I had my AOW done by OC armory at least 10 years ago and even back then they would get multiple rejections on AOW's from the ATF and would need to resubmit over and over until they were approved. They were very upfront it was something I needed to be very patient with. Think it took 9 months.
Found on Reddit: How to get an AOW in CA
- Thread starter Soldieringon
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My LGS got shot down several years ago trying to get a S&W Governor AOW’d for me.
The pistol was OoS, and the VFG was added OoS while waiting for approval, but the ATF kept rejecting saying it was an SBS in CA. A few attempts were made but ultimately a no-go.
The pistol was OoS, and the VFG was added OoS while waiting for approval, but the ATF kept rejecting saying it was an SBS in CA. A few attempts were made but ultimately a no-go.
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F*cking bullsh*t, I don't know why the hell they're doing this now. My eForm 4 AOW tax stamp was approved in just five days in February 2025 and Reno May's Shorty AOW tax stamp got approved right around the same time too. Makes me think the CADOJ is telling them to not approve any new tax stamps.
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We talked on the /r/CAGuns subreddit. 2A Zone and Reno May have both reported as well as a whole bunch of Californians on both here, CalGuns, and on the subreddit have reported their eForm 1/4 tax stamps are being kicked back either as a disapproval status or a returned without action status. No one knows why this is happening but there have been no documented approvals of any AOW tax stamp for any Californian since 2025. I myself got disapproved twice before getting approved and this was the standard procedure for many years, even decades, it was basically inevitable that you'd get a couple of disapprovals before getting an approval but now they're not even approving them anymore. No one knows why and the ATF isn't telling FFL/SOTs or any of us anything. The one thing they told 2A Zone was that the ATF's legal department is investigating the legal status of AOWs in the state of California but let's not forget that they have known they are legal for decades and have approved thousands of AOW tax stamps. If you look at the ATF NFA stats they used to release every couple of years, in 2021 when they released the last NFA statistics document, there were over 4,000 AOWs in the state of California ALONE. That's a lot of people with AOWs.