User Panel
Posted: 1/22/2018 2:38:43 PM EDT
[Last Edit: BigWaylon]
EVERYONE WHO HAS PENDING NFA TRANSFERS, CALL AND GET A STATUS. IF THEY SAY FBI BACKGROUND IS THE WAIT, YOU HAVE A PROBLEM!!!
I work at a class 3 dealer and we just ran into a problem a few weeks back with the NFA and FBI delaying background checks on transfers. This one was mailed in. Our customer has had a Form 4 pending since Aug. 2016, the NFA says they are waiting on the FBI to do a background check. They refuse to tell us any details because we are not allowed to speak for the customer. Seems kind of a convenient way to tell him BS that wouldn't pass off on a shop. We'll after he when back and forth with the FBI, they finally told him it's the ATF's problem, handle it with them. A supervisor at the NFA (They seems to never give names, no responsibility taken), he was told they didn't even have a submission and he need to redo the whole process from the start. Well calling the standard NFA line, we confirmed this was also BS because they still had him pending as of Aug. 2016. We contacted our district US representative and got the information to "file a complaint". We'll the customer opted not to do this and just (re)submit. We'll we just had another customer call and get the same response. This one was submitted through Silencer Shop electronic submission. Oh boy, here we go again. 2 forms pending as of April 2017, FBI delay, blah blah blah. I can tell everyone trying to handle this with either of the two agencies will yield nothing but frustration and lost time. Contact your US rep from your district, we have an A+ NRA rated guy, so we are lucky in having him. But don't waste time trying to get those two pack of morons to figure it out. |
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Originally Posted By skerbo:
The female call center employees have always been polite and nice to speak with. The male employees not so much. He was always agitated and he would just say "processing" unless pushed further. He always got mad when I asked to be transferred to my examiner. View Quote Did he sound like a black guy? If so, I'm certain we are all talking about the same "processing" guy. |
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Doesn't mean that much to me, to mean that much to you.
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I am also stuck in pending background check hell on my dec form 4. Just yesterday I got back a form 4 for an item I sold at the end of FEB. I Guess that means Ive been stuck in purgatory for about 3 months now.
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So this is interesting, most of us who are pending background for a while are from the December time frame. This is from here, nfatracker, and r/nfa that I've seen this. Most are form 4s as well...
Clearly there's something going on with applications / background checks from that time frame as Form 1s are flying now, almost at 90 days. If the background checks taking a long time was a universal issue, times for all forms would still be around the 180 to 200 day mark, not 90 days and dropping fast. I'm wondering if the FBI missed a batch of checks / delays to look into and skipped forward to only look at checks / delays from "x" time frame. Also makes me wonder if the ATF shifted to burning off Form 1s for some reason while putting others on the back burner - which the data kind of shows. I'm starting to guess, and could be completely wrong, that they're under pressure to get E-Forms back up for Form 1s... Regardless its garbage, and doesn't help mine or others situation who have been in a "delay" status beyond what the law allows. |
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Originally Posted By digitalrebel80:
I am also stuck in pending background check hell on my dec form 4. Just yesterday I got back a form 4 for an item I sold at the end of FEB. I Guess that means Ive been stuck in purgatory for about 3 months now. View Quote If it doesn't, and you're in that status over 90 days and can prove its been over 90 days since the initial check by calling your examiner, then it is again indicative of the FBI not following the law on NICS checks |
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Originally Posted By fettesbrotde:
That's literally not what I was implying at all - It's clear that we the lowly people cannot do anything about this. Hence asking why attorneys for the firearm community had not taken it up and pressed the gov hard on it. Also, no disrespect to you, but filing a complaint on behalf of a number of plaintiffs does not solve the issue for the rest of us. You know as well as I that the gov will just remedy their situations and then nothing else will come of it. Is it a good thing? YES, does it solve the overall problem? Not from my point of view, but I could be wrong obviously, and I'm willing to admit that. Also your amended complaint has one delay issue in it, and its for a firearm purchase. That plaintiff also was allowed the transfer after five days and an ATF agent investigated and found no issue. My specific delay issue is that the NFA branch received a "delay" in my NICS check for an NFA application almost 2 months ago and both the NFA branch and the FBI have done nothing about this. The ATF won't process my Form 4 application without the "proceed" / review by the FBI on my "delay", and the FBI won't process "delays" for the ATF in a timely manner. As you know this is directly against 28 CFR 25.6(c)(1)(iv)(B): I've