The above takedown notice is now greeting folks who try to use the newly upgraded ATF eForms system. ATF is asserting that this is a result of the government shutdown. This is a particularly unfortunate development, because it appeared that the eForms system was greatly accelerating the NFA registration process, eliminating as much as two months from the nine to ten month ATF paper chase.

I’m not sure what the incremental cost of maintaining a very simple web interface like eForms might be for the federal government, but I suspect it is less than the pay earned by the federal employees dispatched to rough up elderly veterans in Washington, DC.