How to sell or transfer a long gun or a long gun receiver.

Long guns (rifles and shot guns) and receivers are transferred with a simple background check.

Step 1: Check documents

Customer needs to have a current photo-ID with his or her CURRENT address (where they reside right now).

If the address does not match, the customer needs to produce a GOVERNMENT-issued document, such as:

• Car registration
• Voter registration
• Concealed pistol license
• Tax bill

The following will not work, as they are not issued by a government agency:

• Credit card statement
• Bank statement
• Utility bill

Customer must be 18 years or older to buy a long gun, and 21 years or older to buy handguns and receivers. Note the receivers, many young customers miss this detail.

If the customer is not a citizen, he or she will need an A# or IR#. A# consists of 9 digits, IR number consists of 11 digits. They must have this information to proceed.

If the customer is a permanent resident, he or she is treated as a US citizen - no additional documentation is required (except for the aforementioned A#). If the customer is NOT a citizen or a permanent resident, he or she needs a WA state Alien Firearms License and a hunting license or a documentation of membership in a shooting range/sporting association. The later must have the customer's name and address, so most people just get a hunting license.

Step 2: Ask customer to fill out a from 4473 questionnaire on the computer.

At the end, the customer needs to click SUBMIT button.

Step 3: Create an appropriate transaction.

On the main screen in POS, click...

• Local Sale if you are selling the gun
• FFL Transfer if you are transferring the gun from the Internet business
• I-594 Transfer if you are transferring the gun from a private party (Internet or face-to-face in the store)

Different types of transactions - transfers and sales - do not mix. You will need to create separate transactions for them.

Verify that you are in the correct form. For a sale, the transaction type will be "LocalSale", the tax classification will be "Taxable Sale/Transfer", and the tax will be 9.6%:

For transfer, transaction type will be "Transfer", the tax classification will be "Taxable Sale/Transfer", and the tax will be 9.6%:

For private party transfer, transaction type will be "Transfer", the tax classification will be "In-state transfer" (even for Internet transactions!), and the tax will be blank:

Step 4: Add the firearms.

Skip this step and go to the next one if you are doing a background check for the internet transfer, and the gun has not yet been received.

If part of the transactions contains pistols, and the customer has a CPL, follow instructions on this page.

If part of the transactions contains pistols, and the customer does not have a CPL, you will use this transaction to transfer rifles only, and then follow instructions on this page to transfer handguns.

If the customer is buying something else (not firearms), other items can be added to the same sale transaction, but if this transaction is transfer, you will need a separate sale transaction.

Please note that if you cannot add the firearm to the transaction, it was accepted incorrectly: you are trying to transfer a gun which was accepted as a stock item (for sale), or sell a gun that was accepted as transfer. Your system admin can fix the original transaction for you.

Step 5: Initiate the background check

Click on "Customer..." button. A dialog will appear allowing you to select a customer. On the first page there will be an "Electronic Forms" tab, there should be your customer there. Select the Electronic Forms radio button, and highlight the customer name by clicking on the row selector (area to the left of the First name)

Verify the following:

• The First, Middle, and Last name are as they appear on the ID, for example, if the DL says "Alexander", the name should not be written as "Alex".
• The names are spelled correctly, fully, for instance, if middle name is spelled fully on the ID, it should be spelled fully here.
• The names are not transposed (first is not entered as last, and vice versa).
• The DOB is entered correctly, and not transposed.
• The address is correct.

Note any mistakes. Click next to go to the next page (Next button will not light if you did not select the customer correctly).

Enter the driver's license, and press TAB. The driver's license can also be scanned in using a scanner on its barcode. The system will automatically verify the driver's license with the state, and fill out the expiration date. For long gun or receiver transfers, you do NOT need phone number, eye color, or CPL information.

Double-check the address on the license once more, and if the address matches, check "Address matches" box next to the DL information.

If the customer DL does not contain the right address, you need to populate the Alternative document field.

Scan all customer documents (including alien firearms license, if applicable) into one page, and PRINT it from the scanner page to make a copy. The image will appear in the bottom right corner of the screen. If you forgot to print, make a copy on a copier.

