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1/8/2025 5:43:11 PM EDT
[Last Edit: WELD][Edited]
Just the A&D book? All of the 4473s too? Invoices, FFL copies, and such from the acquisition side?

Thanks.
1/8/2025 5:52:42 PM EDT
[#1]
A&D, all 4473’s.

All of it.

Oh sure, there’s no list…
Former owner, TENEX Precision Gunsmithing
1/8/2025 6:12:08 PM EDT
[#2]
https://www.atf.gov/firearms/qa/what-records-are-licensees-required-forward-atf-when-discontinuing-their-business
Living on your knees, conformity
Or dying on your feet for honesty
1/8/2025 6:17:37 PM EDT
[#3]
Quote History
Originally Posted By tarfu64:
A&D, all 4473’s.

All of it.

Oh sure, there’s no list…
View Quote


Lol, the fact that you think the ATF can keep that shit straight is pretty funny.

They can't keep track of 4473s any better than anything else.
1/8/2025 7:33:14 PM EDT
[#4]
Quote History
Originally Posted By tarfu64:
A&D, all 4473’s.

All of it.

Oh sure, there’s no list…
View Quote


You guys give the government way more credit then it deserves.


It's plain incompetent, not a series of Jason Bourne types lurking in the shadows.
1/8/2025 8:13:03 PM EDT
[Last Edit: DogtownTom][Edited] [#5]
Quote History
Originally Posted By tarfu64:
A&D, all 4473’s.

All of it.

Oh sure, there’s no list…
View Quote

Attached File
Plano, Texas...........the Gun Nut Capitol of Gun Culture, USA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pELwCqz2JfE
1/8/2025 8:35:40 PM EDT
[#6]
I had to send my A&D book and all 4473’s to Utah.
I tried that whole cancer thing. It wasn't for me. Good Riddance.
1/8/2025 8:48:41 PM EDT
[Last Edit: DogtownTom][Edited] [#7]
Quote History
Originally Posted By Aggie_Gunner:
I had to send my A&D book and all 4473’s to Utah.
View Quote

Huh?

I've never heard that. Its always been Martinsburg, WV. to the National Tracing Center or your local ATF office.

Discontinue Being a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL)
Plano, Texas...........the Gun Nut Capitol of Gun Culture, USA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pELwCqz2JfE
1/8/2025 8:51:13 PM EDT
[Last Edit: -Obsessed-][Edited] [#8]
Quote History
Originally Posted By DogtownTom:

Huh?

I've never heard that. Its always been Martinsburg, WV.
View Quote

My IOI came and picked them up personally. Had me sign a letter stating I was surrendering them and shutting down.

It was actually really convenient.
1/8/2025 8:54:42 PM EDT
[#9]
Quote History
Originally Posted By -Obsessed-:

My IOI came and picked them up personally. Had me sign a letter stating I was surrendering them and shutting down.

It was actually really convenient.
View Quote

When I switched to an 07 I had the same experience.
Twenty bankers boxes in her mini van.
Plano, Texas...........the Gun Nut Capitol of Gun Culture, USA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pELwCqz2JfE
1/8/2025 8:56:23 PM EDT
[#10]
Quote History
Originally Posted By DogtownTom:

When I switched to an 07 I had the same experience.
Twenty bankers boxes in her mini van.
View Quote


You are far more successful than I was.
1/8/2025 9:11:15 PM EDT
[#11]
Quote History
Originally Posted By DogtownTom:

Huh?

I've never heard that. Its always been Martinsburg, WV. to the National Tracing Center or your local ATF office.

Discontinue Being a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL)
View Quote View All Quotes
View All Quotes
Quote History
Originally Posted By DogtownTom:
Originally Posted By Aggie_Gunner:
I had to send my A&D book and all 4473’s to Utah.

Huh?

I've never heard that. Its always been Martinsburg, WV. to the National Tracing Center or your local ATF office.

