Comment on FR Doc # 2026-09157

Re: RIN 1140-AB05; Docket No. ATF-2026-0266; ATF 2025R-26P Revising Non-Over-the-Counter Firearms Transaction Requirements, 91 FR 25216 Comments of B&T USA, LLC. The attached PDF is the complete submission; this text summarizes it. B&T USA is a Type 10 manufacturer and Type 11 importer and a special occupational taxpayer in Herriman, Utah. It manufactures and imports firearms, including National Firearms Act items, for U.S. Government, law enforcement, and commercial customers. It is not a retail dealer. B&T USA SUPPORTS THIS RULE and urges ATF to finalize it. Section 922(c) has authorized non-over-the-counter (NOTC) transfers since 1968 and has never limited them to transactions exempt from a background check. The regulation did, and ATF is right to remove that limitation. The comments below are offered to make the final rule executable, not to narrow it. 1. THE AMENDATORY INSTRUCTIONS CANNOT BE EXECUTED. Section 478.96 as codified has no paragraph (b)(1), no paragraph (b)(2), no paragraph (d), and no paragraph headings. Instruction 2.a revises a heading that does not exist; 2.b redesignates a paragraph (d) that does not exist; 2.d amends a heading, a sworn-statement provision, and a paragraph (4) that do not exist; 2.e corrects a cross-reference that reads otherwise. Instruction 4 amends a Sec. 478.124(d)(1) that does not exist and misstates its citation. Instruction 5 amends Sec. 478.124(i) "between the semi-colon and the words 'and other required information'"; that paragraph concerns obtaining blank Forms 4473 and has neither. Every one of these instructions executes cleanly against a different text: the Sec. 478.96 proposed in RIN 1140-AA82, 91 FR 25432 (May 8, 2026), Docket ATF-2026-0001. ATF discloses this dependency for Sec. 478.124 (footnote 37) but nowhere for Sec. 478.96. Both rules close August 6, 2026, and neither is final. Commenters cannot read the paragraphs on which this rule's operative provision depends. ATF should state which text the amendments are drafted against and sequence the two rulemakings. The severability clause, which is well drafted, does not cure a dependence on a different rule. 2. PROPOSED SEC. 478.96(c) IS SELF-NULLIFYING. Paragraph (c) applies to a transferee "who is subject to the provisions of Sec. 478.102(a)." Paragraph (c)(1) then requires that transferee to comply with "all the requirements in paragraph (b)(1)." Paragraph (b)(1), in the form on which the instruction operates, applies to a transferee "who is not subject to the provisions of Sec. 478.102(a)." No transaction can satisfy both. ATF should cross-refer to paragraphs (b)(1)(i) through (iv) rather than to (b)(1). The preamble's statement at 91 FR 25220 that the sworn statement does not apply to NICS-subject NOTC transfers is inconsistent with 18 U.S.C. 922(c)(1) and with the text; the text is right. 3. THE NIST STANDARD IS NOT IDENTIFIED. The regulatory text requires conformity with "NIST guidelines" for IAL2 and AAL2 without naming a publication, number, or edition, and without incorporation by reference under 1 CFR part 51. The obligation would change whenever NIST revises the 800-63 series, without notice or comment. "Independent third party" is also undefined. Both should be fixed in the text. 4. BENEFITS AND COSTS ARE COMPUTED ON DIFFERENT VOLUMES. Benefits rest on 3.28 million purchasers (50% adoption); costs rest on 1.96 million transactions (15% adoption). At $7 per verification the CSP charge is $22.96M or $45.85M on the benefit-implied volumes, not $13.72M. The rule remains strongly net-beneficial on every volume ($57.9M-$90.0M annually), so correcting this strengthens rather than undermines ATF's conclusion. ATF's benefit arithmetic itself checks out line by line. 5. THE CONGRESSIONAL REVIEW ACT FIGURES ARE WRONG. Section III.J states $236 million annually and $2.36 billion over ten years. Every other figure in the rule states $103.7 million and $1.04 billion. The stated figure is not derivable from any input in the rule. 6. IMPORTERS AND MANUFACTURERS ARE OMITTED FROM THE ANALYSIS. Proposed Sec. 478.96(c) authorizes "licensed importers, manufacturers, or dealers." Every estimate in Part III rests on 45,605 Type 01 dealers. ATF holds the licensee counts and should use them. 7. OTHER. Table 1 is described as a sensitivity analysis and every minimum and maximum cell reads "n/a." The authority citation silently drops 18 U.S.C. 847, which RIN 1140-AA82 retains. The PRA discussion promises an OMB control number amendment to Sec. 478.96 that this rule does not make. The verification record's retention period, custodian, and format are unspecified while the PRA discussion states no new recordkeeping arises. The sequencing of the seven-day CLEO period with transfer approval under part 479 is unaddressed. Drafting errors are listed in Part IX of the attachment. B&T USA asks that the final rule take effect on publication under 5 U.S.C. 553(d)(1), subject to the sequencing above.