And if they spend half of their days answering phone calls, the transfer times are probably going to increase. You DO remember this is the government with whom we are dealing correct?
There are currently 10 examiners assigned to the NFA branch. There is also a hiring freeze because the government is essentially broke. The examiners were all reassigned by state back in June, where they used to be assigned alphabetically by the name of the person submitting the forms. The idea was that this would allow the examiners to become more familiar with various state laws so they wouldn't waste time approving transfers that were locally illegal.
When you submit a Form 1 or Form 4, your submission goes into a queue for the examiner assigned to your state. When the examiner gets down to you, he/she checks the form and sends the fingerprints off to the Feebs. The check gets cashed and they (and you) wait. You go into another queue while the examiner works on other cases. If the prints clear and there are no other problems, the Form gets approved, the stamp is attached and out it goes. Current wait time...several months. And if by chance your prints were not up to FBI standards? Add afew months.
When I did my first transfer last century, it was taking about 8-9 months for most to come back. We were dealing with some of the indigenous population of DC, all of whom were on the General Schedule (GS) dole. Trying to get information from them was almost impossible.
Then the NFA branch was moved to WV (by God) and the work was taken over by contractors. The wait times dropped to several WEEKS in some cases. So more people started submitting Forms...and a lot were going the trust or LLC route to avoid having to send in fingerprint cards and photos...or simply because their CLEO was a butthead and they didn't know what else to do. And the wait times increased. And people started making calls and demanding to speak with their examiners...and the wait times increased.
In the meantime, the examiners were setting new records for the numbers of transfers being processed. I believe the current record is 1200 in one month for one gentleman. Considering that they work the same 20-23 day work month that most of us do (not counting holidays), that ain't too shabby. Works out to around 50-60 per day, or 6-10 each hour. So your application gets between 6-10 minutes of the examiner's time and has to meet certain standards/rules before it can proceed. If you want to call the examiner and spend 10 minutes on the phone complaining, that is your perogative. I would only ask that you don't use MY 10 minutes of his/her time.
Should we HAVE to ask permission to own or build something that is essentially a right under the constitution? Heck no. Nor should I have to pass along part of my income to someone who doesn't work for a living, or allow illegal immigrants to send their kids to my local schools at my expense when they are not paying school taxes while I am (and my youngest is already teaching school.) But that is the country in which we live.
Don't like it? Work to repeal the National Firearms Act of 1934. It will probably be a doomed effort since I don't know of a gun control law that has ever been repealed, but maybe you will feel better. OBTW...that onerous $200 tax that we pay? It was established back when $200 was a substantial amount of money; a new car went for about $500.
So give the examiners a break. Wait your turn. Or work for "change"...Mr. O will love you.
Of course, that is just my opinion; I could be wrong.
