Unlike years past, this year’s SHOT Show Town Hall Meeting, which occurred on January 16, 2013, was largely un-noteworthy, even with Obama’s execution of his Executive Orders in relation to the Sandy Hook shooting. However, there were a couple noteworthy issues with the most noteworthy issue being listed last.

The ATF is working on electronic Forms, including the Form 1 and Form 4, which they believe they will have completed by June of 2013, at the latest.

The current backlog in the NFA Branch is 34,000 applications, which they hope to reduce in the near future with the addition of nine new examiners. The examiner openings will be posted in the next couple weeks. Furthermore, NFA Branch related, all of 2012 was a million dollar month for the Branch, with December hitting 1.5 million in revenue. Historically, March has always been the largest revenue month for the Branch, with many individuals receiving their income tax return money in March, and as a result, the ATF acknowledged that March of 2013 may mark the first time the Branch received two million in revenue in relation to the NFA. Only time will tell.

In relation to Manufacturers, ATF reminded them that their Annual Firearms Manufacturing and Exportation Report, ATF 5300.11, must be submitted by April 1, 2013.

When I inquired about whether the ATF was moving forward with CLEO elimination for NFA purposes, in light of their notice of intent to proceed with rulemaking, Deputy Division Chief, Firearms & Explosives Services Division, Stephen Albro stated that while they did post their intent to proceed with rulemaking, no language currently exists for any rule and that he could not give any timeframe in which they would submit the proposed Rule, as it is still being discussed within the Department of Justice. When asked what would happen to the current applications in the pipeline, Chief Albro responded that there is always an effective date of the regulation, assuming the Rule is passed, and that any pending Forms would likely be grandfathered, as they are well aware of 6 month current wait.

Lastly, when asked by a dealer as to whether there would be an amnesty or how to otherwise handle a non-registered NFA firearm, such as a Coach gun, that is left at a dealer, Chief Albro responded that while it is obviously illegal to possess an unregistered NFA firearm, “There is no way to register an NFA firearm that is already in existence right now. The only thing you can do is abandon it to law enforcement but we do allow for you to remove the offending features; so if someone were to remove the barrels and dispose of the barrels, so that they no longer posses the receiver and the barrels at the same time, that would not be possession of a short barreled shotgun.”

And that is pretty much all the high-points of the 2013 SHOT Show Town Hall.