot find it, contact Silencer Shop support or email trust@silencershop.com to request replacements.

Before filling anything in, pull up your existing trust and copy down two things: the exact trust name and the date the original trust instrument was executed. Both must match your existing paperwork word-for-word. A mismatch invites questions about which entity the amendment actually applies to.

Completing a Traditional NFA Gun Trust Amendment

The Traditional trust holds all of your NFA items under one umbrella. Adding a trustee takes two documents:

The Amendment to Add Trustees. You fill in the trust name, your name as settlor, and the full legal name of the person being added, then sign in front of a notary.
The Trustee’s Acknowledgement. The new trustee fills this out on their own, accepting the legal responsibilities of a responsible person on the trust, also in front of a notary.

To remove someone, you complete an Amendment to Remove Trustees with the same identifying information and sign it before a notary.³ Timing constraint: you cannot add a responsible person while a submission is pending with the ATF. Wait until any open Form 1 or Form 4 clears before executing.

Think about the downstream cost before adding people. Every responsible person must submit fingerprints, a passport-style photo, and ATF Form 5320.23 each time the trust acquires an NFA item.⁴ Five co-trustees means five sets of prints and five CLEO notifications for every suppressor purchase.

Completing a Single Shot Trust Amendment

The Single Shot Trust ties one trust to one NFA item, so each firearm or suppressor lives inside its own trust. Amendments use numbered documents from the original packet rather than a general-purpose form.

To add a supporting trustee:

Document #2, Appointment of Supporting Trustee. You (the trust maker) fill it out and sign in front of a notary and a witness.
Document #3, Acceptance of Supporting Trustee Appointment. The new trustee signs, also before a notary and witness, confirming they understand their obligations and are legally eligible to possess NFA items.²

To remove a supporting trustee:

Document #4, Form to Remove a Supporting Trustee. Signed by you as trust maker with a notary and witness.
Document #5, Acceptance of Termination. Signed by the departing trustee to confirm removal and that further action on their part is unauthorized.³

Different rule from the Traditional trust: you cannot add responsible persons to a Single Shot Trust until the ATF has approved the initial application. Wait for the tax stamp to come back before executing any trustee additions on that particular trust.

Notary and Witness Requirements

Every amendment document, Traditional or Single Shot, must be signed in front of a notary public. The notary verifies identity and stamps the document. State law caps notary fees; typical charges run $2 to $15 per signature, with a few states allowing up to $25.

Single Shot amendments also require a witness at the signing in addition to the notary. Use a disinterested party, meaning someone not named anywhere in the trust. Some states apply their own witness rules to trust documents generally, so check local requirements if you are using a Traditional trust and want extra protection.

A co-trustee being added has to personally sign their own acknowledgement or acceptance form. You cannot sign for them, and they cannot sign remotely and mail it back. The notary needs to see them in person. Get both your signing and the new trustee’s signing done before scanning anything.

Getting the Amended Trust Back to Silencer Shop

Once every signature is notarized, scan the completed amendment at a resolution where every detail is legible; a standard 300 DPI scan is fine. Silencer Shop needs the file so future ATF submissions pull from the updated version. Three ways to send it:

Upload directly through your Silencer Shop account at the kiosk registration page. Find the document upload section (marked with a paper-and-pencil icon) and upload your PDF. The size limit is 50 MB. Uploading overwrites whatever is currently on file, so download your existing trust first as a backup.
Email the scanned documents to trust@silencershop.com with your order number or account details so support can match the file to your profile.
Mail a copy (never the original) to Silencer Shop, 13729 Research Blvd, STE 630, Austin, TX 78750, with your order number included. Silencer Shop may not return mailed documents.

Keep the original notarized paper copies in a secure spot alongside your original trust. If law enforcement or an ATF agent asks for proof of legal possession, you want the full paper trail on hand. Never send originals to the ATF either; they will not return them.

Using the Amended Trust on Your Next ATF Filing

You do not have to tell the ATF the amendment exists until you file again. The amended trust gets submitted the next time you file a Form 1 (to manufacture) or Form 4 (to transfer).⁵ At that point every current responsible person on the trust submits:

A completed ATF Form 5320.23 (Responsible Person Questionnaire), in duplicate
A 2×2-inch passport-style photograph taken within the past year
Fingerprints on FBI Form FD-258
A copy of the completed Form 5320.23 mailed to their local Chief Law Enforcement Officer⁴

In ATF eForms, you upload the trust documentation (including all amendments) in the Electronic Documents section. Select “Corporation/Trust/Other Legal Entity” and attach the full package. There is a document-submission exception for trusts approved within the previous 24 months with no changes, but an amendment counts as a change, so you will re-upload.

Keep Every Amendment You Have Ever Executed

Amendments are permanent parts of the trust. Even if you later remove a trustee you previously added, you cannot destroy the amendment that added them. Every new tax stamp application must include the current trust plus every amendment ever executed, not just the most recent one. Missing a historical amendment is enough to delay or derail an application.

Keep one folder (physical and digital) with the original trust instrument and every amendment in chronological order. Assembling a complete package for the next Form 1 or Form 4 then takes minutes.

What Goes Wrong When It Is Done Badly

Federal law makes it a crime to possess an NFA firearm not properly registered to the possessor. Conviction can bring a fine of up to $10,000, imprisonment of up to ten years, or both, plus forfeiture of the firearm.⁶ If someone possesses a suppressor under a trust but is not listed as a responsible person because the amendment was never executed or was executed improperly, that possession may fall outside the law.

More often, sloppy paperwork produces ATF rejections rather than prosecutions. Common problems: submitting a trust that was hand-edited rather than formally amended, leaving an old amendment out of the application package, or failing to notarize the new trustee’s acknowledgement. Any of these can send the application back without action and add weeks or months to the wait. Executing the amendment cleanly the first time costs less than re-filing.

1
eCFR. 27 CFR 479.11 – Meaning of Terms
2
Silencer Shop. How to Amend a Gun Trust
3
Silencer Shop. How to Amend a Gun Trust to Add a Responsible Person
4
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. NFA Responsible Person Questionnaire
5
Federal Register. Machineguns, Destructive Devices and Certain Other Firearms – Background Checks for Responsible Persons
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 5871 – Penalties