I had a customer come in and tell me this. He was at the local Walmart getting some fishing stuff and he saw a guy filling out a 4473 for a 22 rifle. Now get this. The guy was filling out 2 copies. My customer asked the Walmart guy why 2 copies and the guy told him point blank. One for us and we send the other to ATF. I am not making this up. I was going to buy a Shotgun they had on sale about 2 years ago and they tried to make me fill out 2 4473's also. I told them to go and fuck themselves. Has anyone else heard of this going on? I am a dealer and I know of no reason to fill out 2 4473's on a transaction. Any other dealers out there please let me know what you think.
Thanks for reading this and have a great day!!!

Before I read your post I was bettin were it was going.I won too.

My guess is that Mr. Minimum Wage behind the counter at Walmart is not management and doesn't know what he's talking about.  He probably knows how to do the forms and turn them over to his supervisor - and not much more.  Fact is, BATF doesn't want the forms until you go out of business.  Its probably Walmart policy to do two sets - one to keep at the local store (in case of a BATF inspection) and one to keep in a centralized location - the main corporate office or such - in case of a fire or disaster at the local store which may destroy the records there.

Because they know wal-mart won't go out of business or die, which is an inevitability for normal dealer. They've gotta make their database somehow! freakin JBTs.

I've bought several guns at big chain stores, never walmart though and I've never had to do this.

My Walmart must be rebelling, I only had to fill out one 4473 when I bought my shotgun in January.

Kharn

Don't buy guns from Wal-mart.  Simple.

Thanks for the feedback. This is not one of my regular Walmart Hater threads. I am just wondering if I was the only one who had noticed they were doing this. At least they still sell long guns.

I bought a shotgun at walmart 2 months ago and only filled out 1 form.

I worked in the sporting goods department at Walmart during my early years of college (1994-1997).  Yes, it is quite true that Walmart requires two copies of the form.  In my store, we used a piece of carbon paper to make the copy instead of having the customer write out two forms.  As stated earlier: one copy is available to the ATF, and the other is kept locked in the gun room for Walmart to retrieve for their own purposes.  What purposes, I do not know.  I asked management for a logical reason as to why Walmsrt does such a thing and ge said he has no clue because he had never seen anyone touch the lock box with Walmart's copies in it.

I am by no means defending Walmart, but dont lose any sleep over it.

JRB L1A1  

JRB L1A1
Thats the best response so far. Thanks for the info. I just didn't understand why they keep 2 copies

I recently closed my ffl.  I talked to the ATF about the forms, prior to deciding to close it.  They are government forms, not the dealers.  You are not allowed to, from what they told me, make extra copies, disclose any indformation or use it for any purpose except what if was meant for.  Every form you fill out is another purchase and you are not allowed to fill them out for your own records.  When you have a customer fill it out you are acting on the ATF's behalf, not your own.  

I would bet that some dimwit at walmart thought this would be a good idea and didnt check on the legality of it.  I would laugh my ass off if they got in trouble for misusing government forms when they were trying to kiss ATF ass.  

Its a lot like keeping extra copies of credit card reciepts.  It would be handy for the records but its still illegal.  The information on the 4473 is confidential between ATF and purchaser and the ffl holder has no rights to any use of the form other than what ATF dictates.  

Id love to have extra copies, that way I would know how to get a hold of old customers.  Too bad I have to ask them in person instead of stealing their info off a government document.  Damn those privacy laws.

This may be in violation of the Privacy Act of 1974.

[url]http://www.usbr.gov/laws/privacy.html[/url]