Comment on FR Doc # 2026-09182

As an employee in the industry, I feel that the new 4473 greatly streamlines the process for both FFLs and customers, simplifies the document and makes it easier to understand for the common citizen, and enables FFLs to more easily remain compliant to ATF regulations and guidelines. Providing more plain-English explanations to the commonly misconstrued questions, instructions, and exceptions only aids customers in exercising their Second Amendment rights. The changes to residence verification are necessary and greatly overdue. It should be common sense that any document you provide to a state or federal agency to establish residency in the first place, should also be accepted in proving your residency for a firearm purchase. Along with the addition of new methods to verify residence, I agree with the stance that the ATF is taking regarding recreational licenses such as hunting and fishing licenses that do not require any verification of residence along the application process. If the ATF is going to allow documents to supplement a photo ID in order to establish residency, there should always be an easily accessible list as to what the ATF deems to be acceptable and unacceptable, such as what they have provided in the proposed regulation. The extension of eligibility of the 4473 and NICS check are better for customers as well. There are times we will have customers who are eligible for firearms purchases get stuck in endless filing loops, waiting for their NICS check to process and having to restart every 30 days. While we typically recommend other methods to assist those customers, it is still good that the ATF expands the eligibility for customers such as those whose backgrounds may be getting misidentified and thus require further research. The option to auto-populate 4473s, as well as being able to switch to an electronic system, would be great for efficiency of space and time in any FFL but any change that adds a step where a customer's PII may be compromised makes me cautious. While paper 4473s are certainly slower, take up more space, and may at times be more prone to error, any electronic system runs the risk of being accessed by bad actors. As we have to maintain these records, it is also our duty to our customers to protect their information to the best of our ability. In all, I believe that these changes are good and should be implemented however I believe they should also be implemented with other proposed changes, such as the reduction in time that a FFL is mandated to maintain records. I also feel that if the ATF is going to explicitly outline methods in which customers can be assisted with the 4473, they should also offer ways to assist customers who cannot complete the 4473 due to a language barrier. At the very least, the 4473 should be available in the two most common languages in the country, but with modern technology it should be able to be provided in every language quite easily.