Done.  This thread is now for reading the tea leaves about what "maintenance" means.

Sure sounds less scandalous this way. We'll see.

Damn.

It's already been mentioned, but it's sad that I can spend 30 minutes at H&R Block and have my taxes completed then have my money direct deposited within a week or so, but a simple e-filed Form 4 costs $200 and takes months to get back.

Add to that it takes forever to fill out the damn forms because the site crashes.

"In the interim, all imports forms (Forms 6 Part I and 6A), NFA forms (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9 and 10), and AFMER reports (Form 5300.11) must be submitted via paper, including any eForms in draft status."

What exactly does this mean in bold?  Does it mean that if you have something in process that you efiled that you have to resubmit in paper form?

If it was started but not submitted. If it was submitted/in process, it looks like you are ok.

and I just put one in the mail to my dealer for him to efile.
Beyond sucks.

F BATFE on page two.

Why is eforms faster than paper?   Does skynet review eforms?

Was just going to submit some yesterday.

called my dealer and he told me mine hadn't been submitted from a purchase on wednesday.

ruined my weekend.

Same way you efile the trust paperwork... scan it and attach it to the eform.

Ahh, no idea about that.

Thank God my form 4 came in last Weds!!

I'm wondering if this shut down was because Michigan repealed its prohibitions on SBR's and SBS's two weeks ago?

Maybe they had to change their programs to accept Michigan applications?

Hope it's up by monday. Planning to make my final nfa purchase then.

We can only hope....I have 3 suppressors sitting that were supposed to be e-filed last week.....now I either play the waiting game or do it old school and bust out a pen and paper.

I'm closing my house Monday and also paying my taxes as soon as the house paperwork is signed. I'm buying a damn .45 can to celebrate damnit!

No, but the ATF can make it prohibitively difficult.

You don't need fingerprints if you're using a trust...of course, that's how it currently is, who knows what they have planned for changes

Every morning I wake up hoping Skynet has become self aware

I need something to do

Any competent IT department will have separate development, staging and production systems, so changes aren't developed on the same system that users are attempting to work on.  So given that this is government IT...

Didn't they just raid some company after a judge told them not to do it?

Please write your representatives.  I am no great orator but I will post my letter for those of you that want to copy it.  Feel free to edit it as you see fit (also any errors are the result of my keyboard's software drivers).

Actually I work in government IT (not ATF) and we have three development environments, two test environments, production, off-site disaster recovery/failover, and training.

As for ATF eForms, based on what I've seen of this IT system, eNICS, and their other IT systems... their IT department is not all that robust.  Also, in most of government agencies IT is overhead and not a product, and it is one of the first areas to get cut when budgets get tight.

Just figured I would add that I have 3 eForm 1s & 6 eForm 4s pending. I was HOPING to get just 1 more eForm 1 submitted, but needed to do more research in order to decide on barrel length. I also have 4 eForm 4s that NEEDED to be pending. I submitted 4 out-of-state Form 4s (snail-mail) last year that were "disapproved" after 11 months by the examiner who only noted "No out of state transfers". I included with those 4 submissions a signed affidavit declaring that the firearms were already my property, which were being registered for me by the SOT who was doing the Title II conversions & that they would be returned to me upon approval. ATF has approved this practice in the past. I decided on this method as the ATF site stated the following: (https://www.atf.gov/firearms/faq/firearms-technology.html)

Q: Is it legal to attach a vertical fore grip to a handgun?

(last paragraph)

"A person may also send the handgun to a person licensed to manufacture NFA weapons. The manufacturer will install the fore grip on the firearm and register the firearm on an ATF Form 2 (5320.2). The manufacturer can then transfer the firearm back to the individual on an ATF Form 4 (5320.4), which results in a $5.00 transfer tax. If the manufacturer is out of State, the NFA Branch will need a clarification letter submitted with the ATF Form 4 so that the NFA Branch Examiner will know the circumstances of the transfer."

