Two obligations attach to the premises and the package rather than to the buyer, and both are easy for an inspector to check in a single visit — which is precisely why they matter out of proportion to their difficulty. The first begins at application. Anyone applying to be a licensed dealer must certify on Form 7 that compatible secure gun storage or safety devices will be available at any place where firearms are sold under the license to non-licensed individuals. An importer or manufacturer who will also be dealing on the licensed premises in the same type of firearm makes the same certification.

That certification then becomes a continuing duty rather than a one-time statement. Each such licensee must have compatible secure gun storage or safety devices available at any place where firearms are sold under the license to persons who are not licensees. The exception is narrow and specific: a licensee is not in violation where a device is temporarily unavailable because of theft, casualty loss, consumer sales, backorders from a manufacturer, or another similar reason beyond their control. Read the shape of that list — every item is something that happened to the licensee rather than something they chose. Chapter 4 noted that failing this requirement is itself a ground on which a revocation notice may issue.

The second obligation runs with the handgun out of the door. Each licensee who delivers a handgun to a non-licensee must provide written notification, ATF I 5300.2, and the regulation sets out what it must state: that the misuse of handguns is a leading contributor to juvenile violence and fatalities; that safely storing and securing firearms away from children helps prevent unlawful possession by juveniles, stop accidents and save lives; that federal law prohibits, except in certain limited circumstances, anyone under 18 from knowingly possessing a handgun or any person from transferring one to a person under 18; and that a knowing violation of that transfer prohibition is, in certain circumstances, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The notification is not a leaflet a shop chooses to hand out — its content is prescribed.