A licensee must report the theft or loss of a firearm from inventory within 48 HOURS AFTER THE THEFT OR LOSS IS DISCOVERED. The clock runs from discovery, not from the event — which cuts both ways. A break-in overnight starts the 48 hours when it is found in the morning, not when it happened; but an audit that turns up a firearm missing for months starts the 48 hours on the day of the audit, and the intervening months do not excuse anything.

The reach of inventory is wider than it first appears. The duty covers firearms in the licensee’s inventory INCLUDING any firearm transferred from that inventory to a personal collection and held as a personal firearm for at least one year. That is the same one-year period § 8.3 describes, and it is worth noticing that it does opposite work in the two rules. There, a year in the personal collection RELIEVES a later sale of the background check and the Form 4473. Here, a year in the personal collection BRINGS the firearm within the reporting duty. Crossing fully into the collection buys freedom from the counter procedure and no freedom at all from reporting a theft. The rule also covers the collection of a licensed collector.

One case is settled explicitly because it would otherwise be argued about. Where a firearm is stolen or lost in transit on a common or contract carrier — and for this purpose that includes the U.S. Postal Service — it is treated as stolen or lost from the SENDER’S inventory. So the transferor reports it, within 48 hours of their own discovery, not the intended recipient. Reporting is done two ways together: by telephoning ATF on the nationwide toll-free number 1-888-930-9275, and by preparing and submitting a Federal Firearms Licensee Theft/Loss Report, ATF Form 3310.11, per the instructions on the form. The original is retained as part of the licensee’s required records. Where the firearm is registered under the National Firearms Act, that same report also satisfies the notification requirement on the Part 479 side.