system
A chat on subreddit /r/PoliticalCompassMemes
human
Surely a good lawyer and a paper trail of all this will save your butt in the inevitable court case.

...Right?
gpt
No. 

There literally is nothing you can do. Once you submit your paperwork to the ATF you're completely at their mercy. The only way you can save yourself is the moment you get notified your application is rejection is to destroy the weapon and if the ATF comes asking claim that you destroyed it within the initial 120 day grace period.

The courts do not accept "Well I tried to get it approved" as an excuse.