Federal Form 4473
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A Firearms Transaction Record, or ATF Form 4473, is a seven-page form prescribed by the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), commonly referred to as ATF, is a domestic law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice. Its responsibilities include the investigation and prevention ...
(ATF) required in the
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to be completed when a person proposes to purchase a firearm from a
Federal Firearms License A federal firearms license (FFL) is a license in the United States that enables an individual or a company to engage in a business pertaining to the manufacture or importation of firearms and ammunition, or the interstate and intrastate sale of ...
(FFL) holder, such as a gun dealer. Form 4473 contains the purchaser's name, address, date of birth, government-issued photo ID,
National Instant Criminal Background Check System The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) is a background check system in the United States created by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 to prevent firearm sales to people prohibited under the Act. The system ...
(NICS) background check transaction number, and a short
affidavit An ( ; Medieval Latin for "he has declared under oath") is a written statement voluntarily made by an ''affiant'' or ''deposition (law), deponent'' under an oath or affirmation which is administered by a person who is authorized to do so by la ...
stating that the purchaser is eligible to purchase firearms under federal law. It also contains the make, model, or serial numbering the firearm. Lying on the form is a
felony A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "''félonie''") to describe an offense that r ...
punishable by up to five years in prison in addition to fines, even if the transaction is denied by the NICS. Prosecutions are rare in the absence of a felony committed with the gun purchased. Of 556,496 denied transactions between FY 2008 and FY 2015, federal prosecutors prosecuted an average of under 32 cases per year, including 24 in FY 2013, 15 in FY 2014 and 20 in FY 2015. If a person purchases a firearm from a private individual who is not a FFL licensed dealer, the purchaser is not required in most states to complete a Form 4473. Some states (such as California, Colorado, Nevada, New Jersey, Virginia, and Washington) require individual sellers to sell through dealers. These forms are given the same status as a
tax return A tax return is a form on which a person or organization presents an account of income and circumstances, used by the tax authorities to determine liability for tax. Tax returns are usually processed by each country's tax authority, known as ...
under the
Privacy Act of 1974 Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of ...
and cannot be disclosed by the government to private parties or other government officials except in accordance with the Privacy Act. Individual dealers possessing a copy of the form are not subject to the Privacy Act's restrictions on disclosure. Formerly, dealers were required to maintain completed forms for 20 years in the case of completed sales, and for 5 years where the sale was disapproved as a result of the NICS check. Beginning in August 2022, dealers were required to keep completed forms indefinitely, with the option of sending forms over 20 years in to the ATF.


eForm 4473

In response to the
Government Paperwork Elimination Act The Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA, Title XVII) requires that, when practicable, federal agencies use electronic forms, electronic filing, and electronic signatures to conduct official business with the public by 2003. In doing thi ...
(GPEA), and based upon requests from the firearms industry, the ATF has developed the e-Form 4473 to assist in the proper completion of the Federal Firearms Transaction Record (ATF Form 4473). The ATF eForm 4473 is designed to help eliminate errors in completing Form 4473 for both the firearm purchaser and the licensed seller. The eForm 4473 is provided to the public, including major retailers, free of charge via the ATF eForm web site. ATF eForm 4473 is a downloadable application that runs locally on the seller's computer and supports both
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and
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operating systems. (See "External links" section below.)


Acquisition and Disposition Log

The firearm dealer is required to record some information from the Form 4473 into a "bound-book", called an "Acquisition and Disposition Log". The dealer must keep the Form 4473 on file for the lifetime of the FFL, and is required to surrender the log book to the ATF upon retirement from the firearms business. The ATF is allowed to inspect, as well as request a copy of, the Form 4473 from the dealer during the course of a criminal investigation. In addition, the sale of two or more
handgun A handgun is a firearm designed to be usable with only one hand. It is distinguished from a long gun, long barreled gun (i.e., carbine, rifle, shotgun, submachine gun, or machine gun) which typically is intended to be held by both hands and br ...
s to a person in a five-day period must be reported to the ATF on
Form 3310.4 Report of Multiple Sale or Other Disposition of Pistols and Revolvers, or ATF Form 3310.4, is a form prescribed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) for use by firearm dealers holding a Federal Firearms License (FFL) to ...
.


Revisions


2016

In 2016, the ATF made several changes to the form, including adding a warning statement that the use of
marijuana Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...
is illegal under federal law, regardless of whether it has been legalized or decriminalized for
medicinal Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...
or
recreational Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. The "need to do something for recreation" is an essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for enjoyment, amusement, or plea ...
purposes in the state where the transferee/buyer resides.


2020

In 2020, the ATF made further changes to the form, including adding a warning that "any person who exports a firearm without a proper authorization from either the
Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce (DOC) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government. It is responsible for gathering data for business ...
or the
Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs ...
, as applicable, is subject to a fine of not more than $1,000,000 and up to 20 years imprisonment." As of November 1, 2020, all FFL holders were required to transition to the new revision. Additional changes made to the form include: * Relocating questions relating to the
manufacturer Manufacturing is the creation or Production (economics), production of goods with the help of equipment, Work (human activity), labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary se ...
, importer,
model A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin , . Models can be divided in ...
,
serial number A serial number (SN) is a unique identifier used to ''uniquely'' identify an item, and is usually assigned incrementally or sequentially. Despite being called serial "numbers", they do not need to be strictly numerical and may contain letters ...
, type,
caliber In guns, particularly firearms, but not #As a measurement of length, artillery, where a different definition may apply, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel Gauge ( ...
or
gauge Gauge ( ) may refer to: Measurement * Gauge (instrument), any of a variety of measuring instruments * Gauge (firearms) * Wire gauge, a measure of the size of a wire ** American wire gauge, a common measure of nonferrous wire diameter, especia ...
, and number of firearms to be transferred to a new Section A at the beginning of the form. These questions were previously located in Section D. * New options for questions relating to personal information, such as the option to select
Non-binary Non-binary or genderqueer Gender identity, gender identities are those that are outside the male/female gender binary. Non-binary identities often fall under the transgender umbrella since non-binary people typically identify with a gende ...
as a Sex, the option to include an Appeals Management Database Identification (AMD ID) as a Unique Personal Identification Number, and two new immigration-based questions. * Additional criminal history questions, relating to dealings with a
military court A court-martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the arme ...
, misdemeanor domestic violence offenses, and orders of protection.


Convictions

According to the
US Sentencing Commission The United States Sentencing Commission is an independent agency of the judicial branch of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for articulating the U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines for the federal courts. The Commission promulgate ...
, approximately 5,000 to 6,000 people a year are convicted of receiving or possessing a firearm against one of the prohibitions above. In 2017, over 25.2 million actual background checks were performed in total. In 2024,
Hunter Biden Robert Hunter Biden (born February4, 1970) is an American attorney and businessman. He is the second son of former president Joe Biden and his first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden was a founding board member of BHR Partners, a Chine ...
, who had lied on a question on a 4473 form, was convicted on three gun charges by a Federal Jury.


References

{{reflist


External links


eForm 4473 (electronic version)Form 4473 (PDF)
4473 United States federal firearms law