Product Feature Articles
Silencer Shipping: How We Mail Your Silencer
When Silencer Central first started, founder, Brandon Maddox had a real problem. He was working full time managing a local mail order pharmacy and due to time constraints, had to find a way to streamline all the paperwork involved with buying and selling silencers.
Brandon also quickly realized that silencer sales are a small niche market, and unfortunately this part of the Midwest does not have the population density to support a traditional business model for this small niche.
Brandon had two major issues- how could he simplify the purchasing process for the dealer and the customer, and how he could sell to larger geographies and not just an hour radius of our original location. Brandon quickly realized these two obstacles were show stoppers, and business growth with these two obstacles in place would be next to impossible.
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Silencer Shipping and ATF Laws
Brandon hired two separate law firms to explore federal laws to help him overcome these business challenges. The goal was to find new ways to manage operations that were different than the norm but still followed all state and federal firearms laws. The law firms had several favorable suggestions which opened the door for further exploration. Brandon then hired a former ATF executive who is a nationally known firearms expert to further examine these challenges and help create a solution.
After over a year of research through two law firms and nationally known firearms consultants, Brandon was able to create a highly streamlined process to legally do all the paperwork and the final silencer transfer through the mail with full permission from the ATF and within compliance of all state and federal laws. Silencer Central has two ATF approved variances for each location that allows this streamlined process to function flawlessly behind the scenes. Brandon estimates the expense to get this in place at over $20,000 in legal and consulting fees. This process was a huge financial investment and a large time commitment, but when running a highly regulated business it is so important to ensure you are doing everything 100% by the book. Now, Silencer Central can service customers without requiring the customer to make any trips to our physical locations. In fact, we’ve never even met a good number of our customers! Here’s how that happens:
Buying and Shipping a Silencer - The Silencer Central Process
The vast majority of our sales occur over the phone or by purchasing directly through our e-commerce website. Once the order is placed and paid for, we mail all of the paperwork required along with instructions on how to fill it out. We’ve also filled out most of the required information on the forms before we mail them, which leaves only a few sections left for you to fill out yourself.
Once you complete the paperwork and send it back to us, we send you a postcard which contains the serial number of your silencer and the ATF NFA Branch’s phone number. NFA will provide updates to our customers when you provide them the serial number. Then it’s simply a matter of waiting on the approved form to come back to Silencer Central.
ATF Approval
We call customers the same day the paperwork comes back approved. We do this full time and never delay once approved; we need the space in our gun safes! We want you to get your silencer as quickly as possible once approved. Then we’ll orchestrate how you would like to receive your silencer. Most customers prefer to have it mailed, but if you’re close by, we’re more than happy to have you stop by our office to pick up your new silencer! To have the silencer mailed, we simply send you some paperwork to complete, usually via email to further streamline. The forms are short and simple, and we include directions with them to ensure you fill out all of the necessary sections. After completing the paperwork, simply send it back to us! We take care of the rest. And once we’ve dotted all of our I’s and crossed our T’s, we put the silencer in the mail to be sent to you!
Getting Started is as Simple as 1, 2, 3
It really is as simple as 1, 2, 3. We attribute our great success and rapid growth to finding ways to make the purchase process easy for our customers. We make a complicated process simple. Our goal is to provide excellent products with great customer service in the most streamlined transfer process in America. We know you might have options to purchase your silencer locally, but we work hard to earn your business by making the transfer process much more convenient for you!
Are you ready to start the process today?