Was at my local firearms retailer picking up a new toy and got in a discussion re purchasing a pistol and the trusted gentleman behind the counter said that in Washington state when purchasing a pistol a person is asked and must answer what their employ is. It was also noted that any answer is acceptable. Can anyone confirm this and or explain why the state would care. I was told I can put Master of the Universe for all anyone cares.
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Was at ye’ole gun shoppe
- Thread starter ADIDAS69
- Start date
In addition to form 4473, Washington has its own form (see link below). Note that it does ask for Occupation. Far as I know, they don't make a big deal about what you write in that space.
https://www.dol.wa.gov/forms/652001.pdf
https://www.dol.wa.gov/forms/652001.pdf
Aguila Blanca
Staff
After cjwils' post and looking at the form in the link, the question is "occupation," not "employer." There is a difference.
Theohazard
New member
As a former manager at a large Seattle-area gun shop, I can confirm this. A few years ago, the state added an “occupation” question to the state handgun form, but they don’t appear to care what people put when answering that question.
When they added that question to the form, there were no instructions given to dealers by the WA state Department of Licensing about what answers were appropriate or whether the customer had to be truthful, so our compliance specialist asked a DoL official during a state compliance meeting. The official said that there was no guideline for that question and there was no further collection of that information, so the DoL didn’t care what the person wrote for their occupation. The official actually said that they liked some of the funnier answers that people put down.
I’ve had customers write things like “aardvark wrangler”, “arm hair model”, and other ridiculous things. I put down “job” during my last handgun purchase before I moved to PA.
When they added that question to the form, there were no instructions given to dealers by the WA state Department of Licensing about what answers were appropriate or whether the customer had to be truthful, so our compliance specialist asked a DoL official during a state compliance meeting. The official said that there was no guideline for that question and there was no further collection of that information, so the DoL didn’t care what the person wrote for their occupation. The official actually said that they liked some of the funnier answers that people put down.
I’ve had customers write things like “aardvark wrangler”, “arm hair model”, and other ridiculous things. I put down “job” during my last handgun purchase before I moved to PA.