As it was explained to me by an FFL/SOT who transfers a huge number of suppressors:
In my opinion, the problem was that the ATF capriciously changed their stance on braces and it would awkward to suddenly require a Form 4/SBR for a pistol brace and then fail to process anything in a reasonable time span. That sort of seemingly intentional bottleneck would be an obvious obstruction to lawful activity. Some folks had already been waiting for over a year for any kind of approval, which is insane in itself, then comes the rule change. By putting on contractors vs relying on in-house staff, they were able to meet the temporary high demand.
As I had posted upstream, I just had a 4 day approval (counting the weekend days) on a pistol can and my "approved" email from the ATF arrived Sunday evening.
I had ordered two rifle cans and just about they arrives and the time I was ready to submit, ATF had some sort of software "glitch" and suddenly had difficulty accepting eForms with "cadence" (the suffixes Jr, Sr, III, etc.) and it took me about three weeks to finally get the ATF system to accept my two eForm4s. I was finally able to submit them yesterday. My FFL/SOT told me approvals are variable, but generally pretty quick, and said that some of the "lucky ones" have gone through in two days, while some are taking a week or more.
FWIW: The Form 4 I submitted on a suppressor in 2003 took just under three months for the ATF to do their 15 minute background check, which was said to be about average back then.
In my opinion, the problem was that the ATF capriciously changed their stance on braces and it would awkward to suddenly require a Form 4/SBR for a pistol brace and then fail to process anything in a reasonable time span. That sort of seemingly intentional bottleneck would be an obvious obstruction to lawful activity. Some folks had already been waiting for over a year for any kind of approval, which is insane in itself, then comes the rule change. By putting on contractors vs relying on in-house staff, they were able to meet the temporary high demand.
As I had posted upstream, I just had a 4 day approval (counting the weekend days) on a pistol can and my "approved" email from the ATF arrived Sunday evening.
I had ordered two rifle cans and just about they arrives and the time I was ready to submit, ATF had some sort of software "glitch" and suddenly had difficulty accepting eForms with "cadence" (the suffixes Jr, Sr, III, etc.) and it took me about three weeks to finally get the ATF system to accept my two eForm4s. I was finally able to submit them yesterday. My FFL/SOT told me approvals are variable, but generally pretty quick, and said that some of the "lucky ones" have gone through in two days, while some are taking a week or more.
FWIW: The Form 4 I submitted on a suppressor in 2003 took just under three months for the ATF to do their 15 minute background check, which was said to be about average back then.