Step 6: How to correct customer input

If no mistakes were made by the customer, skip this step and proceed to the the next step.

Click through the end of the Integrated Seller form, until you see the "Finish" button. Click it, and then park the transaction.

Send the customer back to the customer input station. On the first screen, have him or her enter the exact information he supplied in the previous, incorrect form - for example, if the name was transposed, it should be entered transposed. All fields on the first screen need to be entered.

This should bring the customer record back up. If customer makes an unusually complex error which he or she then fails to reproduce on the first screen, this may not work. In this case, the customer will have to re-enter all of the information.

Most of the time, however, the customer can just edit the wrong pieces, and resubmit.

After customer clicks Submit, you will need to reopen the transaction (from Continue Transaction button on the main screen), and click the Customer Button again.

You need to select the "Electronic Records" tab again, and customer name again - this time, with the correct information (please do not forget to verify it again!).

After you click Next, the correct information will be re-imported into the transaction. Go back to the previous step to verify everything.

Step 7: Form 4473

Here you will generate form 4473 and perform the background check.

First, ensure that the correct item is checked - handgun, long gun, or other (other is the receiver). If the button is not checked, check all appropriate buttons now. The button will not be checked if you did not add the gun to the transaction.

Click on 4473 button. This will open the newly generated form (note: every time you click this button, the form is regenerated. Print the form, then immediately close it. Closing it is very important, as the program will try to upload and delete the file when you move to the next step, and this will fail if you do not close it.

Proofread the form.

Verify the following:

• The First, Middle, and Last name are as they appear on the ID, for example, if the DL says "Alexander", the name should not be written as "Alex".
• The names are spelled correctly, fully, for instance, if middle name is spelled fully on the ID, it should be spelled fully here.
• The names are not transposed (first is not entered as last, and vice versa).
• The DOB is entered correctly, and not transposed.
• The address is correct.
• The A# (or IR#) is correct (if the person is not a US citizen).
• The answer to the question 11a is "Yes" (unless it is a spouse picking up a gun returned from repair, in which case the question must not be answered); the answers to questions 11b-11k must be "No".
• If the answer to the question 11l is "Yes", the customer must have WA State Alien Firearms License, and a hunting license.
• If the State of residence is not WA, we cannot transfer handguns or receivers (we can only transfer long guns).
• If in Question 14 the country is not US, the number in question 15 must be supplied.

Have the customer proofread the form.

After the form is signed (16) and dated (17), you can proceed to...

Step 8: Background check

Click on NICS button. The NICS portal will open. The user name will be pre-populated.

Click Sign In. After that, if NICS does not recognize this computer, you may see this screen. The answer to the challenge question will be pre-populated.

Click Next. The password will be pre-populated. Click Sign In again.

Depending on the account setup, you may be asked to select the store. Highlight the correct address, and click Choose.

You will see the list of the current transactions.

Click the Search tab. The search form will open. If the customer is not a US citizen, click the link in the top right corner that says "For Non-US Citizen searches, click here."

After this, click Process button above the form (top middle of the screen). This will populate the form with the information on form 4473 that the customer has entered.

Examine the country and/or state of birth as entered and verify the correctness. For some states, territories, and countries the program is unable to identify them correctly, and you need to fix the entries by hand.

For non-US citizens you will have additional input which you will need to supply:

You will need to manually enter the AR or I-94 number (AR number is 9 digits, I94 number is 11 digits), select the country or countries of citizenship (be careful with this input, it allows multiple countries to be specified - beware of spurious clicks).

The answer to question "Non-Immigrant with Visa Exceptions is "Yes" for people who are not permanent residents, and "No" for permanent residents (they are immigrants).

For all, you will need to specify the type of transfer. It is either a "Sale..." if we sell the gun, or we transfer the gun from the Internet, or "Private Sale..." if we are doing private sale transfer (face to face or over the Internet).

After all this information has been populated, click "Continue" at the very bottom of the web page. This will lead you to a summary page. Proof read it, make sure for the last time that the name, DOB, and other information is stated correctly, that the correct country of citizenship is specified for non-US citizens, etc.

