Have had 2 transfers now where an FFL asked me to list a phone number, incidentally both at small shops run by more cranky boomers...anyhow, first time they asked me after the transfer had already been completed and clearance from the NICS received as I was gathering my stuff to leave, and he wrote it down at the top of the 4473...second time, he insisted before submitting the transfer, and set it in an ink stamp he marked the entire sheet with...both transfers took place in the same state as one another, one of them recently another years ago...

Phone # is not a requirement nor a component of a 4473. Any 1) good reason an FFL has to be asking that of a buyer and 2) obligation exist for one to provide a truthful response to that (or even a response at all) under penalty of law?

Furthermore, with the ATF illegally scanning all 4473s with OCR software during site visits and FFL inspections, what is the risk of one's phone number ending up in their national database in direct association to a transfer record, considering that it is not a direct field or part of the form, and is instead added to the form under circumstances like these by the FFL in a nonstandard form?

I have had them do so. I always say no.
Had one refuse the transaction, and I was ok with that, the rest were ok with no phone number.

NOT an ATF requirement. It's just an FFL want.

I could just give a bogus phone number, but it's a matter of principle for me.

It is so incase a mistake is made on the paperwork for serial number the ffl can contact you and fix it before the atf yanks their license with their zero tolerance crap.  Dont be a dick and give your phone number.

As stated above, it's just something the FFL may ask for.
Not a requirement.

We did the same when I worked for FFLs, just in case there was an issue discovered later, and we wanted to contact the transferee.

It'll undoubtedly end up in ATF's hands. Not really a big deal since it's easy for investigators (private ones too) to get your # anyway, unless you never use it for online forms or credit applications, but if you pay the bill in your own name it's readily discoverable by LE.

I use Fastbound, so your phone number isn't on the 4473, just associated with it in Fastbound's database.

I use the customer's phone number for 3 reasons:

To call you about the status of your N"I"CS check;

To call you if there's a question about the paperwork;

In case I need bail money.

If I'm calling at 2 AM, it's not about your NICS check or 4473.

Get a Google number.

867-5309

It’s just for Admin purposes like others have said. Who cares.  

One time I left a magazine and a carry case behind and guess what? The shop I just left called me on the phone and I turned around and got my stuff.

Your phone number isn’t exactly some secret personal info, if you’re worried about the feds having it on a 4473 you’re delusional. They already have your name and address, finding a phone number is really easy.



But no it’s not a requirement of the form.

Common.


It helps the FFL and also helps the BATFE contact you in case there is a trace request.

people are weird, your name and address are public information....it's pretty easy to figure out where someone lives, even without a PD resource.

People seem to be misunderstanding my apprehension of all this as if it is related to a paranoia-driven fear of me, the OP, to keep my individual pieces of information secretive...it isn't. I know in this day and age that nobody has a right to privacy anymore, only a privilege for some. I have even had the CIA deputy director in a lecture admit to us that their agents have had to adapt in the 2000s from 'cash and anonymity' to 'multiple identities' just by virtue of the fact that indeed, everybody asks for information, and giving nothing or pure bogus is seldom a viable option anymore.

What I am concerned about however, is the yielding of information in association to one another...sure, it is one thing for someone to Google Maps my street address written on a form, or for someone to trace the caller ID on my phone #...it is a very different thing though for someone to have both those pieces of information in association to one another. Providing a bogus disconnected phone # in conjunction to a valid address is one thing, but providing my real one now adds value to that address for a hacker in the case of a breach, or for an investigator in the matter of a prejudiced and overreaching legal case...that is the point here.

How does the FFL contact you to let you know the firearm to be transferred to you has arrived?

You’re not wrong.

That’s why I prefer 4473 forms to be on paper in filing cabinets, where they’re not computer-searchable, and also readily damaged by flooding or other natural disasters. Nobody can exfiltrate them via internet breaches/compromises either (when they’re exclusively on paper).

But if they exist at the end of the FFL business’s existence, ATF’s OBRC is mandated by law to receive them. The 20-year retention rule is over. (Now they get them all.)

If you’re concerned about information security, the greatest risk is from third parties. (Not ATF, but hackers and bad-actor employees of FFLs, or anyone with access to those records.)

This is a significant reason I never list my SSN on any 4473.

Precisely, they get all the records now...unfortunately one of the provisions of R2021-05 that was not struck down upon appeal...so all the more impetus to at least mask or withhold what little info one has on them that they don't wish to disclose...


Phone number one provides to the business or individual for use withe shipping label or written inside the parcel is always to be kept separate from the actual 4473 record, unless disclosed intentionally & knowingly by the transferee

Nope Nope Nope, they are out to get your Jerky, Imitation Crab meat and Conducter's hat collection...
My FIL knows a guy, who knows a guy, who knows a guy, realted to a guy, that knows a guy on the interwebs thats from Scotland and he told him about this.  His cousin works for the govt...

LOL....  Just messin around.

This. Mistakes occur, buyers leave their ID, signature missing on form, and more, it happens.

No good reason. But being able to contact customers faster than USPS mail, there is a convenience reason.

I have never been asked and as an FFL I never ask nor needed it.

My preferred FFL called me yesterday about a paperwork fuckup. I misspelled my street name on my latest 4473.
I like them, and don't want to have to devolop a good replationship with another store in the event the AFT fucked with them about it,  so I stopped in, shot the shit with the manager for a bit, fixed my fuckup and went on my merry way.

No harm/no foul.

Truth here.  I don't remember what mistake they made, but I will take any excuse to go to the gun store.