So Much for Form Following Function

I received the following message from a Facebook contact who prefers anonymity for the present. I share it here in its entirety for your perusal and comment:

I work for a pawn shop. We ordered the form 4473 in December, received the box of 1000 or maybe 2000 forms about a week later. First of the year, we get a letter from ATF that they have revised the form and we need to be using the new one beginning Jan. 16, 2017. We ordered 2000 forms on Jan. 4, still waiting to receive them. In the meantime, we have to take the booklet, separate it, take it to a printer to have the 6 pages copied and printed and stapled together, front & back copies at that. Best price we've gotten is maybe 8 cents per side, $0.48 per booklet for a form ATF is supposed to provide to us for free. Perhaps they are waiting to see how many continue printing and not waiting on ATF, bearing the burden much further, or how many give up and finally go digital, which is another expense for hardware and means running internet lines to another part of the store. Or go wireless and hope we don't get hacked. Some pawn shops have the computer setup already, but sometimes it kicks the customers out without explanation, and some software isn't as convenient or reliable as others.  In the meantime, ATF at its finest has not given us any information about when the forms will ship. Oh, and they voted on the changes Oct. 16 or so and then neglected to inform the dealers for another 6 weeks.

What really got me is we have to copy all 6 pages of the form, including instructions, when you only write on 3 of the pages. My boss said that's because ATF says you have to have it all, including instructions, because the bad guys will come back and say they didn't have any instructions, despite the fact that no one ever reads the instructions or printing further down. The new form took the state residency from the bottom and put it up towards the top, right underneath the current address. But to check off that you are a citizen, you have to look to the left in the middle of all the check off questions on your past history or criminal issues. So some of them miss that and it has to be pointed out. If you've got the old form saved somewhere, print it out and check it against the new form that's on the ATF website. To me, if they could eliminate those 3 pages of printed instructions, or consolidate it to 2, then the form could be printed on 11x17 and folded in the machines and save the ATF a bunch of money. Evidently the ATF and maybe ACLU lawyers have been working double time to make it more complicated.

If you don't have a copy of the old form saved, or know of anyone with the old form, I just found a couple of blank ones in the stash. So you could look at them side-by-side to compare. And I was wrong--2 1/2 pages of blanks to be filled in, 3 1/2 pages of instructions. And they could easily be converted/consolidated and made into a form that prints two sided on 11x17 then folded in half to save paper, printing, gluing costs. Big, big waste of taxpayer money, IMHO. Also, if someone is going to a dealer/pawn shop and completing this form on a screen inside the store, where are the pages of instructions telling them what is needed and answering their questions? And we have customers who almost lost their firearm at [Name Redacted] Pawn because they tried completing this online form, something wasn't done right and it stopped them, kicked them off, told them they had to come back the next day. The customer asks what happens or what they're supposed to do, clerks tell them they aren't allowed to help them with the form. Evidently the chain is afraid the employees are trying to tell them what to enter in the spaces instead of telling them what is needed or expected, and what area has not been completed by them.