Executive Summary
If you've been waiting much longer than the expected wait time for your tax stamp, call the ATF on 1-304-616-4500, and have your name (or your Trust name), the serial number of your NFA item, and the transferor's name ready, and ask them when they estimate they'll have processed your application. If you're lucky, they'll realize they're a bunch of f-ups and issue it that day.
The Grim Details
So, back in September 2022, I purchased a silencer at my favorite local gunstore, via a SilencerShop Kiosk, and filed the Form 4 for my trust, paid my $200-and-a-bit fee and started the long wait. 9 months passed. Nothing. But I tend to expect that. I'm not a natural-born American, and I'd expect that maybe the process for me might take a while, even though this isn't my first NFA item.
Then, on 7/12/2023, I get an email from an ATF agent requesting some further information on my nationality and place of birth for their records. Great, I thought. Progress. Maybe this was the holdup, so I satisfy their questions, confirm with the agent that they now had everything they needed for the process to complete. On that expectation, could they give me even a broad estimate of when the stamp might arrive? The agent informed me that their procedure was that now, my records would go to the FBI, who would undertake the check, and based on the outcome, as soon as the ATF got their response, they'd typically issue the stamp within a few days. They couldn't estimate the FBI workload.
So I waited.
And waited.
And today, I called them at 1PM. Waited 45 minutes on hold and got thru' to an agent who I asked about progress. He told me that according to my application, the status was still "In Process" and that it looked like nothing had come back from the FBI yet.
At 5.30, my LGS called me just as I received an email from the ATF indicating that the stamp had been issued, the date on the stamp being today's date.
Lesson of the day
Don't be patient and a good little subject of the state. Don't expect federal agenices to be efficient. Someone dropped the ball, and a phone call nudged them to do their jobs. I wasn't aggressive or threatening, I just asked some perfectly legitimate questions about a process I have no actual control over. On the one hand, I'm grateful to the agent (although he probably knew but hid from me the fact that the ATF were incompetent) but on the other hand, it demonstrated to me that the ATF was incompetent. I'd be upset but for the fact that I already know the ATF is incompetent.
I have no idea how many days ago the check from the FBI came back, but end to end, I waited 468 days to take posession of a a metal tube with some baffles in it that a non-law-abiding American could assemble from components picked up at Pep Boys and Home Depot for a couple of dollars.
Just to add emphasis. The ATF is incompetent.
If you've been waiting much longer than the expected wait time for your tax stamp, call the ATF on 1-304-616-4500, and have your name (or your Trust name), the serial number of your NFA item, and the transferor's name ready, and ask them when they estimate they'll have processed your application. If you're lucky, they'll realize they're a bunch of f-ups and issue it that day.
The Grim Details
So, back in September 2022, I purchased a silencer at my favorite local gunstore, via a SilencerShop Kiosk, and filed the Form 4 for my trust, paid my $200-and-a-bit fee and started the long wait. 9 months passed. Nothing. But I tend to expect that. I'm not a natural-born American, and I'd expect that maybe the process for me might take a while, even though this isn't my first NFA item.
Then, on 7/12/2023, I get an email from an ATF agent requesting some further information on my nationality and place of birth for their records. Great, I thought. Progress. Maybe this was the holdup, so I satisfy their questions, confirm with the agent that they now had everything they needed for the process to complete. On that expectation, could they give me even a broad estimate of when the stamp might arrive? The agent informed me that their procedure was that now, my records would go to the FBI, who would undertake the check, and based on the outcome, as soon as the ATF got their response, they'd typically issue the stamp within a few days. They couldn't estimate the FBI workload.
So I waited.
And waited.
And today, I called them at 1PM. Waited 45 minutes on hold and got thru' to an agent who I asked about progress. He told me that according to my application, the status was still "In Process" and that it looked like nothing had come back from the FBI yet.
At 5.30, my LGS called me just as I received an email from the ATF indicating that the stamp had been issued, the date on the stamp being today's date.
Lesson of the day
Don't be patient and a good little subject of the state. Don't expect federal agenices to be efficient. Someone dropped the ball, and a phone call nudged them to do their jobs. I wasn't aggressive or threatening, I just asked some perfectly legitimate questions about a process I have no actual control over. On the one hand, I'm grateful to the agent (although he probably knew but hid from me the fact that the ATF were incompetent) but on the other hand, it demonstrated to me that the ATF was incompetent. I'd be upset but for the fact that I already know the ATF is incompetent.
I have no idea how many days ago the check from the FBI came back, but end to end, I waited 468 days to take posession of a a metal tube with some baffles in it that a non-law-abiding American could assemble from components picked up at Pep Boys and Home Depot for a couple of dollars.
Just to add emphasis. The ATF is incompetent.
