Form 4 approval

Definition

The ATF sign-off a suppressor or short-barreled gun sale must have before the buyer may take the item home.

Why It Matters

Type 01 dealer names the class a storefront holds. A suppressor or a short-barreled rifle or shotgun brings a second statute to the counter, and it rides with the person buying. No such item may pass to a consumer until a Form 4, filed by the store as transferor, is approved and registers it to that buyer. The buyer may not take possession before approval, and where the buyer is a trust or a company, the form carries every responsible person. The regulation now sets the transfer tax at zero for everything except machine guns and destructive devices, so approval is the gate that is left. Dealing in these items at all takes a special occupational tax of five hundred dollars a year for each location, never prorated. Between dealers the item moves on a tax-exempt Form 3, which is how the seller's registered stock reaches a buyer at closing, once the buyer holds its own license and special tax. Ask how many Form 4s are pending, since each names the seller as transferor.