My gun store was undergoing an ATF compliance check about 7 years ago. One of the agents came across an Eli Whitney 32 rimfire revolver made in the 1870’s and asked why it was not not tagged with a bound book number. I explained that it was an antique and was not required to be entered into the bound book. The reply was that by law, if there was ammunition available in the normal channels of business it could not be considered an antique. I replied that you cannot readily buy ammo in that caliber as it hasn’t been manufactured for forty or fifty years. The agent said original ammo is on Gunbroker occasionally, and so it needed to be entered in my books. Trying to argue a point with an ATF agent is rarely worth the outcome. It took me a couple of years to sell the gun because no one, including C&R holders wanted to hassle with doing paperwork and background checks to get it. I ended up selling it at a loss to another dealer. I doubt that dealer logged it into his books, but it got it off of mine.
On a side note, I asked the agent about all the antique Colt SSA’s that were always being offered for sale online and at gun shows and gun stores with no FFL required or background checks. The answer was those were illegal sales.
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