Florida Prosecutor: Missing NFA Paperwork Alone Doesn’t Establish a Crime

A Florida prosecutor has told law enforcement that a short barrel or suppressor, combined with missing federal registration paperwork, should not by itself establish grounds for a detention, search or arrest. His memo puts the practical consequences of ATF’s new enforcement policy squarely in front of police.

Brian S. Kramer, state attorney for Florida’s Eighth Judicial Circuit, issued the guidance October 11. The office serves Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Gilchrist, Levy and Union counties. The Reload reported on the memo October 15. It is a statement of that prosecutor’s office’s position, rather than a new statute or a binding statewide court ruling.

Kramer’s analysis focuses on Florida’s treatment of short-barreled rifles and shotguns. His memo says the state statute excepts firearms lawfully owned and possessed under federal law and does not independently require an ATF Form 1, Form 4, tax stamp or federal registration. He concludes that, following the federal developments and ATF’s October 9 guidance, absent federal registration alone no longer establishes unlawful possession under the Florida provision.

That interpretation reaches beyond paperwork. Kramer advises officers that those facts alone should not establish reasonable suspicion or probable cause. He also says finding one of the covered items during an otherwise lawful search does not automatically justify seizing it merely because of its configuration or lack of registration. The memo describes suppressors separately, saying the Florida provision does not independently prohibit their possession.

The guidance preserves enforcement where other facts establish an independent violation. Kramer identifies stolen weapons, prohibited possessors, unlawfully altered serial numbers, illegal imports and criminal use among the examples. Machine guns and destructive devices remain outside ATF’s new non-enforcement policy. The memo does not erase restrictions based on a person, location or other unlawful conduct.

For gun owners, the significance is concrete: this prosecutor is telling officers to identify an actual independent basis for enforcement instead of relying on the old paperwork assumption. The question elsewhere is what the relevant prosecutorial and law-enforcement authorities say about their own laws. Follow those answers jurisdiction by jurisdiction. Sign up for the WTF News newsletter for updates backed by the original documents.