Inventory/A&D Record (part 4/4)
Step 4 – Resolve:
Adding Firearms
If you found any firearms that were not in your A&D records, add them. Try the best you can to determine when the firearms were actually received = this may include calling where the firearms came from to see if they have records of when the firearms were shipped to you.
If you can not find any information supporting when the firearms were received, enter them with today’s date.
Missing Firearms
If you have any missing firearms, stop the audit and do what you can to find them.
Yes, you could proceed with the rest of the audit while you look for these missing firearms, but I think that is a bad idea for two reasons:
- Missing firearms should be a PRIORITY and be found as quickly as possible and
- It is easy to look for a few days and forget/get distracted by the rest of the inventory process.
Once you have determined that a firearm is lost or stolen (the only two options if you can not find it), then you have 48 hours to report the lost/stolen firearms(s) to the ATF.
Two important points to remember:
1. You’re allowed a “reasonable” amount of time to find the missing firearm(s). Reasonable is maybe a few days, not a few weeks.
2. There’s a difference between lost/stolen and missing. Upon first realizing a firearm is missing, it is just that, “missing.” Do not use language referring to “lot” or “stolen” in texts or emails! After all, an employee may have simply moved it to another location – that means it is missing, not “lost.”
However, once you’ve exhausted your resources, you must make the determination that the firearm is lost/stolen. See how to report a lost/stolen firearm in Chapter 5 for instructions.
After you’ve properly reported any missing firearms, close out the record.
Reconciling Books
Continue moving through your inventory and records to address all other discrepancies. See Chapter 5 for helping with correcting records to ensure that you’re making corrections the proper way.
After you’ve reconciled your books, you may now remove the inventory information columns that you added. I recommend leaving the columns that you added with your notes during the audit. After all, once you’re done with this snapshot record that you used for the audit, you’re going to have to modify/update your actual current A&D record.
As of this point, you should have a perfect inventory and up-to-date A&D records (as far as you know). You might find more changes to make to your A&D records as the audit continues.
Keep a trail of all changes you make so that you are able to properly correct your real A&D records.