I sought clarification from TROSUSA & Paladin Armory, both of whom offer conversion of customer supplied weapons. I was told that only in the last 3 weeks prior to my disapproval (which came early March 2014) ATF started denying out-of-state transfers on Form 4s to Trusts, but NOT to individuals. I decided the best approach NOW was to eForm 3 all 4 NFA weapons to an in-state SOT who would then eForm 4 the weapons back to me (Jim's Firearms in Baton Rouge, LA wanted $600 for these transfers! $150 EACH! So I chose another SOT who is doing all 4 for $150 TOTAL!). I was HOPING to get my eForm 4s re-submitted before ATF could effectively block the return of these weapons by ruling on 41P that everyone in the Trust would need CLEO sign offs. Supposedly, pending applications would be grandfathered. The eForm 3 was only sent on March 24th, still pending, so if the eFile system doesn't come back, I'll be forced to snail-mail all 4 Form 4s. Which may mean I miss the grandfathering period (being that my last 4 Form 1s & 3 Form 4s took ~3 months to go PENDING).

BUT! With all of that said, SilencerShop has posted the following: http://www.silencershop.com/eforms-2/ (not too long to read)

So, as they remind us, or for those who didn't try to login to the eFile system during the government shutdown, a similar notice was posted there. I would also like to remind anyone here that ATF must respond to every comment on 41P (~9500+) before ruling & it will take 60 days for the new rules to go into effect, once they decide what new rules they want to play by. Therefor, if you are considering mailing in paper Forms in order to try to beat the 41P ruling, it MAY be wiser to wait at least 2-3 weeks from now to see if the system returns. Remember that once eForms are submitted (pay & SIGN, not just stuck in the DRAFT folder) they are pending the same day. 2-3 week downtime < 2-3 months for pending & 9-15 month approval FROM pending. Just consider this before going the paper route too hastily.

My 2¢...

R.E.D.

ETA: IMHO, ATF needs the eFile system as much as everyone else here. There are a number of tax free transfers that are done much more conveniently using eFile. I wouldn't be so quick to assume that they shut it down just because they don't like this or that. The eFile system should return, if only for eForm 3s as it allows 1 SOT to select their inventory from a list generated by the eFile system, and enter the last 5 digits of the SOT who those firearms are being transferred to. The process takes <1 minute (when it's not convulsing). There is at least this reason to be a little hopeful it will return soon.

2nd ETA: Just heard from a close friend who's pretty tight with an SOT in NV that contacted his IOI to ask about the site & was told that the site would be back online, that it is being revamped! Take that for what it's worth!

Looks like what I've heard has been reported before the system went down: http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/03/foghorn/atf-issue-cease-desist-batch-nfa-paperwork-uploading/

ETA: Didn't notice this update to that article: http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/04/foghorn/breaking-atf-issues-cease-and-desist-on-batch-uploads/

http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com: ATF Adding More NFA Branch Staff, Reducing Backlog, Re-Designing eForms System. Again.
More at link.

Son of bitches! I finally picked up my shotgun that I'm going to SBS and the nuke their site!

At least you can still use your shotgun, I have 3 suppressors just sitting in jail, poor things.

Any word on them revamping that site?



Well... There's that.

There's a big thread in the suppressor forum here about it. They're going form 6's only now

Is eFile back up yet?

No not for 1s or 4s.

Thank you.  I'm not sure if I should file two Form 1's for SBR's or keep waiting.

Good I want my fucking paper forms approved.

Fuck all yall that don't live in a free state.

I got an email from the ATF today, 6/24, saying Form 1 electronic filing is back, others to be added in the future.

Then they do a lot of boasting about how they've reduced the number of pending applications from 81k at the end of Feb 2014 to 63k as of June 18, 2014. I wonder how much of that is due to eform submissions just being canceled.

j/k. Glad Form 1 is back up.
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