Quote History Quoted:
I believe that the law says the 3 days starts upon purchase not upon completing a 4473.
There are a number of shops that will do a the background check and transfer for a gun bought on the internet and they all consider the "purchase" when you paid the on-line seller and not when you come in to pick it up. What's nice about that is you can get the gun right away as you already waited the 3 days (which is really 5) while the gun is in transit.
View Quote
I've heard of a few that do that, and don't doubt that plenty do. Myself, I have a CWL so it hasn't mattered to me. When I worked at a shop years ago though, and most of the shops I deal with, you do not sign and date a legal document (4473) with a date other than the current. Section A says "certification date" and section C says "If the transfer of the firearm(s) takes place on a different day from the date that the transferee/buyer signed Section A, the transferee/buyer must complete Section C immediately prior to the transfer of the firearm(s)."
So if you buy something on the 1st, come in on the 10th, you're going to write "1st" in A, then "10th" in C and pretend that they were done on different days? I guess you could fill out the form, date A the 10th, then leave a notice inside the form with a purchase date to show that the person "waited" from the 1st.
Obviously of course, the wait is a local thing, not a federal thing, so not ATF's problem if you don't follow the wait. Piss off your inspector and they might start looking for reasons to mess with you.