Agreement
By using www.nfawatch.com you agree to these terms. If you don’t agree, please don’t use the site. NFA Watch is an independent community project and is not affiliated with the ATF, any U.S. government agency, any manufacturer, or any retailer.
What the data is, and what it isn’t
Every figure on this site is derived from approvals that filers chose to report, plus data the project has collected and normalised. That has real consequences you should understand before relying on any number here:
- –It is not official ATF data. Nothing here comes from an ATF feed or represents an ATF position. The ATF has not reviewed, endorsed, or supplied any of it.
- –It is a sample, not a census. It reflects the filers who reported, who are not necessarily representative of all filers, and figures shift as more reports arrive.
- –Reports are unverified. Submissions are checked for plausibility and duplicates, not confirmed against any official record.
- –A median is not a prediction. Estimates describe what has already happened to other filers. Your application is not bound by them, and individual outcomes vary widely.
- –Recent periods can look artificially fast. Only the quickest approvals from a recent filing month have surfaced yet, so the newest figures are biased low until that month fills in.
The methodology page explains how the numbers are produced in more detail.
Not legal advice
Nothing on this site is legal advice, and nothing here creates an attorney-client relationship. The National Firearms Act and its implementing regulations are complex, and state law varies considerably. Guides, glossaries, and comparisons here are general information written for a general audience. For advice about your situation — including anything touching trusts, estates, manufacture, or transfers — consult a qualified attorney or the ATF directly. Do not make a decision with legal consequences based on this site.
Contributions
If you submit an approval report, you confirm that the information is accurate to the best of your knowledge and that you are entitled to share it. You grant NFA Watch a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free licence to use, publish, aggregate, and analyse that data as part of the public dataset.
Please do not include personal information in submissions. The form does not ask for any, and there is nowhere in the database for it to go — see the privacy policy. Submissions that appear fabricated, automated, or abusive may be removed, and submission rates are limited.
Acceptable use
- –Don’t submit false or automated data, or attempt to distort the dataset.
- –Don’t scrape at a volume that degrades the service for other people, or attempt to bypass rate limits or access controls.
- –Don’t attempt to gain unauthorised access to any part of the site or its infrastructure.
- –Don’t republish the dataset wholesale as your own. Quoting figures with attribution and a link is welcome and encouraged.
Content and attribution
Written analysis, reviews, charts, and design on this site are the property of NFA Watch. You’re welcome to quote figures and link to pages — that is what they are for. Wholesale reproduction of articles or bulk redistribution of the dataset is not permitted without permission. Product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners and appear here for identification only.
How the site is funded
The core service is free and is intended to stay that way. Some links on this site are affiliate links, and gear pages may earn a commission on purchases made through them; where that is the case it is stated on the page itself. Every review discloses how the item was acquired — bought, bought at a discount, provided, or on loan — above the review rather than beneath it.
The commitment is not that no money changes hands. It is that money does not influence the numbers. Approval data and the analysis built on it are never altered for a commercial relationship, and commercial links do not appear on the data pages. Full detail is on the disclosure page.
Opinions in reviews
Gear reviews are one person’s opinion after real use, and they say so. They are not endorsements derived from the approval dataset, and they are not safety or suitability certifications. Firearms and related equipment carry inherent risks; follow the manufacturer’s instructions, applicable law, and safe handling practice. You are responsible for confirming that anything you buy is legal for you to own where you live.
No warranty
The site is provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including any warranty of accuracy, completeness, merchantability, or fitness for a particular purpose. The project does not warrant that the site will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that any figure will prove correct.
Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, NFA Watch and its operator are not liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss arising from your use of — or reliance on — this site, including decisions made on the basis of any estimate, figure, guide, or review published here.
Third-party links
Links to manufacturers, retailers, and other sites are provided for convenience. NFA Watch does not control those sites and is not responsible for their content, products, or practices. Once you follow a link, that site’s terms and privacy policy apply.
Changes
These terms may change; the date at the top will change with them. Continued use after a change means you accept the revised terms. Features, pages, and datasets may be added, altered, or withdrawn at any time.
Contact
Questions about these terms go to support@nfawatch.com.
One honest caveat
These terms were written in plain language to describe how this site actually operates. They are not legal advice and have not been reviewed by a lawyer. If you need a formal, jurisdiction-specific agreement, have one drafted.