If you are a resident of North Carolina, and you die owning tangible personal property, ownership and the right to possession of the property goes automatically to your legal heirs. But once an executor or administrator (collectively, the “personal representative”) is appointed for your estate, title is retroactively vested in the personal representative. So immediately upon death there is an automatic transfer of firearms. There are numerous classes of people who are prohibited from owning a firearm under federal law. These include, but are not limited to, people who have been convicted of a felony, dishonorably discharged from the military, are under a domestic violence protective order, have been convicted of a crime of domestic violence, are unlawful users of illegal drugs, have been adjudicated to be incompetent, or who have been committed to a mental institution. A licensed firearms dealer can determine if a prospective purchaser is not a prohibited person. The safest course of action for a personal representative is to use a federally licensed firearms dealer to transfer handgusn to beneficiaries.
