ATF eForm 4 Processing

Ultimate Defense is a St. Peters, Missouri-based firing range and training center that offers a state-of-the-art indoor firing range, a dedicated shoot house training center, operates full-line retail, and a dedicated classroom facility. Founded on October 11, 2003, Ultimate Defense started with a Concealed Carry Course as with 34 attendees and has never looked back. The company has grown exponentially to become the largest concealed carry training provider in the Midwest and has instructed thousands of clients.

Ultimate Defense Firing Range & Training Center offers a state-of-the-art firing range, comprehensive training, a full-service retail center, firearm rental memberships, and a tactical training facility.

Ultimate Defense Firing Range & Training Center’s retail center features both firearm rentals and sales. Besides firearms, they also supply a complete line of firearm accessories, including ammunition, eye/ear protection, sights, scopes, gun vaults, magazines, cleaning supplies shooting bags, and Ultimate Defense branded gear.

Transfer of firearms and other NFA items requires Ultimate Defense to apply for tax stamp approvals for these items with ATF Form 4.

The ability to submit ATF forms online has been there using the ATF eForms portal. Recent ATF Form 4 eFile upgrade with electronic fingerprints has given a much-required push to the industry. FFLs and gun dealers who used to fill and submit these forms manually are now taking an electronic route to cut short ATF Form 4 wait times and reduce rejections.

Ultimate Defense has been at the forefront of adopting technology if it adds value to its services and improves customer experience. They wanted to leverage electronic fingerprint submission with ATF forms online. They needed a solution to ensure error-free approval for their customers. They also needed a dynamic solution that can be seamlessly integrated with their database.

Ultimate Defense wanted to submit ATF forms online with electronic fingerprints in order to offer a seamless experience to their customers. They also wanted to cut short ATF eForm 4 wait times so they aimed for the fastest route to eForm 4 approvals. Going forward, they had a couple of options:

Third-party kiosk

A third-party kiosk offers all the bits and pieces required for an ATF fingerprint scan. It has live scan fingerprinting equipment and live scan software that automates the process of fingerprint capture for ATF Form 4 eFile. However, Ultimate Defense wanted to manage and maintain its existing customer database independently, this option was not viable.

Outsourcing the fingerprinting process

For Ultimate Defense, customer satisfaction is a priority and they did not want to ruin it by asking customers to go somewhere else to get fingerprinted.

Traditional FD-258 card-based fingerprint capture was out of the question as the process suffers from higher rejection rates as well as longer ATF Form 4 wait times.

Considering the all available options and the requirement of maintaining an in-house independent database of customers, Ultimate Defense chose to go with an in-house facility for ATF live scan system. The company carefully considered all the options before reaching the decision of deploying an in-house live scan system that could help them meet their specific requirements.

The next step was to finalize a vendor that could offer a great deal for the price. After reaching a few renowned names in the market, Ultimate Defense ultimately picked Bayometric as its partner. The sales team at Bayometric was quick to respond. We also analyzed their unique requirements and shared our expertise. Ultimate Defense had already done their homework and they knew what they wanted.

Ultimate Defense agreed to purchase Bayometric’s ATF Live Scan software, which could integrate with their live scanner seamlessly. Bayometric’s ATF Live Scan software can integrate with market-leading live scanners; we saw no problem with that. We supplied the software as per their requirement and the timeline agreed upon. Our technical team assisted throughout the process of integration.

Before deploying the live scan system, Ultimate Defense had been processing ATF Form 4 manually. Despite filling out ATF forms online, they had to submit fingerprints with fingerprint cards or rely on a third-party service provider. Post-deployment of the ATF live scan software, they were able to replace the manual process with an electronic one along with the following business benefits:

• ATF Form 4 processing became completely electronic, from filling ATF forms online to scanning and submitting customer fingerprints electronically.
• ATF Form 4 wait times were reduced dramatically.
• Bayometric’s ATF Live Scan Software offers the inbuilt ability to export and archive .EFT file, which can be reused for future purchases. For repeat customers, it becomes even easier to purchase NFA items.
• It became extremely easy to manage the customer database independently.