called, spoken in detail with my examiner, tried to speak with the FBI (whom you know will not discuss anything over the phone), and am formulating an email to the head of the NFA branch, NICS section chief (who I'm still trying to research - latest info I have is a Kimberly J. Del Greco), as well as my congressman, and whoever else might need to know. Yeah, its probably gonna piss off a few people, maybe I'll get another document in my FBI file, but a FOIA request about it next year and the ensuing communications would be quite interesting and telling, if not helpful for future cases. So before you get a little salty, please try to understand it from my (our) point of view. Some of us ARE trying to do some legwork. We're doing this in an environment intentionally devoid of any information to help us. Some of the things we do, and the communications we get could help one another or you in your cases. We're all in this together, equally getting fucked and deprived of our Second Amendment rights. It needs to be attacked from all angles and we need to be relentless until the agencies in question get the point and do what they are bound by law to do. View Quote And speaking of FOIA requests: The best speculation that we have right now is that this is how delays have always worked. Because of the 3-day rule with gun shops, the FBI seems to process all those delays first at the beginning of each day or during the day and only touches the "NFA" delay stack when it's convenient for them and they're out of other delays to process. If there's only a small amount of NFA delays in the system at any given time, this isn't a huge issue - I.e., maybe an NFA delay gets processed in 3 weeks or whatever, a small enough amount of time that a transferee wouldn't notice in context of the already stupid-long ATF process. But some bug happens with NICS that causes thousands of people in a certain date range to all get unnecessarily delayed. And boom, now that relatively small NFA stack is now a huge NFA stack that will take a year or more to go through at the current rate. And since this is all electronic, it's not like an actual stack sitting on someone's desk, the FBI might not even know the backlog is irregularly large (if they even care). So finally getting to my point, a super interesting FOIA request (if it's even doable) would be to know how many NFA delays were in 2015, 2016, 2017, etc… and compare. I'm sure by the time the request processed it wouldn't matter anymore. |
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Originally Posted By fettesbrotde:
I'd be careful if you're in "pending background" for more than 3 months - By law the FBI has to purge the NICS check at 90 days. This means it could get stuck in some indefinite purgatory. If it doesn't, and you're in that status over 90 days and can prove its been over 90 days since the initial check by calling your examiner, then it is again indicative of the FBI not following the law on NICS checks View Quote |
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1/12/18 ...Form 1 SBR went pending
was in BGC limbo called examiner and got my NTN - very nice woman Last week called the FBI between 12-5 tue-fri and followed 500 prompts... finally talked to FBI Customer Service..lol. They told me there was a backlog and BG was not on hold or denied. I asked who I should contact to push it through... FBI sent an email to someone(no idea who). FBI was very nice and sympathetic. today called my examiner. She told me that I was on latest batch of approvals and it would be processed today. now I wait for my other Form 4 |
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Originally Posted By 2005army:
1/12/18 ...Form 1 SBR went pending was in BGC limbo called examiner and got my NTN - very nice woman Last week called the FBI between 12-5 tue-fri and followed 500 prompts... finally talked to FBI Customer Service..lol. They told me there was a backlog and BG was not on hold or denied. I asked who I should contact to push it through... FBI sent an email to someone(no idea who). FBI was very nice and sympathetic. today called my examiner. She told me that I was on latest batch of approvals and it would be processed today. now I wait for my other Form 4 View Quote |
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What are you gonna do brother? When 72oz of Cola runs wild on you!
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Originally Posted By 2005army:
1/12/18 ...Form 1 SBR went pending was in BGC limbo called examiner and got my NTN - very nice woman Last week called the FBI between 12-5 tue-fri and followed 500 prompts... finally talked to FBI Customer Service..lol. They told me there was a backlog and BG was not on hold or denied. I asked who I should contact to push it through... FBI sent an email to someone(no idea who). FBI was very nice and sympathetic. today called my examiner. She told me that I was on latest batch of approvals and it would be processed today. now I wait for my other Form 4 View Quote Who was your examiner? My examiner danced around my question when I asked her when exactly I went into BGC. Her answered not verbatim: well, it was certainly longer ago than where they (fbi) are currently at on processing their checks. I had to trace back to some of my old posts here to see that I went into BGC sometime late January early February. |
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Doesn't mean that much to me, to mean that much to you.
