OK to ship through USPS?

[Lazyfaire]

I always thought it was the days that postal people shot each other...

DOJ: USPS Handgun Mailing Ban Is Unconstitutional

The DOJ now says the USPS ban on mailing handguns is unconstitutional, marking a major Second Amendment shift after a GOA-backed lawsuit.

www.thetruthaboutguns.com

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[JesusIsKing]

What are you trying to ship exactly?

 

[Lazyfaire]

What are you trying to ship exactly?

Nothing at the moment, but it has been illegal to ship Pistols/handguns via USPS for some time. Rifles/shotguns you have been able to, but not pistols. This article says that the DOJ considers it to be unconstitutional. No longer having to ship them by FED-UP or UPS is a plus to me.

 

[wired]

If you want it stolen then yes, ship USPS.

DOJ doesnt get to declare laws unconstitutional. They even spent the energy writing an opinion. Isnt that cute. In any case unless you are shipping to a FFL holder in another state or to yourself a handgun shipment to another person would be an illegal transfer .

 

[Alexx1401]

If, and that's a big "if" this does ever turn into a win for us it will of course need the courts. I do have to chuckle at the people who seem to think USPS is going to never get the gun to where its going but common carries will? I have to wonder where people who still think UPS and FedEx are great live. Having been someone who LOVES being able to order stuff and have it brought to me you would never convince me. FedEx has LONG been hands down the worst of all options. If they ever allow us to use USPS I would gladly use them. I would use Priority Mail and of course insure the package. Years ago when I was buying silver I used them many a time as that was the free option and packages were of course insured. The place was not offering Priority but packages were of course tracked and insured. Every shipment was worth more than almost any gun I have ever owned and a pretty small package. That often had me wondering how tempting it must be since the packages were not hard to spot. Now and then one would make an "interesting" trip. Several that were going from Las Vegas Nev, to me in WA routed through the east coast and Midwest. Couple times they would got many days and not move but they did always get here and did need to be signed for. What they (USPS) never did was toss the package on my porch and drive off. UPS had done this with a gun that had a huge sticker on it saying it needed and adult signature. So bottom line I would have no more worry shipping a gun by USPS than I have using the carriers we can use now.

 

[wired]

If, and that's a big "if" this does ever turn into a win for us it will of course need the courts. I do have to chuckle at the people who seem to think USPS is going to never get the gun to where its going but common carries will? I have to wonder where people who still think UPS and FedEx are great live. Having been someone who LOVES being able to order stuff and have it brought to me you would never convince me. FedEx has LONG been hands down the worst of all options. If they ever allow us to use USPS I would gladly use them. I would use Priority Mail and of course insure the package. Years ago when I was buying silver I used them many a time as that was the free option and packages were of course insured. The place was not offering Priority but packages were of course tracked and insured. Every shipment was worth more than almost any gun I have ever owned and a pretty small package. That often had me wondering how tempting it must be since the packages were not hard to spot. Now and then one would make an "interesting" trip. Several that were going from Las Vegas Nev, to me in WA routed through the east coast and Midwest. Couple times they would got many days and not move but they did always get here and did need to be signed for. What they (USPS) never did was toss the package on my porch and drive off. UPS had done this with a gun that had a huge sticker on it saying it needed and adult signature. So bottom line I would have no more worry shipping a gun by USPS than I have using the carriers we can use now.

I have shipped literally thousands of guns through different carriers. The ONLY guns ever to have been "Lost" are from USPS. I refuse to ship guns USPS now. Zero distributors use USPS.

 

[monkeybutler]

I might ship or receive small parts through USPS but beyond that it's just not worth the risk of drooling postal incompetence.

I guess it is cool that we may be able to ship pistolas via post, but… why?

High value small package… no post office. Ever.

It's like relying on your cousin's friend's uncle who lives in a Torino on blocks to tutor your children in astronomy. Just never will seem right.

 

[Juniper9mm]

I have never had a problem shipping a rifle or shotgun via USPS, though I haven't shipped a high volume as a dealer or manufacturer might have.

