Hot off the Press! E forms coming

E forms going live in December.

https://www.silencershop.com/blog/p...campaign=12.3.21 [eForms #0]&utm_content=Body

just saw that. Wonder if this will actually speed anything up? I have my doubts.

Sounds great.

Anyone know what law (or CFR) that covers the retention, use and searchability of these digital records? I'm all for speeding up the ridiculous process, but I have little trust that this will not evolve into something to be abused by future authorities.

I purchased my can in March. Called for an update in September. Lady said they are running about 7 months. Callled today, still pending and the guy now says 10-11 months..

This has been coming for like 10 years or something. I don't foresee it reducing wait times drastically. Maybe a few weeks.

if its anything like form 1s, it will dramatically reduce wait times.

The bad news is I see ppl who efile in Jan will get their cans before ppl who bought in Oct. I think this will be true for at least a year.

Last paperwork that came through here was a couple weeks ago and it was 9 months from check being cashed

Eform 4s have been "imminent" every couple of months for years. Kinda sucks, have been watching Jan 2021 approvals come back on the Reddit tracker thread for the last 4 months, waiting on a can from June. There is absolutely 0 reason form 4s shouldn't be e-forms approved within 30 days like form 1s. Only downside is that is If approvals on new cans can be had in a couple weeks, I'm going to be really broke.

My dealer, who is probably the largest silencer dealer in the area, is predicting eForm4 wait times will settle down to 2-4 months eventually. No call on what they’ll be like for the initial rush.

alucard0822 said:

Only downside is that is If approvals on new cans can be had in a couple weeks, I'm going to be really broke.

Click to expand...

This is a good problem to have! You bet your a$$ I am buying another can the day that thing is in operation. I don't know which one or what for, but I'll find something and some rationale to go with it

Seagrave1963 said:

Sounds great.

Anyone know what law (or CFR) that covers the retention, use and searchability of these digital records? I'm all for speeding up the ridiculous process, but I have little trust that this will not evolve into something to be abused by future authorities.

Click to expand...

Off the top of my head no. But don’t worry, existing NFA forms are digitized and retained at some point AFAIK. It is only the 4473s that can’t be. ATF has an electronic database of every NFA tax stamp holder (as does treasury). No law prevents it.

So this system changes nothing in that regard. It does make it faster to move the application around as well as get it to them. So even if they didn’t prioritize processing, it should cut at least 2-3 weeks off of not needing to mail an application, open it, cash the check, etc.

I’d guess strongly it’ll speed things up by multiple weeks by making it more time efficient to process each application. Not sure if they are manually keying everything or if they use high speed scanners. But I suspect manually keying. They are certainly signing the original paperwork when complete to mail it back.

If it was taking 30-45 minutes per application before and it takes 20 now, over the tens of thousands of form 4s they get every year that’s several work years of savings.

If it was an hour to key everything, possibly pass around the documents multiple times (the person doing the remittance on the check likely isn’t the person doing the full data entry or entering the NICS request, etc.

I wouldn’t be surprised if a paper form 4 took 90-120 minutes of total work to process over multiple people touching it and moving it around physically. I could be wrong about that. They might be doing HSS and moving the electronic image around and the physical just goes to the final person signing off on the form and then back in an envelope with the stamp to be mailed back.

IIRC they only have something like 20-30 people handling all NFA forms. Every type. I’d imagine form 4s are the most time intensive one for them to do because of handling the paper. So going all electronic might really be a massive time savings.

I did notice the ATF said anyone who cancels a paper application and submits it through the electronic system will be placed on a 1 year hold.

I get they don’t want people messing up the system by doing that, but damnnnnnnnn….

I just hope debuting the electronic system doesn’t seriously slow down the paper they do have. I get there is a good chance people will submit electronic form 4s in December that’ll process before my paper form 4 does that got cashed 6/1. But I just hope the electronic form 4s don’t slow down all of the paper ones already “in process”. That would suck to have months added because either the electronic ones get priority or because a crap ton more people start submitting form 4s because “they get processed in weeks instead of months now”

calicojack said:

This is a good problem to have! You bet your a$$ I am buying another can the day that thing is in operation. I don't know which one or what for, but I'll find something and some rationale to go with it

Click to expand...

I’ll at least wait until I know how fast they’ll be processing them. It’ll suck though to possibly submit one in, say February, and maybe get it back before the fan whose check was cashed 6/1….

I can’t say I’ll only ever own 3 cans. Or 4. But I’ve got all my bases covered when this 3rd breaks NFA jail. I kind of want a Warlock to live on my buckmark. So that is a possible 4th. Beyond that…don’t know. I might get another 30 caliber can at some point as a dedicated lightweight hunting can eventually.

This might finally convince me to get off my ass and get a suppressor. Though the repeal of the NFA and disbandment of the ATF would be even sweeter!

Forgive my (maybe) dumb question, but I’ve only used SilencerShop kiosk for 3 cans (one approved and two pending), and all my “paperwork” has been done electronically, how is the “new” e-forms going to differ from this? I suppose I’m naively thinking this is already “e-forms”. I believe SilencerShop files digitally already?

AlBeight said:

Forgive my (maybe) dumb question, but I’ve only used SilencerShop kiosk for 3 cans (one approved and two pending), and all my “paperwork” has been done electronically, how is the “new” e-forms going to differ from this? I suppose I’m naively thinking this is already “e-forms”. I believe SilencerShop files digitally already?

Click to expand...

They print everything out and ship it to ATF until eForms come back online. You are doing a paper form 4. SilencerShop worked with ATF to make a 3d bar code system that would do all the data entry for them, but if it made a difference in wait times, I sure didn’t notice.

eForms, as dumb as this sounds, skips all the manual data entry procedures. So there is not a person manually retyping all your info. I could totally be wrong, but what I have been told is that the automatic importation of your forms into the other databases that the gov uses for paperwork is supposed to be why eForms are so much faster. So auto fill is why eForm1s take a few weeks, and paper form 1s take 6-12 months.

The FAA started this type of system some years ago. Now, an applicant files electronically and it gets routed and signed off by each person and then filed electronically. There are no more paper file cabinets in FAA facilities. It is much faster for any authorization that you request. Just the mailing time savings too and fro saves a couple of weeks.

John from MD said:

The FAA started this type of system some years ago. Now, an applicant files electronically and it gets routed and signed off by each person and then filed electronically. There are no more paper file cabinets in FAA facilities. It is much faster for any authorization that you request. Just the mailing time savings too and fro saves a couple of weeks.

Click to expand...

This is where I can see it improving times, only if implemented correctly. But this the gov. That usually take years to straighten out and get it working. It is not just the simple. Don't get me wrong, I am all for speeding up the process. Hell I have suggested check for stamp ownership, if yes, do a NCICs, if clean, approve. No prior stamp, do the full gamut of what evert it is they do.

BTW, the Silencer Shop really delayed the entire system right before 41F was enacted. If you you don know, they collected F4's and had a van or 2 FULL of F4's that they drove to Georgia (I think) and had hand delivered over 10K forms at once.I think I had 3 or 4 in that bunch.

sundazes said:

This has been coming for like 10 years or something. I don't foresee it reducing wait times drastically. Maybe a few weeks.

Click to expand...

all the info goes to a printer queue and it still probably needs to be entered manually into another system.

This is really going to help the backlog when they add pistol braces to the NFA.

Just think,
Once the Feds are in charge of your medical care,, that approval for treatment of your stage 4 cancer will only take 9-11 months