If it were just a NICS check that would be a different thing.  NFA background checks are real background checks, not just referring to the NICS database.  NICS doesn’t require fingerprints; a stamp application requires both photos and fingerprints - on a specific FBI fingerprint card.  Everything I’ve been able to find says that the NFA background check is closer to an FBI background check including running prints and more, similar to   “National Agency Checks,” which are part of a basic security clearance investigation.

First, you are wholly ignorant of the processes and requirements of the National Firearms Act. It's not just a background check.
Second, the NFA Branch doesn't do the fingerprint check, that's the FBI.....and out of the control of the ATF.
Third, the wait time is largely dependent on the volume of applications received.
Fourth,  its the government. ATF can't just reassign extra help or hire more employees because they are busy. They have a budget controlled by Congress. And it's well known to the NFA world that the NFA Branch is busting their butt to approve apps as fast as they can.
Fifth, the process since 1934 has essentially remained the same. The difference is that a $200 stamp is no longer prohibitive. It wasn't until all the Johnny Comelatelys panicked a year ago that we saw the system clog up. And now they bitch.
Sixth, all this will be moot when Trump is elected 'cause his son once held a silencer and said "Cool!"............oh wait.


No shit.

Stop whining and write your Congressman.

Good then, we agree.

No reason for you to have sand in your unit over my posts then.

Oh I agree, that's why I think three weeks is enough to process it rather than less than 5 minutes. A provision for the gov to file for a delay upon good cause, and if not - they must issue a provisional approval pending final processing. At any point they can retract if they get further information that disqualifies the processing.

1 year is asinine and is only tolerated because it's dirty dangerous horrible scary firearms. Unless there are deadlines, there is no accountability.

Dude.........you are paying a tax. Once approved they issue you a tax stamp. You cannot possess or build until you have the stamp in hand.
All your provisional pending nonsense doesn't mean jack shit. Holding that stamp does.

I understand how NFA works today. If the abundantly obvious is not so to you, the proposals are how I think NFA should work. Dude.

In the preamble to the ATF 41P proposal rule, BATFE stated it:

… now has direct access to a number of criminal history database… ATF conducts its own background checks of individuals applying to make and receive NFA firearms. In addition to transmitting fingerprints to the FBI for a criminal history check, ATF routinely queries the following databases and indexes:
• National Crime Information Center
• TECS (formerly named the Treasury Enforcement Communication System)
• National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System
• Interstate Identification Index
• National Instant Criminal Background Check System [NICS].

The Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act (Pub.L. 103–159) established National Instant Check System (NICS) as the nation’s central resource for determining if federal or state law prevents transfer of any firearm to a specific individual.

By using the databases listed above, BATFE instituted extralegal requirements for transfer of one category of firearms – those requiring an excise tax payment for transfer between two parties. The transfer of all other firearms (i.e., those you can buy in an over-the-counter transaction at a federal firearms licensee) are not subject to this additional scrutiny (apparently the systems listed in the 41P rulemaking are not NICS data sources). Even a corporation or trust can buy a firearm in an over-the-counter transaction at a federal firearms licensee and not be subject to examination via these other databases.

With respect to the additional databases BATFE examines, if used as the basis for denial of the transfer of an NFA-taxed firearm this information must be available to every federal firearms licensee via the NICS. If the information contained in those other sources is not available via NICS, a licensee may unknowingly transfer a non-taxed firearm (e.g., the pistol the person is going to use as the suppressor host) to a person who is barred from possessing or transferring all other firearms.

I also want to know how one submits an appeal if denied based on these non-NICS databases.  The established process for denial of firearms purchases (i.e., the NICS appeal process) now only applies to NICS denials. Lastly, I also want to know if the list in the 41P preamble is an inclusive list or a non-inclusive list of databases. For example, does BATFE ever query the infamous and erroneous "terrorist watch list" maintained by the FBI or the "no fly list" maintained the Department of Homeland Security?

Likewise, BATFE’s requirement for submission of Form 5320.23, fingerprints and photographs are extralegal requirements applied only to one category of firearms – those requiring excise tax payments for transfer between two parties. As with non-NFA taxed firearms, a corporation or trust can buy a firearm in an over-the-counter transaction at a federal firearms licensee and not be subject to these requirements.

