Common sense gun law change

The ATF is hopelessly behind in processing for 4473s. I would like to propose a simple change to the law which would dramatically decrease their workload. The law currently says these records must be kept by the FFL for 20 years or until the licensee goes out of business. In addition to this being a burden for the ATF it is a burden on FFLs. It just common sense to make a change in the rules to ease the burden for everyone involved.

If the rule were changed to something reasonable like five years the ATF could recycle much of that paper stored in shipping containers. The FFLs could recycle their paper and free up storage space as well. It’s good for the environment to have put that storage area to some other use and and slow the sprawl of buildings.

We can call it something like the Second Amendment Paperwork Reduction rule change. In an ideal world there would be no paperwork other than an occasional receipt involved in exercising your specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms. But I don’t think that is politically feasible at this time. But reducing to five years might be doable.

And for those of you doubting the ability to get such an act through congress remember that the Obama administration added firearm regulations without an act of congress. So, based upon that precedent, it seems just common sense that the current president has the power to remove firearm regulations without an act of congress.

Incrementalism. It’s just common sense.

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7 thoughts on “Common sense gun law change

  1. Seriously, I don’t see how that will reduce their paperwork. We all know they don’t get rid of records at all now even when required to, much less just “not obligated to keep”. Disposing of records takes manpower, letting them sit doesn’t (the storage is likely some other budget line item that’s not as pressured, or maybe even not their cost).

    Also remember the primary concern of a government employee is to preserve his job. Letting them sit is lower risk than being bold and disposing of them.

  2. Well, with a “time to crime” (better explained as time to first LEO trace) average of just over ten years, this proposal will severely limit the data returned on trace requests.

    This makes me VERY interested in the declining investigative utility of a trace request over the longer and longer divisions of time…

  3. Can someone please explain to me what and how many crimes all those forms have solved or aided in solving? As far as I know the only thing a trace accomplishes is giving some agency something to point to after a crime is committed, for press consumption. I’ve never heard of a trace actually leading to the solving of whodunit.

    • Probably very close to, if not actually, zero. The last I heard Canada, with many decades of handgun registration, had only one case where gun registration was critical in cracking the case. Hawaii, with 20 plus years of gun registration, had solved zero cases via the gun registration.

      But facts such as these don’t matter. Some people believe it might help. Others know it will help when they start the mass confiscation. Combined they can get enough votes to keep the paperwork requirements in place for a while longer.

      Long term, if we can keep increasing the gun ownership ranks, people will become less ignorant and less tolerant of those illegal infringements and unnecessary expense and dump the entire scheme.

  4. I thought that ATF wasn’t permitted to keep 4473s, that they are only at FFLs?
    Meanwhile, this proposal sounds like a good start. But it doesn’t quite do the job. I’d suggest amending it as follows (change in bold face):
    “If the rule were changed to something reasonable like zero years…”

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