ATF Releases New Form For Gun Purchases

The National Shooting Sports Foundation^® (NSSF^®), the trade association for the firearm industry, is pleased to announce that ATF is set to release its newest version of the Form 4473. The Form 4473 is used by all Federal Firearm License (FFL) holders to record pertinent information from persons seeking to purchase a firearm or firearms prior to the FFL performing a background check via the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) or state-approved point-of-contact law enforcement agency.

The May 2020 Form 4473 includes several changes from the previous version, including:

• The warning at the top of the form includes information about illegal exportation.
• Information on the firearm/s to be transferred is now Section A, which must be completed before the transferee completes Section B.
• The “County” block has been changed to “County/Parish/Borough” to accommodate Louisiana and Alaska, respectively.
• A new item (26c.) has been included for the recording of official military orders establishing permanent change of station.
• Item 26b, which previously applied to situations in which the identification document did not show the current residence address of the transferee, has been updated to include situations in which the identification document does not include the full legal name of the transferee.

Use of the May 2020-approved Form 4473 will be mandatory for all FFLs beginning November 1, 2020. FFLs may use supplies of their current Form 4473s (October 2016 version) until that date. The new Form 4473 and continuation sheets are available for preorder in both English and Spanish here, and FFLs can expect those preorder to begin shipping in late July 2020. In addition, ATF expects to ship 50-quantity starter packs of the new Form 4473 to all FFLs in late July 2020, and the agency intends to have an updated eForm 4473 up and running during that same time period for those FFLs utilizing the FBI’s NICS E-Check system instead of the paper Form 4473.

NSSF has ordered both Spanish and English overlays for the new Form 4473 and we will notify our members when they are in stock and available through the member portal. These overlays, which complement an FFL’s compliance best practices, help improve accuracy and completion of this critical form and are available free to NSSF members.