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Just got off the phone with my examiner. She said the flip-flops have completed BGC up to March 19th.
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Originally Posted By smartliketractor:
Just got off the phone with my examiner. She said the flip-flops have completed BGC up to March 19th. View Quote I called in this morning to do another check. Guy at the front desk (usually the nice girl) was super rude and annoyed. The first serial I gave him he said it had been approved just today. I gave him another serial and he said it was still "processing". When I asked him if that meant "pending background check" he said yes. I tried to get forwarded to my examiner and got voice mail again. So presumably I have an approval NTN number from that one can that got approved today and could use that for my other 7 that are pending BGC. But that would require me getting ahold of my examiner which I haven't been able to do for 3-4 weeks now. I also think it's interesting that he was using the language "processing" now. I wonder if they've been instructed to say that instead of the BGC because it's causing too many issues for them with people calling in. |
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Originally Posted By pbjunkiee:
Sounds identical to my experience View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By pbjunkiee:
Originally Posted By 2005army:
1/12/18 ...Form 1 SBR went pending was in BGC limbo called examiner and got my NTN - very nice woman Last week called the FBI between 12-5 tue-fri and followed 500 prompts... finally talked to FBI Customer Service..lol. They told me there was a backlog and BG was not on hold or denied. I asked who I should contact to push it through... FBI sent an email to someone(no idea who). FBI was very nice and sympathetic. today called my examiner. She told me that I was on latest batch of approvals and it would be processed today. now I wait for my other Form 4 WTF, there is no consistency at all. I finally got ahold of my examiner and she flat out refused to give me the Nics transaction #. She swore it was against the law to give it out. Examiner is Patricia Bartle |
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"I'll loosen the restraints on your wrist a little and let you take something back from your purse if you let me sign you up to the gang bang of the month club after I break this bump stock off in your poop chute"- KalmanPhilter
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Originally Posted By TinyCrumb:
Yeah this makes absolutely no sense. There's tons of us waiting still who had background checks submitted before 03/19. I called in this morning to do another check. Guy at the front desk (usually the nice girl) was super rude and annoyed. The first serial I gave him he said it had been approved just today. I gave him another serial and he said it was still "processing". When I asked him if that meant "pending background check" he said yes. I tried to get forwarded to my examiner and got voice mail again. So presumably I have an approval NTN number from that one can that got approved today and could use that for my other 7 that are pending BGC. But that would require me getting ahold of my examiner which I haven't been able to do for 3-4 weeks now. I also think it's interesting that he was using the language "processing" now. I wonder if they've been instructed to say that instead of the BGC because it's causing too many issues for them with people calling in. View Quote |
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I would keep hounding your examiners... at this point i would be asking for a NICS check to be deleted and redone while I waited on hold.
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Originally Posted By FrankW134:
Great idea, keep hounding them so they cant do their job. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By FrankW134:
Originally Posted By 2005army:
I would keep hounding your examiners... at this point i would be asking for a NICS check to be deleted and redone while I waited on hold. Not sure if serious Do you really think they're doing their jobs as is? Screw it, I'm going all in. What do I have to lose at this point. Maybe 3 or 4 calls a day will get things moving. Out of all my calls I've only ever gotten to speak to my examiner one time, usually just goes to voicemail. |
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"I'll loosen the restraints on your wrist a little and let you take something back from your purse if you let me sign you up to the gang bang of the month club after I break this bump stock off in your poop chute"- KalmanPhilter
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Doesn't mean that much to me, to mean that much to you.
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I called today, and mine was approved 7/27
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What are you gonna do brother? When 72oz of Cola runs wild on you!
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Originally Posted By 2005army:
I would keep hounding your examiners... at this point i would be asking for a NICS check to be deleted and redone while I waited on hold. View Quote Examiner said this wasnt something she could do It really burns my ass that these people could take 2 minutes to fix this but apparently either don't care if are under instruction not to be helpful. I was also given the date of March 19 as to where they were at with BGC backlog |
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"I'll loosen the restraints on your wrist a little and let you take something back from your purse if you let me sign you up to the gang bang of the month club after I break this bump stock off in your poop chute"- KalmanPhilter
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To add more to the problem, I spoke again with my examiner today:
ATF says they can't proceed with the application after 3 days of no word from the FBI on a delay as that law (Brady) only applies to non-NFA items. Ironically, I cannot find a single federal law or rule about this. Imagine that. What's even better, is if that WAS the case, then NICS checks shouldnt apply to NFA items at all They're so entrenched in bureaucracy its unreal. I dont blame the examiners - they're doing their best. I blame their management, because clearly something isn't right. |
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Riddle me this; WTF do the ATF examiners actually "examine" if the FBI does all the background checking for them?
