Chapter 8 taught the records themselves — the bound record, the Form 4473, the retention periods. This section is about what those records make you liable FOR, and the answer is stated in penalties rather than in procedure. A person who knowingly makes any false statement or representation in applying for a license, an exemption, or relief from disability under the Act may be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both. The exposure attaches to the statement, not to any firearm.

The same provision then splits the world in two, and the split runs the opposite way from what most people expect. Any person OTHER THAN a licensed manufacturer, importer, dealer, or collector who knowingly makes a false statement or representation with respect to information required to be kept in a licensee’s records faces the same $5,000 and 5 years. A LICENSEE who does the same thing faces not more than $1,000 or not more than 1 year, or both. The customer lying on the counter form and the dealer falsifying the same entry are not treated alike, and the heavier exposure sits with the customer — which is part of why the certification a buyer signs carries the weight it does.

Behind that liability sits the standing duty to have the records at all, and to have them where they can be looked at. The records pertaining to firearms transactions must be retained ON THE LICENSED PREMISES, in the manner this subpart prescribes and for the length of time § 478.129 sets; ammunition records are retained on the premises in their own prescribed manner. ATF officers may enter the premises of any licensed importer, manufacturer, dealer, or collector to examine or inspect any record or document required by or obtained under this part, and the Act requires licensees to make those records available for examination during business hours — or, for collectors, hours of operation.

The word doing the work in each of the FALSE-STATEMENT provisions is KNOWINGLY. None of those three limbs reaches an honest mistake in an entry; all of them reach a statement the person knew was untrue when they made it. That is worth holding onto in both directions. A dealer who discovers an error and corrects it is not the person those provisions describe. A dealer who writes what the customer wants written, knowing it is wrong, is — and so is the customer who asked. The duties in the paragraph above are different in kind: keeping the records on the licensed premises and producing them for inspection are stated as flat obligations, with no knowledge qualifier attached to either. Not having realized is not an answer to a record that is not there.