 

[gmerkt]

They even spent the energy writing an opinion. Isnt that cute. In any case unless you are shipping to a FFL holder in another state or to yourself a handgun shipment to another person would be an illegal transfer .

Yes, however this goes with the USPS, there is still the federal law to be obeyed on interstate transfer and dealer participation. Not to mention state laws in many cases, such as Wash. IF and only IF, you choose to mail a firearm through the USPS to a dealer, it needs to be with the concurrence of the receiving dealer. Some such will not take inbound transfers from non-licensees. So, as I see it, being able to mail a handgun would be of benefit by cutting out the shipping FFL, so long as the receiving FFL will take the gun without involvement of the former. Thus saving the shipping FFL fee.

When I've sold guns on Gunbroker, my thinking has been the lower the shipping charges, the more attractive the gun being sold is. Absent a shipping FFL's fee (if you are a non-licensee), you wouldn't need to add that into the equation.

This has been discussed at length in another thread lately. I've successfully shipped many long guns myself via USPS and avoided the extra FFL fee. Another issue, at least in this area, is that both UPS and FedEx have acceptance policies in place that disallow shipments by non-licensees. Not to mention closure of all of their retail customer service centers. The Shipmygun work-around is that the label is arranged through Bud's Guns, a licensed dealer. But then again, a fee is involved. With Shipmygun, you still have to find a way into the system for it. The retail centers are closed, the UPS Store franchises are not allowed to accept firearms shipments, so you're looking at scheduling a UPS truck pickup. Or leave it with someone you know who is in business and have it picked up with their regular trade.

 

[wired]

Yes, however this goes with the USPS, there is still the federal law to be obeyed on interstate transfer and dealer participation. Not to mention state laws in many cases, such as Wash. IF and only IF, you choose to mail a firearm through the USPS to a dealer, it needs to be with the concurrence of the receiving dealer. Some such will not take inbound transfers from non-licensees. So, as I see it, being able to mail a handgun would be of benefit by cutting out the shipping FFL, so long as the receiving FFL will take the gun without involvement of the former. Thus saving the shipping FFL fee.

When I've sold guns on Gunbroker, my thinking has been the lower the shipping charges, the more attractive the gun being sold is. Absent a shipping FFL's fee (if you are a non-licensee), you wouldn't need to add that into the equation.

This has been discussed at length in another thread lately. I've successfully shipped many long guns myself via USPS and avoided the extra FFL fee. Another issue, at least in this area, is that both UPS and FedEx have acceptance policies in place that disallow shipments by non-licensees. Not to mention closure of all of their retail customer service centers. The Shipmygun work-around is that the label is arranged through Bud's Guns, a licensed dealer. But then again, a fee is involved. With Shipmygun, you still have to find a way into the system for it. The retail centers are closed, the UPS Store franchises are not allowed to accept firearms shipments, so you're looking at scheduling a UPS truck pickup. Or leave it with someone you know who is in business and have it picked up with their regular trade.

It doesnt change the fact that the DOJ doesnt have the legal/constitutional authority to rule any law unconstitutional. While shipping anything of value through the USPS may be a terrible idea , it is, its Im sure more convenient for non licensees to do so , if it were legal. An "opinion" from DOJ saying a hundred year old law isnt legal is not worth the paper its written on. Change the law, run it through the courts, whatever but a DOJ ruling? No.

 

[gmerkt]

It doesnt change the fact that the DOJ doesnt have the legal/constitutional authority to rule any law unconstitutional.

I'm not disagreeing. I was just pointing out the practicalities of the change, if implemented.

While shipping anything of value through the USPS may be a terrible idea

Always make sure adequate insurance has been purchased. I've never had to use it on a firearm shipment.

 

[wired]

I'm not disagreeing. I was just pointing out the practicalities of the change, if implemented.


Always make sure adequate insurance has been purchased. I've never had to use it on a firearm shipment.

I ship 10 or more guns a week. If I insured every gun for value it would cost me an arm and a leg. Its far cheaper not to insure and to pay out of pocket for a loss especially on items where the value is from value added machine work I do in house. . Only losses Ive ever had were through USPS. Never lost one through UPS.

