I was picking up a in the South Hills area of PITTSBURGH and they have suppressors in stock. I can’t remember if the sales person said the wait time is two days or two hours, but I think the laws have changed. I might as well get one. It’ll give me something to read up on.
Last spring I had a Form 4 back in less than 48 hours. Now, it’s running 2-3 weeks.
The major change was they switched from a strict first in, first out model. In other words if they had 10,000 back ground checks in the inbox and one of them was held up due to something in the background check, they’d hold all of the, up until that one cleared with either an approval or denial.
Now, they set any delays aside and move on to the next one and provided your electronic background check doesn’t trigger anything that requires follow up or deeper manual inquiry it’s just moved to the approved stack without having to wait for anything applications in front of yours to be cleared.
The 2-3 weeks delay now is just an artifact of a lot more applications coming through.
On the supply side, it’s a combination of:
- production shortages as makers debate how much they want to invest in increased staff and production capciaty to meet increased demand that may or may not persist long term; and
- ATF having delays giving approval to ship completed suppressors due to increased demand.
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De-listing suppressors should be a mixed bag. On the other hand it would eliminate bureaucratic delays and just require a normal NICS check.
On the other hand it potentially opens the market up to all kinds of low ball competitors that potentially sucks the profit margin right out of the room for suppressor manufacturers.