Also, @nolocontendere any updates on this? I know it says on the FBI website that you can appeal delays too, and not just denials. |
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Doesn't mean that much to me, to mean that much to you.
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Originally Posted By swampvol:
Riddle me this; WTF do the ATF examiners actually "examine" if the FBI does all the background checking for them? Also, @nolocontendere any updates on this? I know it says on the FBI website that you can appeal delays too, and not just denials. View Quote |
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Originally Posted By 00sdime00:
Your answer to the question about appeals for NFA denials is at the bottom of page 5 in This thread View Quote |
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Doesn't mean that much to me, to mean that much to you.
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Originally Posted By swampvol:
Riddle me this; WTF do the ATF examiners actually "examine" if the FBI does all the background checking for them? Also, @nolocontendere any updates on this? I know it says on the FBI website that you can appeal delays too, and not just denials. View Quote |
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And if we should die tonight, then we should all die together, raise a glass of wine for the last time, calling out for the rope, prepare as we will watch the flames burn on and on the mountain side desolation comes upon the sky
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We are the People...!
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Originally Posted By DaveP1: With all the technology they have available to them even 5-6 months is bullshit! View Quote |
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well guys I'm part of the club... Form 4: Tax Stamp Cashed on 12/19/2017
Pending FBI Background check... This is insane I have other suppressors already and never been arrested for anything in my life. |
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“Banana ammo clip containing 25 caliber rounds”
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Originally Posted By DaveP1:
With all the technology they have available to them even 5-6 months is bullshit! View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By DaveP1:
Originally Posted By FrankW134: Maybe I'm just privileged, but I get all of mine in 5-6 months. Fill out the form, they can do the NICs check, stuck a stamp on it and process it. If nothing else it would lead to a HUGE increase in NFA stuff. |
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You must play the game. You can't win. You can't break even. You can't quit the game.
Never work on hides that are still attached to the animal. Especially if it's alive. Just trust me on this. That is all. -- Torgrul |
I’ve been pending FBI BC since April/May(Cashed October 11, No criminal record, just an immigrant/green card holder) called to see if I can speak to anyone at FBI than can help. The atf person said it’s not worth it as they’ll just tell me to wait more. I have another can I bought from April and don’t expect to see this year, I’d be happy if I get my first one this year
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Originally Posted By JonathanwFL:
I've been pending FBI BC since April/May(Cashed October 11, No criminal record, just an immigrant/green card holder) called to see if I can speak to anyone at FBI than can help. The atf person said it's not worth it as they'll just tell me to wait more. I have another can I bought from April and don't expect to see this year, I'd be happy if I get my first one this year View Quote I also chuckle when I think about this - It's eerily reminiscent of the Stasi. A government agency that runs relatively unchecked without following law, and can collect information on anyone, any way they want. One that also keeps files on people and those people don't know what's in them / can't without a lengthy wait and hoops to jump through... if they even get all of the info. But call them and ask "hey, whats holding up this check?" and it's "we know nothing!". |
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Every dealer in the country should be able to roll a set of prints optically, run a background check and get a decision and issue a stamp on the spot, take your money and send you on your way with your new toy. Same way you can go to the LGS pick out your gun, spend a while waiting for the proceed and go home and have fun.
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We are the People...!
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Originally Posted By coltshorty14:
10/16 Mailed 10/27 received at ATF 3/22 went into BGC hell 7/18 proceeded by FBI 7/27 approved by ATF Haven't received stamp yet. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By coltshorty14:
Originally Posted By pbjunkiee: what are the other dates? 10/27 received at ATF 3/22 went into BGC hell 7/18 proceeded by FBI 7/27 approved by ATF Haven't received stamp yet. Picked my can up, but got home to late to try it out. |
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Still pending BGC here. Left another message with my examiner since she never emailed.
Also tried calling NICS. Couldn’t get through due to high volume. Anyone have tips on getting ahold of FBI? |
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Well she emailed me back “you are still in delay status, but the FBI is getting close to the date it was submitted.”
