U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- Welcome back to this special edition of The Legal Brief, the show where we CRUSH the various legal myths and misinformation surrounding various areas of the gun world. I’m your host Adam Kraut and today we are talking about breaking news in the NFA world. ATF is now using a barcode system to drastically improve data processing and therefore those annoying Form 4 wait times.
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Late yesterday, news broke that industry members Silencer Shop, Dead Air Silencers and Gemtech had been working with ATF to implement a system to streamline the processing of NFA paperwork in order to reduce the backlog at the NFA branch. Several weeks ago, the CEOs of Gemtech, Dead Air, and Silencer Shop met with ATF officials to test a pilot of the program which was met with overwhelming enthusiasm. More on the actual process in a moment.
As you likely know, currently ATF wait times for the processing of paperwork are on average at least 8 months with a number of forms taking up to and more than a year to process. This has resulted in a number of people turning a cold shoulder to all things NFA related, not just silencers. Fortunately for us, rather than waiting for legislation to pass, Silencer Shop, Dead Air and Gemtech took the bull by the horns and made moves which result in a win for the NFA community as a whole.
You may be asking, well that sounds great Adam, but when does this stuff start to work? The answer is right now. ATF has already acquired the necessary hardware in order to implement the system on their end and Silencer Shop has a letter from ATF approving the application of barcodes to the forms. In fact, there have already been over 3,000 Form 4s submitted with the barcodes. Guys this is legit, this is a great thing.
So how does it all work and what exactly are these barcodes? When a dealer uses the Form 4 Generator, it pulls data from several different sources, like FFL eZ-Check, and auto-populates the correct FFL number, address, etc., without additional input from the dealer. The buyer’s information and the firearm or silencer information are then entered by the dealer and the form is printed. The printed copies feature a barcode which encapsulates all of the information on the Form 4. For those of you using trusts or other legal entities, this is also true of the Responsible Person Questionnaires.
When the form arrives at ATF, rather than have a person sitting at a computer entering the data contained on the form, they are simply scanned and the fields auto populate the information contained on the form into the appropriate data fields on ATF’s system. Forms were previously sitting anywhere from weeks to months before reaching this step.
This reduces the amount of time it takes to enter the information into ATF’s system. It means that a single individual can process forms at a faster rate. Like I said earlier, Silencer Shop has already submitted over 3,000 forms using these barcodes and ATF’s processing time of them has improved tenfold. Further, it reduces the error rate of an individual entering data. The current industry-wide error rate on Form 4s post ATF 41F is about 50%, resulting in the delay of processing applications while they are sent back for correction.
The best part, even if your dealer does not use Silencer Shop to process their forms, they are able to use the Form 4 Generator free of charge. A link to the generator is available in the description down below. You’ll want to encourage your dealer to use the new system as it will reduce errors found in form submissions. It will also allow ATF to input the information into their system more quickly. The result? Faster form processing times for everyone!
So to recap, we’ve got a new complex barcode that’s being used on these forms. That barcode contains all of the information that was previously entered by the dealer while utilizing the new Form 4 Generator. Again, this is intended to reduce errors which currently has an obscenely high rate as well as speed up data entry at the ATF. Which again, in theory, will drastically reduce wait times for Form 4 processing. This is exactly the kind of relationship ATF needs to foster with the Industry, working together to improve processes under the current law.
Being the fan of NFA firearms that I am, this is big news and will hopefully result in me waiting less time to get some of my stamps back. If you’re tired of ridiculous wait times at ATF, you need to share this video and let people know this is changing. Don’t forget to hit that like button and if you aren’t subscribed already, you better make that happen. Be sure to ring that bell so you don’t miss an episode. Check out my website adamkraut.com.
And as always thanks for watching!
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