FFL to FFL: WHy do you need a hard copy?

[Bubba613]

The practice when shipping a gun to another FFL is to get a hard copy of his license and then ship, including your own FFL in the package.
My question is why that is all necessary. I understand in years past the shipping dealer had to be certain he was shipping to a licensee and not an unlicensed person. But now with FFL EZcheck I can get a better idea than with a paper copy, which can be photoshopped etc etc. You can even print off a copy from EZcheck I am told.
Has anyone heard any noises from ATF on amending ths practice? In my last inspection they never even asked about seeing ffls I had shipped to.

 

[docpadds]

Its mostly habit. We send along a copy out of courtesy even if not requested, and any sent to us go into our electronic bound book as scans so after that we dont need to get more copies.

 

[CoRoMo]

I've dealt with at least one licensee who would not accept an emailed or faxed copy, the hard copy went in the snail-mail.

You can even print off a copy from EZcheck I am told.

Surely not. I don't think that's possible. Anyway, the results page says this:

Federal Firearms License Results

Warning: No one may use this screen, in lieu of the required certified copy of a Federal Firearms License, to acquire a firearm.

 

[Bubba613]

Yeah, actually it is.
I know what the page says. And it is talking about acquiring one, not disposing of one. The ATF's database is more up to date than anything else. And if you were to just mark in your book the ffl # where you shipped the gun, they will know whether that was a live ffl at the time or not.

 

[docpadds]

Our new version of our bound book actually uses that page to check the FFLs validity when used, we were just testing that module last night. Our license showed in the EZCheck before we ever got it.

Of course we keep a scan in the system too.