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How does one end up in the "FBI BGC"?
For example, I received two stamps back in under 90 days through a F1 Trust. I still have another F1 Trust application that was sent to an examiner on 7/19 but still under "pending", This current pending application was mailed in a couple weeks (4/18/18) before my two other F1's which have already been approved and received. Could there be a chance I'm randomly in that backlogged FBI BGC status? |
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Yup.
Id call and seenif they can use your ntn from your previous cans on that one stuck in the wormhole |
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What are you gonna do brother? When 72oz of Cola runs wild on you!
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Originally Posted By revottuneda4:
Still pending BGC here. Left another message with my examiner since she never emailed. Also tried calling NICS. Couldn't get through due to high volume. Anyone have tips on getting ahold of FBI? View Quote |
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Originally Posted By pbjunkiee:
Yup. Id call and see if they can use your ntn from your previous cans on that one stuck in the wormhole View Quote I ask because I sent two F4s in that were delivered today. They're for silencers that were approved ~2 weeks ago to me as an individual, and I'm transferring them to a trust in which I'm the sole RP...so the BGC will be identical. I put a post-it on the first page giving them that basic info and mentioned it would save them some time if they'd just use the ntn for the recently approved forms (same SN as submitted forms). Figured it cost me nothing but a post-it and 30 seconds to write the note...we'll see. |
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Originally Posted By BigWaylon:
I'd never even heard of "ntn" until this thread. For those that have asked about it, does the examiner have it? Is it in the registry? Does it link to the approved BGC, so that an examiner could approve a form if they had the ntn? I ask because I sent two F4s in that were delivered today. They're for silencers that were approved ~2 weeks ago to me as an individual, and I'm transferring them to a trust in which I'm the sole RP...so the BGC will be identical. I put a post-it on the first page giving them that basic info and mentioned it would save them some time if they'd just use the ntn for the recently approved forms (same SN as submitted forms). Figured it cost me nothing but a post-it and 30 seconds to write the note...we'll see. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By BigWaylon:
Originally Posted By pbjunkiee:
Yup. Id call and see if they can use your ntn from your previous cans on that one stuck in the wormhole I ask because I sent two F4s in that were delivered today. They're for silencers that were approved ~2 weeks ago to me as an individual, and I'm transferring them to a trust in which I'm the sole RP...so the BGC will be identical. I put a post-it on the first page giving them that basic info and mentioned it would save them some time if they'd just use the ntn for the recently approved forms (same SN as submitted forms). Figured it cost me nothing but a post-it and 30 seconds to write the note...we'll see. The examiner absolutely has it. I've gotten mine from my examiner and others have done the same. As far as I know it's not in the registry. It's just for the check. It's the same thing when you get a background check with a firearm purchase (if your state uses NICS). |
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Originally Posted By NoloContendere: The fbi said it was not a firearms transaction so you couldn’t appeal it to them. I took the position that since the fbi denied, the appeal was proper with them. One of my clients reported that the atf contacted him and asked for an additional document post filing of the lawsuit so I suspect the fbi has corrected his records View Quote It says you can on their website for a typical firearm purchase delay. |
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Doesn't mean that much to me, to mean that much to you.
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I have 2 Form 1's sent in the middle of December and a Form 4 sent in the middle of Jan and haven't heard anything, I suppose that I'm in BCG delay status. I always get put in delay status from NICS, sometimes got approvals in 2 or 3 days, sometimes never. Fortunately my dealer did the 3 day transfer. I now have a UPIN which I put down on the 4473 and am always approved in minutes when NICS is called, but it's still several days when the dealer does the online NICS check, I'm not sure why the difference.
Who do you call to find out the examiner handling these 3 forms, would it be one examiner for all 3 or different examiners? And if I reach them, do I just explain the situation, give them my UPIN number, and tell them to forward it to the FBI who can run a new BGC? I'm not sure what the proper procedure is here. |
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I say youre still in the normal time period.
If you hit 10 months start to research. |
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What are you gonna do brother? When 72oz of Cola runs wild on you!
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Someone posted this link from ATF in subguns that says that the current average times for Form 1's in 6 months, and for form 4's it's 7 months.
https://www.atf.gov/about/docs/undefined/current-processing-times-atf-applications/download |
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