Type 54 License/Permit Received

[Stizzi]

Purchased the DVD package. Received my License over the weekend. Thank you Dave ! The process took about 60 days start to finish. Interview lasted about 15 minutes and couldn't have been more pleasant. Want to make my first purchase so bad but will probably wait till the next open shoot in spring I currently don't have storage other than contingency from a distributor. I'm concerned about proof of discharge. During my ATF interview they verbally requested that If I purchased from any other distributor, I would need to submit additional contingency letter(s) from each new distributor to the ATF. Do i need to comply with this verbal request ?
Are there alternatives for proof of discharge other than permits and open shoots ?

[chriskrc]

Congrats on the 54

[displayfireworks1]

Congratulations on receiving the license. I do not think you necessarily have to prove you discharged your fireworks, you do have to keep all purchase receipts and produce those if requested. As far as the contingency plan. I believe it is written if your original storage plan changes you have to notify them. For example years back I stored a case of 1.3 product in a friends magazine for a few months. This temporary storage was outside of my listed contingency. Hence my contingency storage planned changed temporarily or partially. When I eventually talked to the ATF , they told me I should have notified them of the temporary storage that was different than my original listed contingency. In this case I actually used a new storage. There are people that purchase from multiple distributors and never get different storage agreements unless they actually use the now new storage agreement.
As I hear from more and more ATF license applicants from around the country , the ATF Inspectors VERBALLY tell applicant all sorts of things from getting their home registered as a home business , to getting letters from the fire marshal, to you must have a state certification to become licensed etc. The problem is, none of it is written. Nor is it written in the Orange Book as a prerequisite to the application process, or after you become licensed. For whatever reason, they never put what they are telling you in writing, nor is it in the official checklist they use in your interview.
Looking at this going forward, distributors of 1.3 should free text a paragraph on all of the 1.3 receipts stating in the event of rainout or untoward event the product can be returned for temporary storage.

[displayfireworks1]

Sorry for the second post, it just occurred to me what this Inspector is doing. A common ATF Inspector investigative tactic is to show up at your listed contingency distributors we will call Distributor A. He will get all your purchase receipts. This way he can check on you if he desires. They sometimes do this around July 4th or prior to your 3 year renewal. Problem for him is , you may not have made all of your purchases at Distributor A. Once you receive the ATF Fireworks license , you can purchase anywhere you want . If you make a few purchases from Distributor B. This puts a hole in his investigate tactic. Because, he has no idea who Distributor B is prior to your interview. As far as I can tell, there is no master list of all explosive purchases in United States he can just search you name in. All of this is not at the level of sophistication people perceive it to be. If you or anyone tells the ATF continuously and updates all the now new contingency plans , you are essentially telling them where all to go to check on you.
When I reason things out like this I am not encouraging people to be deceptive , I am just placing myself in their position and think , why would they want to do this? This is what I came up with.

[Zippster]

They sometimes do this around July 4th or prior to your 3 year renewal.

With all the licensed 54 members here, I'm interested in knowing how many have had surprise inspections and if its common around the 4th ?

[PyroJoeNEPA]

Welcome to "Club 54" Stizzi.

[Stizzi]

Thank you Dave for clarifying what I suspected was going on.
Not looking to be deceptive in anyway. And also don’t want to offer them an additional info that can work against me in any way.

[shake the cove]

welcome again to club 54. now all the fun planning to go to demos and what to buy. I have used a lot of 1.3 cakes to supplement 1.4 consumer cakes even when I can use shells up to 4".
I hope to purchase Finale firework software or similar to start planning scripted shows by next spring if finances allow.

[DexTee]

A belated congratulations on getting your Type-54 ... as I like to say, "Boom Baby!" :)