Discontinue Being a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL)


This was in 2007.  All my stuff went to UT.  I believe Salt Lake City… (unless I am mis-remembering something). I was type 07
I tried that whole cancer thing. It wasn't for me. Good Riddance.
1/8/2025 11:00:18 PM EDT
[#12]
I have no evidence to support it, but I always figured all that data was immediately entered into a database.  Otherwise, what good it is it for searches, the supposed reason for sending it in?
Perhaps, as someone posted, I'm giving the government way too much credit for competence.   I hope so.
“As long as none of us gets hurt, we’re making memories.” - one GA trooper to another after shooting HOSTAGE 9 times

Their SHAME has become their PRIDE

K-3/9
1/8/2025 11:09:49 PM EDT
[#13]
Quote History
Originally Posted By Jodan1776:
I have no evidence to support it, but I always figured all that data was immediately entered into a database.  Otherwise, what good it is it for searches, the supposed reason for sending it in?
Perhaps, as someone posted, I'm giving the government way too much credit for competence.   I hope so.
View Quote


They are digitizing it all. It is not a secret.
1/8/2025 11:11:14 PM EDT
[#14]
My brick and mortar FFL retired a couple years ago and he just kept his FFL and is now a kitchen table dealer. So he never sent all his paper in. He’s got bankers boxes of 4473’s that fill half of his basement from decades in the business. It would be a shame if he would have a broken pipe and flood that basement.
1/9/2025 11:28:03 AM EDT
[#15]
Quote History
Originally Posted By Jodan1776:
I have no evidence to support it, but I always figured all that data was immediately entered into a database.  Otherwise, what good it is it for searches, the supposed reason for sending it in?
Perhaps, as someone posted, I'm giving the government way too much credit for competence.   I hope so.
View Quote

ATF does scan the 4473, but supposedly does not allow for a "searchable" database. Federal law prohibits a firearms registry, but requires ATF to maintain a database of out of business records.

It's been covered ad nauseum on AR15, but here it is again:
When a dealer submits his OOB records to ATF they are stored at Martinsburg, WV in shipping containers in a parking lot.

When the National Tracing Center has a trace request from an LE agency, they first contact the manufacturer>distributor>retailer until they get to the first transfer from the FFL to the nonlicensee. NTC will ask that dealer to fax/email a copy of that Form 4473 to them. Typically the trace ends there. If the licensee is out of business, then ATF will search the out of business records in Martinsburg. They have images of the bound books/4473's on microfiche/microfilm and will take a flashlight to go out to the storage containers to get the hard copy.

Until two years ago, FFL's could destroy any 4473's that were older than twenty years old. Federal law changed and now the FFL has to store the records until he discontinues business.

If anyone thinks its anywhere close to an efficient secret database they are wholly and completely misinformed. ATF has no means to see who bought a gun today or yesterday. Thats because the dealer stores current records. All ATF has in their possession is OOB records, most decades old.

Plano, Texas...........the Gun Nut Capitol of Gun Culture, USA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pELwCqz2JfE
1/11/2025 7:38:43 AM EDT
[#16]
Originally Posted By DogtownTom:

Huh?

I've never heard that. Its always been Martinsburg, WV. to the National Tracing Center or your local ATF office.

Discontinue Being a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL)
View Quote


This.  I had to send my A&D and 4473's back to Martinsburg, WV or I could have drove them to my local ATF Field Office.
1/11/2025 7:43:17 AM EDT
[#17]
A friend of mine had been an ffl since 1970. They took EVERYTHING
1/11/2025 12:06:53 PM EDT
[#18]
Quote History
Originally Posted By jos51700:
A friend of mine had been an ffl since 1970. They took EVERYTHING
View Quote View All Quotes
View All Quotes
Quote History
Originally Posted By jos51700:
A friend of mine had been an ffl since 1970. They took EVERYTHING

No, they don't.
They don't want, nor does federal law allow them to take anything other than the records required by law.
Meaning customer invoices, sales tax documents, credit card receipts, misc business records, bank statements  etc are outside their jurisdiction.
If only Whiplash_83 had posted this in post #2 above:

What records are licensees required to forward to ATF when discontinuing their business?
Firearms licensees who are going out of business need to forward the following records to ATF:

Acquisition and disposition (A&D) records
ATF Forms 4473
ATF Forms 3310.4 (Report of Multiple Sale or Other Disposition of Pistols and Revolvers)
ATF Forms 3310.11 (Federal Firearms Licensee Theft/Loss Report)
Records of importation (ATF Forms 6 and 6A)
Law enforcement certification letters
[18 U.S.C. 923(g)(4); 27 CFR 478.127]


Thats it.
Plano, Texas...........the Gun Nut Capitol of Gun Culture, USA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pELwCqz2JfE
1/11/2025 2:04:24 PM EDT
[#19]
Quote History
Originally Posted By Jodan1776:
I have no evidence to support it, but I always figured all that data was immediately entered into a database.  Otherwise, what good it is it for searches, the supposed reason for sending it in?
Perhaps, as someone posted, I'm giving the government way too much credit for competence.   I hope so.
View Quote


It sits in a cargo container until they can digitize it I hope they all leak LOL.

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