I also understand that BATFE is subjecting NFA transfers to trusts to an additional level of extra-legal scrutiny. The NFA examiner uses a “checklist” to review the trust documentation for compliance with state-level standards.  If the examiner decides there is a problem, the application is rejected.  Here too NFA transfers to trusts are being subjected to an additional level of scrutiny not applied to the transfer of non-NFA taxed firearms. Moreover, the “standard” in these checklists is not available to the public. Since the checklist is used to determine the approval or denial of NFA tax applications, thus are a type of instruction that should be divulged in the “Instructions” on the NFA tax applications. The “trust checklist” review does not apply to transfer of non-NFA taxed firearms to trusts.

I note that in the case of suppressors, the application of these requirements (i.e., submission of a Form 4, the extra database review, the “responsibility person” nonsense, submission of fingerprints and photographs) is especially ludicrous, given that you can buy the firearm the suppressor attaches to in a transaction completed in minute by a federal firearms licensee using NICS.  Without the firearm the suppressor attaches to, a suppressor is an exceptionally high-priced length of pipe. Again, a corporation or trust can buy a firearm in an over-the-counter transaction at a federal firearms licensee and not be subject to the Form 4, ATF 41F rules, the “responsibility person” nonsense, photographs and fingerprints.

As an aside, I have an issue with the “responsible person” requirement. I listed a friend who has been approved as a responsible person for his trust on my most recent application related to my trust.   If you list another person on a Form 1 or 4 application for a trust and that person was approved as a “responsible person” in an unrelated application, how does BATFE resolve this? Require each application be processed as a unique data set requiring submittal of the “responsible person” form, fingerprints and photographs? That is the very definition of a wasteful duplication of effort.  The Form 1/4/5 instructions do not state this is the requirement, yet we know that once approved as a “responsible person” on a trust, subsequent submissions by that trust listing that person as a “do not require submission of Form 5320.23, photographs, or fingerprints. Are they maintaining a heretofore unknown database of all persons who have been approved as a responsible person?  How is this not a form of firearms registration that states that a person possesses a firearm that they do not actually possess?

Back to the NFA process…

The entire reason for the Form 5320.23, photogaphs, and fingerprints stem from that pre-NICS world. Prior to 1998, photographs and fingerprints were useful in evaluating an individual's ability to own ANY firearm, not just NFA_taxed firearms.  With the advent of NICS, this nonsense is no longer needed, and in any event does not apply equally to ALL firearms.

If BATFE ended their reliance on these antiquated extra-legal requirements, the entire process could be effectively transferred to the federal firearms licensees who possess the requisite Special Occupational Tax (SOT) certificates, reducing transactional costs, increasing actual revenue, and speeding the process from its current 12-month or more duration.

But God forbid doing anything to jeopardize such an important rice bowl what with control of the millions of tax dollars required to administer it and the associated control it gives unelected, faceless, nameless bureaucrats over us all.

I think you missed 41F.

I think a good lawsuit would be the obvious infringement of our rights 922-0. No new registrations allowed.
It's one thing to make you jump through hoops & pay a tax for mg registration but flat out say no more allowed.
Go for that one you have a better chance.

Could you get class action status ? I am waiting on 3 stamps

Also there really is no good excuse since I have forms from 10 years ago approved in 90-120 days. I have seen a form from 1974 that was approved in less than 3 weeks

It is mainly a tax collection issue - forget all about what current practice is because this is just based on internal policy and procedure - not specifically by law.

Look at it from a different angle.

I person applies to obtain a FFL for the retail sale of firearms from a store front business.

The business has been up and running a few months and the FFL decides he wants to stock and sell NFA items. He sends in the proper amount of SOT for the license he all ready has and is issued a SOT tax stamp certificate (looks the same as the SOT tax certificate a liquor store would have, just listing a different occupation). There is traditionally no additional checks - if you were qualified to sell guns - you are qualified to sell guns... just now you have paid the addition Occupational tax to deal in the more exotic items.

On a firearm stamp there is a question of is the item requested legal at the requested address, then there is a origin pedigree verification for items all ready in the NFA registry. Other than that the buyer/requestor should be covered by the standard NICS check.

There were also nowhere near the amount of submissions to process decades ago...

Here's a pretty damn good reason why it takes longer.

I'm not even in the NFA game (mostly due to wait) and I support this and would help a little

FBATF

Justice delayed is justice denied. The Fifth Amendment states " nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law". Is waiting an indeterminable amount of time to physically retain property actually due process? One could state that this merely is applicable in criminal proceedings, but that would make the Fifth Amendment only apply to criminal proceedings, which is not the case when it comes to any of the Bill Of Rights. The Ninth Amendment covers Rights retained by the people; "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people", so this would make the Fifth amendment apply to more than just criminal proceedings. I'm a shithouse lawyer, so I could be completely out there.