If I die tomorrow...

[skyjerk]

...does my wife automatically become owner of my guns?

Is there a legal process that she must follow if something ever happened to me?

Chris

[Emptymag]

This is an excellent question.

[Hawk]

I'm fairly positive in PA that your spouse gets everything by default unless a LWAT states otherwise. As for the guns, I'm also fairly positive no paperwork has to be done as long as they are not Class 3 firearms. In PA, you can draw up your own LWAT and if you want, have it notarized (not necessary though).I am not a lawyer, but I did have to deal with this 2 years ago.

[FireintheWhole]

In PA unless you have a will saying otherwise, the spouse gets everything.

[Xringshooter]

Unless you have a will stating who the guns go to they become the property of the estate and typically everything goes to the next of kin which would be your wife. If there is a reason you don't want your wife to have them you need a will stipulating who gets them. If the will is done correctly, she can contest it but probably wouldn't win. You can give your property to whomever you want to. If they are regular guns nothing needs to be done. IIRC, If they are NFA firearms then there is some BATFE paperwork to do to change the registration over to her.

[skyjerk]

If there is a reason you don't want your wife to have them you need a will stipulating who gets them.

Its not like that

I have no problem of my wife retaining custody of the firearms.

She asked me yesterday what would happen if, so I figured this was a good place to ask.

Chris

[SFMarine]

It's looked upon as an inheritance aka no need to register them. I'm sure sometime down the road...they'll make it mandatory to register all firearms that were acquired by inheritance etc. Will people register them? Probably not.

[Emptymag]

Rifles/long guns, I can understand.
That's fairly straightforward as there is no need to transfer ownership... what happens with handguns?

[headcase]

Rifles/long guns, I can understand.
That's fairly straightforward as there is no need to transfer ownership... what happens with handguns?

Same exact thing. The only difficulty at all would be with class 3 stuff. Any regular firearms are just her stuff, no registration, no paperwork, nothing. Same as the contents of your dresser, wallet, car trunk.....

[BerksCountyDave]

What if a husband dies and his wife isn't permitted by law to own firearms due to a conviction, etc? (NOT my situation, just being curious.)