As a retailer, the most common request you’ll likely get from the ATF is a “Trace Request.”
The ATF is prohibited by federal law from keeping a computerized database of firearm purchase history. Therefore, when a firearm is recovered at a crime scene and the police want to know who owns the firearm, they will have the ATF conduct a “trace request.”
The ATF will take the markings reported by the police and contact the manufacturer to see where the firearm was disposed of. They will then continue down the line from FFL to FFL, to trace the path of the firearm. Of course, this will only show the first person to have purchased the firearm from an FFL and not necessarily the final owner. However, it is the only path the ATF has, and they will contact that owner and potentially continue tracing the gun if subsequent transfers have occurred.
This is an important reason to ensure you have accurate records and to only take the markings off the gun (and never a box or shipping receipt) because those are the markings that will be used if the gun is recovered in a crime.
This is also one of the reasons you must keep accurate contact info on file with the ATF for your FFL, as this is the information they will use to contact you for a trace request. Ensure that your email and phone are monitored at LEAST once a day… you’ll see why next:
You must respond to a trace request within 24 hours.
The National Tracing Center (NTC) will likely contact you and ask you about the particular make, model, and a serial number of the firearm. They will want to know if it is disposed of and, if so, to whom. You will need to respond with the relevant disposition information if you have it.
If you sold the firearm to a customer, the ATF will also likely want a copy of the relevant 4473. You should be doing self-audits! This is NOT the time to find an error on a 4473.
If you are ever suspicious about whether the request is really the NTC/ATF, a good method is to ask them to email you at the email address on your FFL (you can also provide this to them). By doing this, you can ensure that the email is a government email address and that you have a record that you received an official request, and you complied.
Another reason I prefer email (the NTC may insist on you giving it to them over the phone) is that you can cc: yourself on your response (you should always do this with ATF correspondence so that it is in your “sent” folder and your inbox for your email) and then print out the request and your answer and place it in your ATF files.
As you know, you need to have a record of all communication with the ATF (for which this counts) but it is also handy to have in case someone accuses you of sharing their private info without good cause. This will show it was an official request and that you complied. Also, although extremely rare, if the ATF accuses you later of not responding within 24 hours, you will have proof that you did.
Do not expect to hear back about the trace request. In this case, no news is good news. Comply with the trace request, make a record of it, and move on with your business activity.