The Wire · CalGunHub

ATF Withdraws Rule That Would Have Allowed eZ Check License Verification

Published July 6, 2026 · Updated October 12, 2026

The bureau pulled its May direct final rule letting dealers verify transferee licenses online, leaving the certified paper copy requirement in place.

Written by the CalGunHub desk from public reporting

Who this affects: The withdrawal applies to every federal firearms licensee, including California's dealer network, which is among the largest in the country. Because the eZ Check option was withdrawn, California licensees continue to exchange certified license copies for dealer-to-dealer transfers, a step that matters for firearms shipped into the state under California's dealer-only transfer system. No procedural change for in-state retailers followed from this notice. This is general information, not legal advice.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has abandoned, at least for now, a plan to modernize how federal firearms licensees verify each other's licenses. In a Federal Register notice effective July 6, 2026 (document 2026-13585), the agency withdrew the direct final rule it had published on May 6 (91 FR 24357, RIN 1140-AA61, Docket ATF-2026-0009).

According to the withdrawal notice, the scrapped rule would have amended 27 CFR 478.94 so that a licensee transferring firearms to another licensee could confirm the recipient's license through ATF's public FFL eZ Check system, rather than obtaining a certified paper copy of that license. The proposal would also have eliminated a 45-day grace period tied to certified lists supplied by organizations holding multiple licenses. The rule had been on track to take effect August 4, 2026.

Direct final rules are used when an agency expects no opposition, and they convert automatically unless significant adverse comments arrive. ATF said such comments were received by the June 5 cutoff, which required the withdrawal. The bureau indicated it may bring the change back as a conventional notice of proposed rulemaking, where the adverse comments could be addressed in a full comment process.

The practical result is continuity: the existing requirement that transferors obtain a certified copy of a transferee's license remains in force without modification. The withdrawal was one piece of the bureau's sweeping April and May 2026 deregulatory package, which ATF has branded its New Era of Reform and which included more than 30 final and proposed rules across its modernization and burden-reduction tracks. No independent news coverage of this particular withdrawal was found; the Federal Register notice and ATF's own summary page are the available documentation.

Informational only, not legal advice. Facts are attributed to the sources listed above.