Fax's Of Ffl's Now Legal "link To Atf"

[tpe187]

Wasn't sure where to put this, but I figured people would want to know, so Moderators, please post where you think it will do the most good.

At the SHOT show this year, the ATF announced that it had changed its stance on sending and recieving FFL's by FAX/EMAIL. This was great news for most of us who purchase firearms online so we get the best price/ don't pay the local tax. Ussually it took about 4-5 days to get a signed copy in the mail and then get it to whoever needed it. I had run into problems with a local FFL who recieved a gun, but it didn't have a copy of the senders FFL, so I had to wait a week or more to actually get it. The ATF has a very poor method of getting the information out. I actually called two ATF branches and asked them to verify the fact, which they did, but then they couldn't point me to a place on the website that stated that. Most FFL's won't take your word for it. Finally had to have the ATF agent call the dealer and he finally gave in. Well, now the ATF actually has it up on its website. Here is the link http://www.atf.gov/firearms/newsletter/0805fflnewsletter.pdf

I'm sure most FFL's won't have that info for a while, so you might want to print it out or copy the link if you wan't to have a transfer done. Hope this helps out some people. At least it gets us more time shooting and less time waiting.

Tom

[Chuck Anderson]

I just received the ATF newsletter yesterday that has that information on the front cover. It also said that it is volutary for FFL's to accept the Fax copies. Hopefully most will.

[Carlos]

I had a gun transferred from a company to my local FFL last year & the company did not want an FFL sent nor faxed;

-all they asked for was the number on the receiving FFL. They verified the number with BATFE & transferred to FFL on that basis. If ordering from a distributor, apparently the number can be used through an BATFE computer system.

The faxed-FFL rule is good news from BATFE. Thanks.

[Middle Man]

The ruling and accepted pratice in the past has been that dealers and distributors had to have an orginally signed "hard copy" FFL to transfer any firearm. The BATF brought out ez-Check on the web that allows for the verification only of FFL numbers. Now with this leap in technology, it would appear, they are making ez-Check more useful. Combine the webpage verification with a **legible** faxed copy and a few days in the snail mail could be cut off the transfer process. However, the sender and receiver of the fax need to use the highest resolution on their respective machines so that the block of numbers on the FFL is readable.

This may speed things up, but I doubt 100% of dealers would be willing to use this method for transfer, as the readability could prove a sticking point. Now for our more technologically advanced FFL holders, a scanner and desktop fax program would send a much cleaner copy.

[Carlos]

"but I doubt 100% of dealers would be willing to use this method for transfer,"

Afraid I have to agree. Many "mom & pop" FFL holders will be reluctant to use new technology like the FAX machine transfer/EZ Check. I agree with you that the "in-signed copy of FFL" will be the rule in most shops for some time to come.