Ready to do some Electronic Filing for your newest suppressor? The BATFE recently shut down their Eforms website from the 17th-21st to completely revamp their website. You may be asking…what does this have to do with me and my next NFA purchase? 

If you’re new to the entire NFA ownership process we will start with how paperwork for suppressor ownership is processed. Firstly you will need to select the suppressor(s) that you are wanting to purchase. Once you’ve made that decision you will need to then purchase said suppressor or in many cases put money down towards that purchase in order to begin the paperwork. From there the Dealer or Manufacturer will take that suppressor information (make, model, cal, sn) along with your information to process what is called an ATF Form 4. Traditionally this paperwork is done via hard copy, which includes you having to supply (2) Passport Size Photos, and (2) sets of completed ATF fingerprint cards per individual, per suppressor. In a trust it gets a bit more complicated as each person needs to provide a separate Responsible Persons Questionaire along with the photos and fingerprints. As simple as this paperwork is to complete, it often takes some time to complete and triple check for errors. In discussion with dealers this paperwork can often deter firearm dealers from steering away from becoming an NFA dealer. Once this paperwork is completed in full we then must snail mail it to the ATF, then wait… often times 7,8,9, months before we hear any response back from the ATF.

From the email the NFA Division sent last week, they describe that they will be completely revamping their website to also include Electronic Filing of Form 4s. With that in mind hopefully suppressor paperwork will begin to come back faster, as all aspects of the detailed process will then be able to be completed on the computer and then quickly processed into the ATF’s online system. 

This update hopefully will bring faster turn-around times between time of purchase to suppressor approval. 

What we’re doing to improve!

Here at Creative Arms LLC. we are gearing up some extra tech to help us with this process. We recently purchased an electronic fingerprint system, allowing for us to digitally submit your fingerprints and also securely store those fingerprints and information to be printed off any time or to help us complete paperwork in the future for other NFA usage. This extra investment will help us process your paperwork faster and easier moving into the future. 

With this new system coming it will take a few weeks to get our team acclimated to the new website and most likely any quirks that the site may have. 

Let’s get started.

If you’re looking to purchase a suppressor or firearm in the future please email us at sales@creativearms.com, or call us at 515.645.5909 as we would love to get an appointment set up with you.

Please note that we are by APPOINTMENT ONLY, as we are a manufacturer and often times have appointments set up in select time slots to allow us to complete any extra paperwork.