Well, let's do the math:

Examiners process all the Forms 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 and 20. Currently the total of these arriving at NFA Branch is bordering 120,000 per year.

There currently are 10 –– yes, ten! ––examiners. That's 1,000 applications per examiner per month, or 250 per week, or 50 applications per examiner per day.

But: Don't forget they are federal employees. Between vacation and federal holidays, they lose about a month per year (and you'd better pray they don't get sick or, heavens!, pregnant). So there's at least an extra 1,000 applications per year on top of the above rate.

So to keep up, even if they work five days a week, 52 weeks a year, they must process (each day's 50 divided by 8 hours =) one application every 6.25 minutes.

Now, what happens when an application is incorrectly filled out, or the documentation is incomplete, or printed on one-sided paper, or someone tries a "multi", or the trust does not meet legal standards as decreed by ATF Legal Branch?

That six minutes goes out the window as they figure out whether it can be corrected by phone (and try to reach the applicant), or they fill out the rejection slip, attached it to the application, stuff it in an envelope and put it in the outgoing mail. And that means the other 49 they had planned to process that day get pushed back.

Obviously, we need more examiners. But that is not going to happen, because ATF's budget is set by the openly antigun Justice Department and approved by the antigun Congress. It serves the federal government's goal for the NFA approval to take as long as possible.

A few years ago, the ATF honchos testified before a Congressional subcommittee on many subjects, but one question posed by a Congresscritter was: On average, how long does it take you to process an NFA application? ATF's answer: Six months. Congress's response: That's good enough.

Guys, the villains here are not the NFA Branch examiners. It's their bosses, who do not give them adequate staffing and funding.

YMMV.

I didn't forget it, because it does not exist: There is no time lost. Instead, it is gained. NFA Branch started that with three examiners on a trial basis about 18-24 months ago, and their productivity went up so much, they made it available to all the examiners. It makes a dramatic difference, particularly during the winter, when driving to work in rural W.Va. is a PITA. The per-examiner productivity, measured in processed applications, is significantly faster. Anything that makes approval faster is OK with me.

Yes. The majority of the examiners work from home two or three days a week.

Would you prefer that they go back dragging their butts to the office five days a week, and having approval turnaround drop by 15%? Because that's how much things speeded up when they were allowed to work from home.

As far as I'm concerned, if working naked in a hot tub on Mars decreased turnaround time by 15%, that would be fine by me.

Your Mileage May Vary.

In addition to the one very active member, several other examiners also browse here, and mid- and high-level ATF are also known to visit. And they pay attention to what is posted.

This is why I find it so strange that folks make so many nasty comments re: ATF in general, and NFA Branch, in particular, here.

It's not like there is any direct retribution, but how motivated would you be to complete approvals for applicants as fast as possible if you go on the internet and see those same people call you by name and repeatedly call you lazy, or incompetent, or worse? Remember, these are government jobs, and there's a wide range of job performance allowed within the guidelines.

Nothing you post here will get them fired. But it might make them say, "The hell with it. Why bother to do more than the minimum?"   Sigh.