The new revised ATF Form 4473 has caused some confusion and even annoyance with FFL holders. After all, new paperwork is always disruptive, and the key points of a 4473 seemingly shouldn’t change, right? Many of the changes on the new 4473 are seemingly minor. A few words or tenses of words changed, headers and material shuffled around, and other similar corrections.
However, there were a few key changes made that FFL’s should be aware of. The ATF gave a full rundown of the changes, and as you can see most are fairly trivial or simply making things possibly easier to understand. But let’s look at some of the big ones so we can better understand the important changes made to the new 4473.
One of the biggest (and most controversial) change involves transgender people being able to mark a third option under gender. While some internet tough guys have proclaimed they’ll refuse all such customers who don’t mark male or female rather than give in to some ill-defined “agenda”, there is a very practical and important reason for this box, and it doesn’t have to do with the ATF giving in to some political movement you may or may not agree with.
Several states have now introduced driver’s licenses and ID cards with a third or non binary gender option on it. Because gun buyers must select the gender box that matches their ID, it was necessary to add this box to accommodate these valid forms of state issued ID. No matter if you agree with it, or have strong personal or political views on the subject, the ATF just wants the information off an ID document. With 17 states and the District of Columbia issuing valid ID documents with non binary gender options, the ATF is simply keeping up with current legal forms of identification.
Apparently for some people the idea of what constitutes a prohibited person is hard to grasp, and that lead the ATF to asking more painfully stupid questions on the new 4473. This time they’ve clarified that domestic violence convictions in military courts and tribal are also a disqualifier and ask about them. Hint. Don’t hit your spouse. It’s simply not right, and causes all sorts of problems down the road. Should be a no brainer, right?
The ATF also shuffled a few things around to make the flow of information and questions more logical (I know right? I wrote logical and ATF in the same sentence. I never thought that would happen) or to simply make things easier to read.
Recognizing that Alaska and Louisiana use borough and parish respectively in place of counties, the new 4473 includes those terms when asking for address information.
The ATF also more fully clarified the various ways in which a person formerly convicted of a disqualifying offense could purchase a firearm after having rights restored or other legal relief. This should help make things easier for FFL’s when dealing with people who have had their rights restored through various means.
Petty Details
No, this isn’t the title of a Tom Petty documentary (but it should be!), but rather an indication of the other little things that ATF did on the new 4473. In some cases it’s as trivial as changing the tense of words to make it read easier. In others, the ATF deleted headers, or shuffled small bits of the form around. These should make it easier to read and fill out, which in turn should make your life as an FFL holder easier.
Speaking of Making Life Easier…
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In fact, they told us when the new 4473 dropped, that they saw an immediate uptick in customers abandoning the old fashioned paper forms, or moving from competitors.
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