For decades, the answer to "how long do I keep a 4473?" was twenty years. That changed in 2022, and a surprising number of dealers are still working from the old rule. Here is the current retention picture for every record an FFL generates, and what actually happens to all of it when a store closes.
Form 4473: The 2022 Change
Under the ATF's 2021R-05F final rule, which took effect in 2022, completed 4473s can no longer be discarded after twenty years. Every 4473 completed since then stays in your records for as long as you remain licensed. Forms that were already past the twenty-year mark under the old rule were eligible for disposal before the change; everything after it is permanent for the life of the license.
The practical consequence is storage. A busy store completes thousands of 4473s a year, and the pile now only grows. Denied and incomplete transactions have their own wrinkle: a 4473 for a transfer that did not proceed must still be retained, and those have a minimum five-year retention.
This is a large part of why electronic 4473 storage went from a convenience to a necessity. A digital 4473, stored to the ATF's requirements, does not fill a back room, does not fade, and can be pulled by serial number in seconds during a trace request instead of an afternoon in filing boxes.
A&D Records: Life of the License
The acquisition and disposition record has always been a permanent record: you keep it for as long as you hold the license, whether it is a paper ledger or an electronic A&D book. If you migrated from paper to electronic at some point, the closed-out paper book remains part of your records too. It does not become disposable because the data moved.
The Rest of the Paper Trail
- NICS documentation. The background check confirmation, the transaction number and response, lives on the 4473 itself and follows the 4473's retention.
- Form 3310.4 multiple handgun sale reports. Your copy is retained for five years.
- Theft or loss reports. Retained for five years, and referenced in the A&D disposition entry.
- Law enforcement trace requests. Keep your responses with your records; they are part of the story an investigator may review.
What Happens When a Store Closes
Retention does not end when the business does. If you discontinue the license without a successor, your A&D records and 4473s must be delivered to the ATF's Out of Business Records Center within 30 days of going out of business. If the business is sold, the records transfer to the successor licensee, who takes on the retention obligation.
This is worth thinking about years before it matters. A dealer with thirty years of paper faces a genuinely painful close-out: boxing, indexing, and shipping decades of forms. A dealer whose records are electronic hands over the same history in a fraction of the effort, and until that day, finds any record in seconds instead of hours.
Retention Is Also a Trace-Speed Problem
The reason these records exist is the trace: when a firearm turns up in an investigation, the ATF follows it from manufacturer to distributor to your store to the retail buyer. When the trace request reaches you, you are expected to produce the disposition and the 4473 quickly. Stores with organized records answer in minutes. Stores with three decades of unindexed paper answer in days, and every trace becomes a fire drill.
Fast, accurate trace responses are also the quiet reputation an FFL builds with its field office. It is the difference between being a store the ATF trusts and a store it schedules early.
The Bottom Line
Nothing in the current rules lets a licensed dealer throw away a completed 4473 or any part of the A&D record. Plan storage accordingly, and treat the shift to electronic records as the retention strategy it is. If you want to check how your current records would hold up, start with our ATF audit readiness review.
See how Bravo stores every 4473 and A&D entry, searchable in seconds.