Click "Process" at the top of the screen to save the summary, and then click on "Submit Search" button at the bottom.

The system will return you back to the main page where you can...

Step 9: Retrieve the status of the background check

You will see the list of the background checks which are currently pending. The last column (Status) will have the following status codes for each background check:

• Pending - the check has just been submitted, click refresh to update the status
• Researching - the background check has been referred to a human to investigate. The transaction can be stuck in this state for up to 30 minutes, but usually completes in under 5 minutes.
• New - status update is available for this transaction. See below.
• DELAY - the background check was referred for an extended review. See below.
• DENY - the background check was rejected. See below.
• OPEN - the check did not complete in 3 days. See below.

At this point, record the NTN code in Form 4473: date in 21a, code in 21b.

New...

Click on the status, and a window will open where you can retrieve the status of the background check. It could be either Proceed, or it could be informing you that the time interval allotted for the background check is expiring (or has expired), and we can transfer the firearm.

If the status is Proceed, you need to check the Proceed box in 21c. If the initial response was a DELAY, the status is marked in 21d.

If the status is simply announcing the expiration of the time period, we are obliged by WA State Law to wait for 10 days, instead of federally mandated 3, for the status update.

You can close the NICS dialog at this point.

DELAY

The background check was referred to an extended review by a human investigator. The result will most likely not be available the same day. NICS will be usually returning the results within 3 days, but it may take longer. By law, we can transfer the gun after 10 BUSINESS DAYS (excluding holidays and weekends) have expired since the day AFTER the day the transaction has been submitted.

After receiving the DELAY status, check Delayed box in 21c, and collect the customer's email address and the phone number. These can be written at the top of Form 4473, or on a separate yellow sticky note plastered over the form.

You can close the NICS dialog at this point.

DENY

In practice, you should never see this status immediately after the background check was submitted: normally it will got to DELAY for a few days before moving to DENY.

DENY means that NICS determined that the customer cannot posses the firearm. See how to handle this situation here.

OPEN

You will never see OPEN status right after submitting the search. OPEN means that though the status have not been received from NICS, the gun can be transferred according to the federal law.

WA state, however, has a stricter law, which requires waiting for status update for 10 business days, starting from the day after the search has been submitted.

Step 10: Finishing the background check

Click Next. You should be on the last screen of the Integrated Seller form, which should say "Click Finish to commit the transaction".

Click the Finish button.

Step 11: Payments

If the NICS has been delayed, Park the transaction at this point. We will collect the payment after the approval is received.

If we are doing a face-to-face private transfer, and NICS status is PROCEED, ALSO park the transaction here. Accept the firearm for private transfer now. Then reopen this transaction, add the firearm to it, click on Customer, Press NEXT twice (getting to the Form 4473 page), regenerate Form 4473, and reprint pages 3-4, which now contain the firearm line data. Click Next, Finish, and continue following the instructions from this point.

If the NICS check has succeeded, customer can pay for the purchase or transfer.

For transfers double-check that the cost of the gun was entered correctly - including the shipping fee, before collecting the payment.

Please note that we only accept cash as a payment for transfers. This is because usually majority of what customer is paying is the tax, so we would be responsible for credit card fees on the money that are not ours. If the gun costs $3000, this means $300 in taxes, and $9 in credit card fees - more than one third of our transfer fee.

If the purchase is very small (<$500), or there is no tax, as is the case for private transfers, and the customer does not have cash, we can bend this rule as a good will gesture.

Click on Pay to collect the payment.

Step 12: Park the transaction

At this point you should have, stapled together, Form 4473, a photocopy of customer's documents, and, if it was a transfer, the copy of the documents that came from the seller. Staple all of this together, complete lines 30a, 33, 34, 35, and 36. If the transaction was a private sale - local or the Internet - write "Private Sale" in 30c.

The transaction is not yet ready to be committed. The gun needs to be logged out of the FFL book, and the paperwork needs to be reviewed by another person. Park it for now. Put the paperwork in the bin for transactions waiting for review.

See this page about closing the transaction.