Impending ATF NFA division process changes?

[Gtscotty]

I saw a post on NFA tracker this morning that referenced this Facebook post by a silencer manufacturer:


https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1638362919507316&substory_index=0&id=841858095824473

In a response to a later question the company said that they expect something official to be announced in the next week.

I've already heard that Form 3s are starting to come back in a day or so,

http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2017/08/03/instant-form-3/

but the later comments from the company make it seem like the changes will affect form 4 processing as well.

Does anyone have the scoop on this? I would guess that if the ATF is discussing these changes with individual companies the details will probably leak sooner than later.

 

[Ryanxia]

Through the American Suppressor Association I saw Silencershop's video of 24 hour form 3's which is a big improvement over the usual 8 weeks +. I haven't seen any details on form 4's. Maybe they are keeping the extra staff dedicated to processing forms. Maybe for applications where they just reviewed a recent submission by that individual/entity they will rubber stamp them (not likely but we can hope).

I'm very curious as well as to what could bring it down from a year + to something considered "good".

 

[Ryanxia]

Just came across this article from a few months ago but I thought I had read something along these lines.

http://www.guns.com/2017/04/13/atf-announces-nfa-branch-reorganization/

 

[Gtscotty]

Yeah, I wouldn't think that would be the big news as it happened months ago and has already been discussed to some extent.

I really hope the big news isn't that they are doing form 3s quickly, or that they are getting to the bottom of the pre-41F stack... Those are relative small fries compared to some kind of procedural or organizational change to bring the whole system into the 21st century, which with the hype, is what I was hoping the announcement would be.

Speeding up form 3s is good, but doesn't do anything about the long pole in the tent, form 1s and 4s taking several to many months to process (even if they get back down to 4-6 months, that's still a rediculous amount of time, and does nothing to prevent another supply chain whiplash in the future).

 

[pdsmith505]

Still took 3 weeks to get a 5320.20 done... and that was with e-mailing the thing in.

 

[MCMXI]

I received a SIG MPX SBR on a Form 3 last week which took about 7 weeks to process... that's a long way from one day.

 

[Gtscotty]

I don't know, Silencer Shop put out a few posts on August 3rd on their shrinking Form 3 wait times:

https://m.facebook.com/SilencerShop/

Maybe the dart just didn't land on your application? There seems to be plenty of variation in reported wait times for all forms.

The form 3 for my latest suppressor was submitted on May 11, and the can shipped to my dealer on June 24. Around 6 weeks, but over a month ago at this point.

With Pre-41 forms mostly done, the ATF was apparently predicting a 6-7 month turn around for form 4s submitted now at the 2017 NSSF Import/Export conference:
https://blog.princelaw.com/

I'm still hoping for some news on actual process changes though, catching up on year old form 4s is better than not catching up, but still pretty pathetic.

There are a few folks in an AR15.com thread on this topic that seem to think that the big news is yet to come, hopefully they are right.

 

[Swing]

This thread reminds me, back in 2014, I had a Form 3 take over three months for an item a couple states away. Then there was the Form 4 wait.

 

[PlumRotten]

There are a few folks in an AR15.com thread on this topic that seem to think that the big news is yet to come, hopefully they are right.

Fingers crossed....

 

[wally]

Maybe with the HPA and what its evolved into, they see the hand writing on the wall and will declare just collect the $200 tax cash and carry, the 4473 check is good enough!

We could hope! But seeing the tax gone too would be a bigger win! As long as we are dreaming same for SBRs

 

[Gtscotty]

Well they finally posted an update:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1642697615740513&id=841858095824473

Nothing that wasn't already known or suspected. The new electronic form 3 process has allowed them to put more examiners on form 4s. Apparently in private conversations with the ATF, Texas Silencer got the impression that the ATF expects forms sent in now to have a turnaround time of 3-4 months, but in public the ATF is saying 5-6 months.