Airborne Express
won't ship firearms
UPS, FedEx impose
higher rates, restrictions
By Jon E. Dougherty
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com
Airborne Express, one of the nation's largest
package shippers, told an Oregon firearms
maker that the company no longer permitted its
carriers to ship weapons and ammunition,
according to a policy company officials said was
adopted last fall.
Thomas A. Bowers, a federally-licensed firearms
maker based in Hillsboro, Ore. told
WorldNetDaily he was "shocked" last week to
learn that the package carrier had such a policy,
after a company official refused to ship a
firearm -- despite Bowers' longstanding use of
Airborne.
Indeed, in an online version of the company's
stated shipping policies, firearms are listed as
items that are "not acceptable," along with
alcoholic beverages, money, and fur or fur-lined
clothing, among other items.
Specifically, the weapons policy states,
"Firearms (air or powder discharged) assembled
or unassembled; ammunition in all forms
regardless of hazard classification," will not be
accepted by the company.
A spokesperson for the Airborne Express
executive offices confirmed the policy to
WorldNetDaily and added that she "had not
heard" whether corporate officials were
considering changing the directive.
The Airborne Express policy echoes that of
United Parcel Service, another leading national
package shipper, which also prohibits the
shipment of "firearms and firearms parts,"
including ammunition.
However, UPS officials have since changed that
policy, deciding instead to impose special
mandatory shipping requirements on gun
dealers and manufacturers, as well as higher
rates.
The reason for the policy, both companies said,
was due to the risks posed by employee theft --
something corporate executives believe may
put their companies at risk of lawsuits by third
parties if the weapons are used illegally. But
critics of the policy, including Bowers, have said
if the companies "have employees they can't
trust," firearms makers should not be held
liable.
For his part, Bowers has called for a nationwide
boycott of Airborne, calling the policy
"discriminatory ... against firearms
manufacturers, dealers and owners."
The firearms maker said after WorldNetDaily's
series of articles regarding Citibank's policy of
refusing to do business with gun dealers and
firearms clubs, which later forced the global
banking giant to reverse its policy after "intense
public pressure and a threatened boycott," it
was time to do the same to Airborne.
Currently, Bowers said, Federal Express permits
shipments of firearms, "but it's strict; you have
to use their automated tracking systems to ship"
weapons.
Despite UPS' stated anti-firearms shipment
policy, company officials said the firm would
accept firearms shipments under special
conditions. Most rifle shipments are subject to
normal rules, but handguns must be shipped
overnight at an increased cost of $30 per parcel,
a cost gun dealers and weapons makers have
had to pass on to consumers.
Ironically, Bower said, "Airborne was accepting
my firearms shipments until earlier this month
-- but their policy is dated last October." He said
he did over $200,000 worth of business last year,
shipping all of his products via Airborne -- "an
account I would think they'd hate to lose," he
added.
Far from being activist in nature, Bowers told
WorldNetDaily he simply wants his boycott to
force Airborne company officials to realize what
it means to exercise a constitutional right.
"As a firearms manufacturer, I feel like blacks
must have felt when they were refused service
in whites-only restaurants in the 1950s and
1960s," Bower said. "I just want the
discrimination of gun owners, supporters,
dealers and manufacturers to stop."
Meanwhile, Texas
state Rep. Suzanna
Hupp, who watched
helplessly in 1991
while her parents were
gunned down in a
Luby's restaurant in
Killeen, Texas, has
launched an initiative
to file a countersuit
against U.S. cities and
municipalities who
have filed class action suits against gun makers.
"After consulting legal experts," Hupp said in a
statement released to WorldNetDaily, she and
other Texas legislators "are in the process of
drafting a complaint that will be filed in a
federal district court in Texas" with the goal of
halting the municipal lawsuits against the
firearms industry.
The countersuit, Hupp said, alleges "the cities
have conspired to violate their right to keep and
bear arms by using the courts to impose gun
control and threaten the gun industry with
bankruptcy." She added that "several Texas gun
stores will be plaintiffs in the lawsuit because of
the cities' attempt to interfere with the gun
stores' ability to participate in interstate
commerce -- a right that is protected by the
Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution."
won't ship firearms
UPS, FedEx impose
higher rates, restrictions
By Jon E. Dougherty
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com
Airborne Express, one of the nation's largest
package shippers, told an Oregon firearms
maker that the company no longer permitted its
carriers to ship weapons and ammunition,
according to a policy company officials said was
adopted last fall.
