Okay, Euro, you sent me down the Rabbit Hole.
1) Is the ATF 3310.4 an attempt at backdoor registration? IMHO, no. it is not. I base this on the fact that the CLEO's are required to certify they have destroyed their copy of the form UNLESS the person was prohibited, in which case they would have been required to notify ATF. The FFL's original 3310.4 goes to the National Tracing Center. Some of the NTC's efforts may be seen by some as an attempt to build a national firearms registration database, but from what I know, that is not very likely: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Tracing_Center
2) How can I refuse to play? Exercise patience and pick up your pistols once every seven or eight business days. I say seven or eight just to be safe. I know PITA, but it keeps you safe from the scrutiny of a 3310.4.
Further info:
This form documents certain sales or other dispositions of handguns for law enforcement purposes. The information is used to determine if the buyer (transferee) is involved in a unlawful activity.
ATF Form 3310.4 must be completed in triplicate (3 copies). The original is sent to ATF’s National Tracing Center by FAX at 1–877–283–0288, by email at MultipleHandgunSalesForms@atf.gov, or by mail to:
U.S. Department of Justice
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
National Tracing Center
P.O. Box 0279
Kearneysville, WV 25430–0279
A copy is to be sent to the designated State police or the local law enforcement agency in the jurisdiction where the sale took place. The remaining copy is to be attached to the corresponding ATF Form 4473 and retained in the licensee’s records for a period of not less than 5 years.
Here are the instructions as to time periods:
1. Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) must use this form to report all transactions in which an unlicensed person acquired any combination of two or more pistols or revolvers totaling two or more at one time or during five consecutive business days. This form is not required when the pistols or revolvers are returned to the same person from whom they are received.
2. If this transaction is an additional firearm(s) to a multiple sale(s) previously submitted, check "Yes" and enter the date of the previous Multiple Sale form. (For example a multiple sale for purchases made on a Monday and Friday must be submitted by the close of business Friday. If an additional purchase is made within the five days from the Friday purchase, this purchase is part of the previous multiple sale and must be reported as part of that multiple sale under 2c).
Here is an ATF explanation in response to a FAQ:
The disposition of two or more pistols or revolvers to any nonlicensee during a period of 5 consecutive business days must be reported on ATF Form 3310.4, Report of Multiple Sale or Other Disposition of Pistols and Revolvers, not later than the close of the business day on the day of disposition of the second pistol or revolver.......
.....Example: A licensee conducts business only on Saturdays and Sundays, days on which State offices are not open. The licensee sells a pistol to an unlicensed person on a Saturday. If that same unlicensed person acquires another handgun the next day (Sunday), the following Saturday or Sunday, or the Saturday after that, the reporting requirement would be triggered, the subsequent acquisition of a pistol or revolver would have to be reported on a Form 3310.4 by the close of the day upon which the second or subsequent pistol or revolver was sold.
Best Business Practices for the Timely Submission of Multiple Handgun Sales Reports
Prepared by Wally Nelson, Consultant to the National Shooting Sports Foundation
Background:
Federally licensed firearms retailers are required to file ATF Form 3310.4, Report of Multiple Sale or Other Disposition of Pistols and Revolvers, to report the transfer of two or more handguns to the same person at one time or within five consecutive business days. The business days in this case are the days the retailer’s premises are open. By law, the handgun reports are due to be submitted to both the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the chief law enforcement officer (CLEO) for the location where the sale requiring the report occurred; e.g. the CLEO where the FFL’s regular premises are or the CLEO of a gun show location. The report is due on the day that the sale requiring the report occurred.
Each year ATF reports that the failure to timely and properly file multiple-handgun reports is among one of the most common violations found during inspections of retailers. ATF considers this a serious matter because it can potentially adversely impact public safety by hindering the ability of law enforcement to identify and respond to possible criminal activity.
ATF Industry Operations Investigators (IOSs) will have a listing of all multiple-handgun (and certain rifles as is required of retailers along the Southwest border) reports with them when they conduct compliance inspections.
Given the tight time frame for filing reports and the seriousness ATF places on a violation, a retailer would be well advised to develop strong internal controls to recognize sales necessitating the preparation and submission of a report.
Maintain a Simple Handgun Sale Log Book:
The most important internal control a retailer can have when it comes to ATF records is to have one person (and a backup) responsible for all record keeping, including the preparation and submission of multiple-handgun-sale reports. The experience of NSSF ATF Compliance Consultants has been that if no one person is responsible for keeping records and filing reports, inaccurate records and missed reports are far more likely to occur.
Though a review of the day’s Form 4473s would detect sales of two or more handguns on a single form, such an effort will not detect handgun sales made to the same person days apart and by different sales associates.
To identify these situations, many retailers maintain a handgun sales log book, which lists the last name, first name and date of sale for each handgun. This can be in a three-ring binder, but it could be as simple as a steno note pad. Employees who sell handguns must be trained to record all handgun sales in the log book, including occasions where two handguns are sold in a single sale. Management must check periodically to verify that the log book is being completed.
The record keeper must review the handgun log book every day, as part of the review of Form 4473s. He or she should look for sales to the same person. Any sale recorded within the last five business days that matches the name of a handgun buyer during the current day will necessitate the filing of the multiple-sales report.
The requirement to file a report also occurs when a customer buys two hand guns on one day (which in itself is reported to ATF) and then buys a third handgun within five business days of the first report. A second report is required. The record keeper must always look back five business days to determine whether a report(s) is required.
Submitting and Filing Forms 3310.4:
Multiple Sales Reports may be filed by mail, by fax and, now, by scanning and emailing them to multiplehandgunsalesforms@atf.gov.
We strongly recommend that you prepare them, scan them and attach them to a single email to above ATF address. Forms are often destroyed in the U.S. Mail, and ATF sometimes runs out of fax machine paper on long weekends. When you email it you should use the email tool to request a “delivery receipt,” and if you fax it, you should keep the fax transmission receipt so you can later document that it was sent.
Attach a copy of the report and receipt to the pertinent Form 4473 for filing. Do not maintain them in a separate file.
Here are the instructions to the Chief Law Enforcement Officer. This seems to be an attempt by ATF to ensure that the CLEO is NOT doing back dooor registrations:
Instructions to CLEOs receiving Copy 2 of this form: 18 U.S.C. 923(g)(3)(B) provides in part that you certify in writing every six months that no disclosures have
been made and that the multiple sales forms on non-prohibited persons have been destroyed by the CLEO as required by law.
The following statement can be used for this purpose:
"I hereby certify on behalf of (your specific agency name) that for the period of six months (give specific dates) there have been no disclosures of
Multiple Sales Forms contrary to the provisions of the Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act, and that all forms and any record of the contents thereof have been
destroyed as provided by that law."
This statement is to be dated and on your agency letterhead, signed by the proper official and forwarded by the CLEO to: U.S.
Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, National Tracing Center, 244 Needy Road, Martinsburg, WV 25405
Last edited by 26 Inf; 09-09-19 at 14:53.
Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President... - Theodore Roosevelt, Lincoln and Free Speech, Metropolitan Magazine, Volume 47, Number 6, May 1918.
Every Communist must grasp the truth. Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party Mao Zedong, 6 November, 1938 - speech to the Communist Patry of China's sixth Central Committee
Senior Member
Originally Posted by RHINOWSO
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