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Shipping handguns sticky

N

NGIB

New member
Not sure where to put this but it needs to be somewhere I think.

Whether it's good or bad a lot of new members first post is in the buy/sell/trade area. In more than a few I see a "senior" member chime in and say something like you can use USPS flat rate or take the gun apart and send the pieces through the mail.

Personally, I'd hate to see a new member end up in serious legal trouble by taking this advice. There's a current thread this morning and shipping and shipping costs became a big part of the thread - and a senior member advises to use the USPS to mail it.

The rules (interstate) are as follows. I won't quote the actual cites as they are in many threads here - just do a search:

- Only an FFL may use the US Postal Service to mail a handgun. This is federal law and not just USPS policy. Not sure if a C&R holder can.

- Taking the gun apart and mailing the pieces does not work either - the receiver IS the firearm and must be shipped accordingly.

- A regular person can send a handgun back to the manufacturer for repair and it can be sent directly back to them. Commercial carriers must be used and their policies followed.

- If you live in a state where guns are registered to a person, California comes to mind, the seller must follow the state as well as federal laws to sell it and ship it - probably requires involving an FFL.

- Commercial carriers, like UPS and FEDEX, will ship a handgun to an FFL from a private party but will require that it be sent overnight.

- Just as a side note, many FFLs will not accept a shipment from a non-FFL so check first before you send. Mine does but he's the only one I've found in the Atlanta area that will.
 
- Only an FFL may use the US Postal Service to mail a handgun. This is federal law and not just USPS policy. Not sure if a C&R holder can.
Click to expand...

FFL Dealer to FFL Dealer only. C&R not included.

My belief is that the USPS regs were written after GCA '68 and the establishment of FFLs as we now know them. The C&R FFL was a later addition, but the USPS regs remained the same. Oversight? Probably. Will that change? Not likely.

You may mail long guns to an FFL (Dealer or C&R), and any part of a handgun but its frame (the serialized part that makes it a firearm per law), but you may not mail a handgun or handgun frame/receiver.

Regards,

Walt
 
Just as a side note, many FFLs will not accept a shipment from a non-FFL so check first before you send.
Click to expand...

A lot of FFLs don't know the law, but think they do. I've run into FFLs that don't know what a C&R is and what weapons are classed as C&R. I met one that insisted a "C&R" referred only to firearms for which ammunition was no longer manufactured or available. "Fifty-year" rule? Fahgeddaboutit!

Sigh.

Regards,

Walt
 
As long as you tell them at the post office whats in the box and the gun is going to a FFL theres no problem. Like I stated I've done this several time and it was my FFL dealer that told me how to do it.
Click to expand...

Maybe at your post office "there's no problem," but it's still contravening USPS regulations. Look 'em up.

FFL Dealer to FFL Dealer only, for handguns.

Rifles, anyone to FFL Dealer, but not handguns.

For handguns, you must use UPS or Fedex or...

Regards,

Walt
 
I went ahead and posted the federal law that I borrowed from another thread. My main point for this mess is I don't want anyone to go to jail because a "senior" member said it's OK.

I also sent a PM to the OP of the thread in question apologizing for the hijack. I'd just hate to see anyone get into serious legal trouble because a "senior" member says it's OK. That's why I'd like to see this made into a sticky in the buy/sell area as we may avoid the continuing confusion...
 
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