Thanks, ATF!

So the letter arrived over the week-end. The Form 1 that I sent in back in April of 2013 so that I could manufacture a short-barreled rifle was sent back to me due to a small error that could have been pen-and-ink changed by the person who flagged it quicker than it would have been to type up the letter of error, put it all in an envelope and address the envelope. Seriously--a phone call would have been much easier for everyone, but alas, that's not how our government rolls.

So I called up ATF's NFA Branch today and got confirmation that the fix needed was as trivial as I thought that it was, and the person that I spoke to also mentioned to me that a Form 4 that I'd sent in at the same time for a suppressor had likewise been returned to my dealer because the dealer did not include a certificate of citizenship that vouched for my US citizenship. Now it's bad enough when I mess a form up--and fair one, I did mess up the Form 1--but when I pay money to a dealer, I'm paying for their expertise and it frosts me when they mess my paperwork up; they do this for a living and should be better at it.

But the ATF guy was a decent sort. He told me what form to download to fix the Form 4 problem and let me send a copy in with the Form 1 since he was working on both applications. Him doing that instead of making me wait for my dealer to get the letter and call me up actually saved me quite a bit of time and hassle and spared me driving 30 miles to my dealers' shop. So credit where it's due, the ATF guy helped me out with the Form 4 problem and walked me through the fix on the Form 1 to make sure that it was what they wanted. That was nice.

But it's still going to be at least three months for the processing AFTER he gets done with it. The examiners are backed up that far. Sigh.