 

[gmerkt]

I ship 10 or more guns a week. If I insured every gun for value it would cost me an arm and a leg. Its far cheaper not to insure and to pay out of pocket for a loss especially on items where the value is from value added machine work I do in house. . Only losses Ive ever had were through USPS. Never lost one through UPS.

Of course as a non-businessman, I look at it differently. My tendency is to be conservative and not gamble on self insurance. Some people would say homeowner's insurance is an unnecessary expense because your house isn't likely to burn down. So on that basis, self insurance might sound like a good risk. I only sold something over one hundred guns last year on Gunbroker and all of them were inherited free, so I didn't have any money in them. So losing one here and there wouldn't have been any loss. Still, I don't like to give stuff up.

Because of access issues to carriers, I chose to hire an FFL dealer to ship all the handguns. He started out charging $20 per plus shipping, then when I was almost done, he increased it to $25. As a business, he chooses to ship handguns by USPS. Insurance was optional, which I always asked for in the full amount. Since there were no losses, you could say it was wasted money. A lot like other forms of insurance. Most of the dealer cost to me was paid by buyers through the shipping charge. But to keep my shipping charges from driving potential buyers away, sometimes I'd absorb a little. Which in the case of free guns, there is no margin to consider. If it helped move the gun, I was for it.

I'm not sure why my dealer uses USPS for handguns and UPS for long guns. In my limited experience, so long as you have a USPS account, the price discounts make long gun shipments cost comparable to UPS. I mentioned this to my dealer recently, he was unaware of it. He always uses the Priority Mail service for handguns; he wasn't up on using USPS ground service.

 

[ma96782]

Gun sent to Michigan lost in mail, dealer says

From the article.

An Ohio gun dealer claims an Uzi he shipped to Michigan in February through the U.S. Postal Service after selling it has vanished.

Steve Thompson with ADCO Firearms LLC in Portage, Ohio, said in a Facebook post that he sent the machine gun to Michigan on Feb. 4 as registered mail through the postal service.

"It made it to Detroit on the 5th and disappeared," he said. "The ATF and USPS don't seem to give a (expletive)."​

MSN

Aloha, Mark

 

[Alexx1401]

Gun sent to Michigan lost in mail, dealer says

From the article.

An Ohio gun dealer claims an Uzi he shipped to Michigan in February through the U.S. Postal Service after selling it has vanished.

Steve Thompson with ADCO Firearms LLC in Portage, Ohio, said in a Facebook post that he sent the machine gun to Michigan on Feb. 4 as registered mail through the postal service.

"It made it to Detroit on the 5th and disappeared," he said. "The ATF and USPS don't seem to give a (expletive)."​

MSN

Aloha, Mark

I hope he insured it for full value. When it turns up at some crime it will be interesting to see them pretend it was not their fault

 

[terdog]

Im happy with this turn of events. I also hate this ping pong of Administrative Action. Make it LAW.
Having another carrier option is only gunna be good for the consumer.

 

[weimar_police]

I have always thought this was so stupid.

A dealer FFL 01 can ship to a FFL 01 through USPS and they do it all the time.
Exactly tell me how a FFL 03 is going to be more susceptible to theft than the thousands of 01's ???

 

[arakboss]

I predict a lot more packages will be disappearing.

USPS halts pension contributions after warning of looming cash crisis

USPS is suspending pension contributions to preserve liquidity, and officials warn the agency could run out of cash within a year without major reforms.

www.foxbusiness.com

 

[wired]

I predict a lot more packages will be disappearing.

USPS halts pension contributions after warning of looming cash crisis

USPS is suspending pension contributions to preserve liquidity, and officials warn the agency could run out of cash within a year without major reforms.

www.foxbusiness.com

Sh!tcan the pension BS . Put them on a 401k like everyone else. Make it run like a business not a quasi government work corps .

 

[arakboss]

Sh!tcan the pension BS . Put them on a 401k like everyone else. Make it run like a business not a quasi government work corps .

I will do you one better. Screw the 401k let them use an IRA. Then they can completely wash their hands of it.