Data sources

1. The ATF licensee list

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives publishes a list of active federal firearms licensees. It is a public record, and it is the source for these fields on every listing:

• —Licensee business name
• —Premises address, city, state and ZIP
• —Licence type and its description
• —Federal firearms licence number
• —Whether the licence is currently active

FFLSearch is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the ATF or any other government agency. We use a public record; that is the entire relationship. FFLSearch is not an official directory of anything.

2. The dealers themselves

The things customers most want to know are not in any public record, because only the dealer has them. A dealer who claims their listing can publish:

• —Standard transfer fee, and notes about what it covers
• —Whether they accept transfers from online retailers
• —Whether they handle NFA items
• —Whether they handle private-party transfers
• —Opening hours
• —The phone number and website they want customers to use
• —A DBA or trading name, where it differs from the licensed name
• —Services offered, and a description of the business

These are supplied by dealers and are not guaranteed by us. Fees change and shops change their policies; the date the dealer last updated their listing is shown alongside it. Confirm before you ship.

What we do not derive

One case is worth naming because it is easy to get wrong and other directories do get it wrong. The ATF licensee list contains a licence type. It does not contain special occupational tax status, so it does not tell you whether a dealer handles NFA items. A Type 01 dealer may or may not.

So NFA capability on FFLSearch is always the dealer’s own answer, labelled as such, and is never inferred from a licence type. Where a dealer has not answered, it shows as “Not provided” rather than as “No”.

Corrections

If a listing is wrong, tell us through the support form. If you are the dealer, claiming the listing is the fastest route — it puts the fields directly under your control, free.