Congrats
We here at SayUncle would like to welcome our friends from the ATF to the 1990s:
Instead of filling out the required ATF paperwork by hand, gun buyers and dealers will now be able to complete what officials say is a fail-safe electronic version of the document, known as Form 4473.
Speaking at a gun shop in Upper Marlboro where he announced the change, acting ATF Director Michael J. Sullivan said the new option would cut down on illegible answers and incomplete answers — the most common causes of violations.
In other news, is this an admission that all those supposedly willful violations they used to shut down federal firearms license holders weren’t, err, actually willful?
Update: More from David who wonders if this is the same software that ATF was accused of stealing.
November 20th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Too bad that in order to design their system they ripped off the work of a private company that was looking to do the same thing.
November 20th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Too bad it’s also a set up for a computerized gun registry because I guarantee the next step is the “reasonable” idea that gun stores electronically transfer the records to the BATF to make traces faster, etc.
Just wait. You’ll see.
November 20th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
I’ve also been reading the GOA newsletters & I’m curious if anybody else can confirm whether intellectual property has been stolen by BATFE.
November 20th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Wonder if they apologize to Valley Gun for shutting them down for the very clerical errors they’re now admitting are an issue.
Comment from the Brady Bunch, who slandered Valley Gun using these human errors as a cudgel to beat on an honest businessman?
Don’t hold your breath.
November 20th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Oh yeah, Alan, we’ve been down that road before.
November 20th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
My first thought was the same as Alan’s; it’s just a way to get everyone registered in a database without having to hire clerks to do data entry.
November 20th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
What are the odds it’s using any kind of security?
Hello identity theft!
November 20th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
What are the odds they’re still asking for a ‘County’ even for places like DC where there are no counties?
November 20th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
I see that it has a handy little option, when exporting your record, that they can be emailed right from the application itself.
I’ll look into it more tonight.
November 20th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
My FFL-guy club-member uses computerized on-line forms for his stuff, and he’s a computer scientist MIT grad…
November 20th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
BZZT! FAIL!
seriously, even i know not to taunt Murphy like that.
November 20th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Never use electronic when paper is available. Make them read the forms, store the forms, et, et, whether doing taxes or FFLs.
November 20th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
I think they’re just upgrading their “willful” gotcha to a much larger registration capability where it’ll be easier to identify and attack citizens when they think up future gotchas.
November 22nd, 2008 at 10:47 pm
The first time my dealer tells me to fill out a form on his computer is the last time I buy a gun from him. Of course that attitude is probably a much hoped for side effect of this change.