What I don’t get is why not open up the 4473 form to people doing private sales? You could have it on a phone app even. It’s not like an FFL isn’t doing anything special, just calling in and reading your answers off the damn form.
Because lots of personal information ends up on there–often a social security number–and the seller/transferor is required to retain copies of the form in perpetuity. (I believe that when a gun store closes they are obligated to turn over their paper copies to the BATF.) It’s paper intentionally, because they wanted to prevent the system from becoming a back-door registry; doing it electronically would mean that, either records wouldn’t be retained, or you would be creating a de facto registry. Personally, I don’t want some guy I met off Gun Broker to have a paper copy of all my PII floating around in his home forever.
What I don’t get is why not open up the 4473 form to people doing private sales? You could have it on a phone app even. It’s not like an FFL isn’t doing anything special, just calling in and reading your answers off the damn form.
Because lots of personal information ends up on there–often a social security number–and the seller/transferor is required to retain copies of the form in perpetuity. (I believe that when a gun store closes they are obligated to turn over their paper copies to the BATF.) It’s paper intentionally, because they wanted to prevent the system from becoming a back-door registry; doing it electronically would mean that, either records wouldn’t be retained, or you would be creating a de facto registry. Personally, I don’t want some guy I met off Gun Broker to have a paper copy of all my PII floating around in his home forever.
Probably because that would actually be effective.