Thomas A. Bowers, a federally-licensed firearms
maker based in Hillsboro, Ore. told
WorldNetDaily he was "shocked" last week to
learn that the package carrier had such a policy,
after a company official refused to ship a
firearm -- despite Bowers' longstanding use of
Airborne.
Indeed, in an online version of the company's
stated shipping policies, firearms are listed as
items that are "not acceptable," along with
alcoholic beverages, money, and fur or fur-lined
clothing, among other items.
Specifically, the weapons policy states,
"Firearms (air or powder discharged) assembled
or unassembled; ammunition in all forms
regardless of hazard classification," will not be
accepted by the company.
A spokesperson for the Airborne Express
executive offices confirmed the policy to
WorldNetDaily and added that she "had not
heard" whether corporate officials were
considering changing the directive.
The Airborne Express policy echoes that of
United Parcel Service, another leading national
package shipper, which also prohibits the
shipment of "firearms and firearms parts,"
including ammunition.
However, UPS officials have since changed that
policy, deciding instead to impose special
mandatory shipping requirements on gun
dealers and manufacturers, as well as higher
rates.
The reason for the policy, both companies said,
was due to the risks posed by employee theft --
something corporate executives believe may
put their companies at risk of lawsuits by third
parties if the weapons are used illegally. But
critics of the policy, including Bowers, have said
if the companies "have employees they can't
trust," firearms makers should not be held
liable.
For his part, Bowers has called for a nationwide
boycott of Airborne, calling the policy
"discriminatory ... against firearms
manufacturers, dealers and owners."
The firearms maker said after WorldNetDaily's
series of articles regarding Citibank's policy of
refusing to do business with gun dealers and
firearms clubs, which later forced the global
banking giant to reverse its policy after "intense
public pressure and a threatened boycott," it
was time to do the same to Airborne.
Currently, Bowers said, Federal Express permits
shipments of firearms, "but it's strict; you have
to use their automated tracking systems to ship"
weapons.
Despite UPS' stated anti-firearms shipment
policy, company officials said the firm would
accept firearms shipments under special
conditions. Most rifle shipments are subject to
normal rules, but handguns must be shipped
overnight at an increased cost of $30 per parcel,
a cost gun dealers and weapons makers have
had to pass on to consumers.
Ironically, Bower said, "Airborne was accepting
my firearms shipments until earlier this month
-- but their policy is dated last October." He said
he did over $200,000 worth of business last year,
shipping all of his products via Airborne -- "an
account I would think they'd hate to lose," he
added.
Far from being activist in nature, Bowers told
WorldNetDaily he simply wants his boycott to
force Airborne company officials to realize what
it means to exercise a constitutional right.
"As a firearms manufacturer, I feel like blacks
must have felt when they were refused service
in whites-only restaurants in the 1950s and
1960s," Bower said. "I just want the
discrimination of gun owners, supporters,
dealers and manufacturers to stop."
Meanwhile, Texas
state Rep. Suzanna
Hupp, who watched
helplessly in 1991
while her parents were
gunned down in a
Luby's restaurant in
Killeen, Texas, has
launched an initiative
to file a countersuit
against U.S. cities and
municipalities who
have filed class action suits against gun makers.
"After consulting legal experts," Hupp said in a
statement released to WorldNetDaily, she and
other Texas legislators "are in the process of
drafting a complaint that will be filed in a
federal district court in Texas" with the goal of
halting the municipal lawsuits against the
firearms industry.
The countersuit, Hupp said, alleges "the cities
have conspired to violate their right to keep and
bear arms by using the courts to impose gun
control and threaten the gun industry with
bankruptcy." She added that "several Texas gun
stores will be plaintiffs in the lawsuit because of
the cities' attempt to interfere with the gun
stores' ability to participate in interstate
commerce -- a right that is protected by the
Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution."
