How to Fill Out ATF Form 4473: Buyer, Eligibility, and Signing

To fill out ATF Form 4473, bring a valid government-issued photo ID that shows your current residential address, let the dealer complete Section A with the firearm details, then personally complete Section B with your identifying information and honest yes/no answers to the eligibility questions before signing the certification. The dealer records your ID in Section C, runs the background check, and finalizes the transfer in Section E. If you pick the gun up on a different day than you signed, you come back and complete Section D.

What to Bring Before You Start

Federal regulations spell out what counts as ID: a document issued by a government entity showing your name, residence address, date of birth, and photograph.¹ A state driver’s license or state ID card is the usual choice. Military IDs and passports also qualify, but a passport alone won’t show your residential address, so you’ll need a second document to cover that.

If your main ID doesn’t show your current home address, pair it with another government-issued document that does. Acceptable supplements include a vehicle registration, a voter identification card, or a property tax bill.² Utility bills from a private company, lease agreements, bank statements, and phone bills do not qualify. Hunting and fishing licenses only work if the state government itself issued them. Electronic documents shown on a phone are fine if they’re government-issued and show your name and current physical address.

Who Fills Out Which Section

The dealer starts by entering the firearm information in Section A. You then complete Section B yourself. The form requires you to fill it in personally, without the dealer or anyone else doing it for you.³ Once you’ve signed, the dealer reviews Section B, checks your ID, and records the ID details in Section C.⁴ Section E is the dealer’s final piece, filled out at the moment of transfer. Section D only comes into play if the transfer happens on a later day than your signature.

Section B: Your Personal Information

Section B asks for your full legal name, current residential street address including county, city, state, and ZIP code. A P.O. Box is not accepted.³ You also enter your place of birth, date of birth, height, weight, sex, and race.

Your Social Security number is optional. Including it is a good idea because it helps the background check system distinguish you from anyone with a similar name on a prohibited list.³ If you’ve been delayed or denied in the past because of a name match, providing your SSN can move things along.

The Actual Buyer Question

The first question asks whether you are the actual buyer of the firearm. This is the straw purchase question, and it’s the most heavily scrutinized item on the form. You are not the actual buyer if you’re purchasing on behalf of someone else, even if that other person could legally own the gun.³ Buying a gun as a gift is allowed, and the form distinguishes that situation. Buying a gun because someone else gave you the money or asked you to make the purchase for them is a federal crime, and the form warns of that in bold.

The Eligibility Questions

The rest of Section B walks through yes-or-no questions drawn from the list of prohibited persons in 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) and (n).⁵ A disqualifying answer to any of them stops the sale. The categories:

Conviction for a crime punishable by more than one year of imprisonment, regardless of the actual sentence served.
Fugitive from justice, meaning an outstanding warrant or having fled a jurisdiction to avoid prosecution.
Unlawful user of controlled substances. This includes marijuana, even in states that have legalized it. Federal law still classifies cannabis as a Schedule I controlled substance, so answering “no” while using marijuana creates real legal exposure.⁶
Adjudicated as a danger to self or others, or involuntarily committed to a mental institution.
Dishonorable discharge from the Armed Forces.
Subject to a court order restraining you from harassing, stalking, or threatening an intimate partner or that partner’s child.
Misdemeanor conviction for domestic violence, meaning the use or attempted use of physical force, or threatened use of a deadly weapon, against a spouse, co-parent, cohabitant, or someone in a dating relationship.⁷
Currently under indictment for a felony-level crime.⁵

A misdemeanor domestic violence conviction doesn’t always trigger a permanent ban. If the offense involved a dating relationship rather than a spouse, parent, guardian, or co-parent, and it’s your only such conviction, the prohibition lifts after five years, provided you’ve had no later convictions involving force or weapons.⁷ A conviction also doesn’t count for prohibition purposes if it was expunged, you were pardoned, or your civil rights were restored, unless the restoration specifically bars firearm possession.

If you’re unsure whether something in your background disqualifies you, talk to an attorney before you pick up the pen. Guessing wrong is a felony.

Signing, and What Section D Is For

After the questions, you sign and date the certification. Your signature is a legal declaration under penalty of perjury that your answers are true. If you take the firearm home the same day, that’s the end of your paperwork. If the transfer happens on a later day, whether because of a waiting period, a delayed background check, or a special order, you return to the dealer and complete Section D, recertifying that your answers are still accurate on the day the gun changes hands.³

Fixing a Mistake

Errors caught before the transfer are handled in pen. Draw a single line through the mistake, write the correct information nearby, add your initials, and write the date. Correction fluid and tape are not allowed. Keep the correction inside the same box as the original entry when possible.

Errors caught after the firearm has changed hands need an extra step. The dealer photocopies the affected page, writes “Copy” in the top right corner, makes the correction on the photocopy, and attaches it to the original. You handle any corrections in Sections B and D; the dealer handles Sections A, C, and E.

What Happens After You Sign

The dealer contacts the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, run by the FBI. In some states, a designated state agency runs the check instead. The FBI provides full service to FFLs in 31 states, five U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia, with the other states running their own checks through NICS.⁸ One of three answers comes back:

Proceed. No disqualifying records; the sale can complete immediately.
Delayed. Something needs a closer look. The FBI has three business days to reach a final decision.
Denied. A disqualifying record was found; the sale cannot go through.

If three business days pass on a delay without a final answer, federal law lets the dealer release the firearm. Some dealers won’t, and some states impose longer waiting periods that override the federal default.⁹

If You’re Delayed or Denied

You have the right to find out why you were denied and to challenge the decision. The FBI’s NICS Section runs two separate processes: requesting the reason for the denial and formally appealing it. Both start electronically through the FBI’s website or by mail.¹⁰ Mail-in appeals typically require a fingerprint card, particularly when a name mix-up is the cause. If a state agency issued the denial rather than the FBI, your appeal goes to that state agency; the FBI cannot override it.

If you get delayed or denied repeatedly because your name resembles a prohibited person’s, the Voluntary Appeal File exists to fix that. Enrolling gives you a Unique Personal Identification Number that you write on every future Form 4473. The UPIN tells the system you’ve already been verified and clears up the false matches that cause chronic delays. You can apply online through the FBI’s eVAF portal or by mail to the FBI CJIS Division in Clarksburg, West Virginia.

What Lying Costs You

Knowingly making a false statement on Form 4473 is a federal felony. The false statement itself carries up to five years in prison and a fine.¹¹ If you’re actually a prohibited person and you receive a firearm, the violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) carries up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, a maximum raised by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022.¹² The form warns of the 15-year maximum in bold on the first page.³

These are not empty threats. The ATF and federal prosecutors actively pursue false-statement cases, and straw purchases in particular draw aggressive enforcement.¹³ State charges can pile on top of the federal ones. Honest answers on every question are the simplest protection.

1
eCFR. 27 CFR 478.11
2
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. ATF Rul. 2001-5
3
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. ATF Form 4473 Firearms Transaction Record
4
eCFR. 27 CFR 478.124 – Firearms Transaction Record
5
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Identify Prohibited Persons
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts
7
Legal Information Institute. Definition: Misdemeanor Crime of Domestic Violence From 18 USC 921(a)(33)
8
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Firearms Checks (NICS)
9
Federal Bureau of Investigation. NICS Overview Brochure
10
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Challenges / Appeals
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 924 – Penalties
12
Congress.gov. Text – 117th Congress (2021-2022): Bipartisan Safer Communities Act
13
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Federal Prosecutors Aggressively Pursuing Those Who Lie in Connection With Firearm Transactions