Hindsight from The New Gun Week February 10, 2000
Yes, FFLs Can Ship Handguns Parcel Post
by Joseph P. Tartaro,
Executive Editor
Several years ago, I received a phone call from a firearms dealer in the Binghamton, NY, area, who complained about the peculiarities of the federal requirements for shipment of gun purchases through common carriers.
Since he was doing business in New York state, he had been approved for a state handgun dealer's license as well as the federal firearms license. In those days, the state screening process for dealer's licenses was much more intensive than that required by federal law. As a matter of fact, it still is.
In addition to four sets of full two-hand fingerprints and photos, the New York system requires proof that the applicant already holds a valid federal license, plus the signatures of four character witnesses (including their names, addresses and date of birth) who live in the same city or town and who cannot be relatives. Even before the Brady Act was passed, criminal record checks were conducted by local police and the fingerprints were checked against the FBI's NCIC system as well as the state police files. In addition, local police interviewed the character references and had the capability of checking the backgrounds of the references.
A dealer who does business in handguns in New York was, and still is, required to renew the license every three years, even if he or she holds an individual state lifetime license to carry concealed.
Many other states have similar laws requiring screening for state dealer licenses in firearms. In New York, no state license is needed to sell long guns, only an FFL. But dealers in handguns need both a state and federal license.
What irked the dealer who phoned me was that although he had been thoroughly screened by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) as well as state and local police, he was not allowed to transport guns from a firearms distributor in a neighboring state. He traveled to a federally-licensed distributor in Connecticut, less than 200 miles from his store, placed his order, but was required by law to entrust the shipment of his order to a common carrier-whose employees were not screened as he was.
Heart of the Problem
This is a law that never made sense, and is at the heart of the problems with common carriers, specifically United Parcel Service (UPS) and the onerous new policy they have, requiring that handguns be shipped only by expensive next day air service.I was reminded of all this while recently reviewing a Dec. 24, 1999 article from The Washington Post entitled "Gun Thefts Put UPS in the Cross Hairs." Perhaps it got little notice because of publication on Christmas eve.
As might be expected when the general media deals with gun issues, there are some noticeable errors of fact. The key one regards a Post statement that handguns cannot be shipped via the US Postal Service.
That is not true and, unfortunately, even many FFL holders are not aware of it.
Before I continue with the rest of this column, let me set the record straight on postal shipments of handguns. Of course, the Postal Service will only accept shipments from one federal licensee to another federal licensee, whether manufacturers, importer, distributor or dealer. The shipments can be made via parcel post ground-one of the lowest Postal Service rates-but the shipper is required to fill out and file a PS Form 1508, available from the post office where the shipment originates. The form is valid for postal shipment of a single handgun or several.
The Form 1508 is a statement that attests that the sender and the recipient are both duly authorized FFLs. Once signed and submitted by the sending FFL, the Form 1508 is stamped by the receiving post office and kept on file there for a year. If additional shipments are made from the same sender to the same recipient during the next 12 months, no additional Form 1508 is required. However, a new Form 1508 must be filed whenever a handgun shipment is made to a new addressee.
This postal shipment system works. In recent weeks, John Krull, Gun Week's production manager who holds both federal and state licenses, has shipped twice and received once. In one case the shipment involved more than one handgun.
Insurance Recommended
While it is not required by the domestic mail manual or law, Krull and I recommend that the shipping FFL pay the little extra to insure the package and for a return receipt. That guarantees the shipper is protected from liability for any possible loss or damage in transit and has a record that the handgun(s) was received by the licensing to whom it was shipped.Individual citizens may not ship handguns through the mails. Shipments of handguns back to a manufacturer for service must be handled through a licensee.
Returning to The Post article, it is significant to note the number of thefts of handguns by UPS employees that are chronicled there. It gives credence to the claim by some people that the UPS policy requiring shipment via next day air was an accommodation with the government to avoid possible federal legal action.
The Post article chronicles a number of thefts at various UPS shipping centers around the country in 1999, as well as other major UPS gun theft operations in previous years.
For example, it reported on a series of handgun thefts by three UPS employees last year at the company's Landover, MD, distribution center. Of particular note for the dealer in Binghampton is the fact that one of the employees involved had a long criminal history before UPS hired him in May 1997. He was convicted of manufacturing and distributing cocaine in November 1990, and four years later was charged with first-degree murder in a case that was described as a "drug-related homicide." The charges were dropped because witnesses refused to testify.
The Post article describes how this particular trio began by stealing individual handguns and smuggling them out of their place of employment. Later they moved up to re-labeling larger handgun shipments and and having their own company deliver them where they wanted at no charge.
These were not the only handgun thefts and prosecutions involving the Landover UPS distribution center. Another cited occurrence took place in 1992.
Interarms Shipments
That was the year that a UPS driver from Alexandria, VA, was charged with stealing more than 850 handguns from his route, with many of the guns originally shipped by Interarms Inc.Nor is the Maryland case a single incident. The Post article cited other cases involving UPS employees across the country in Ventura, CA.
What was noteworthy in The Post article was that the dealers who reported the thefts of the guns all claimed that UPS demonstrated little interest and did little to investigate the losses.
One dealer quoted, Sanford Abrams, owner of Valley Guns in Towson, MD, and vice president of the Maryland Licensed Firearms Dealers Association, said that the new UPS policy is "punishing us for their incompetence."
"We're livid that we have to pay for UPS's inefficiency and lack of security," Abrams said. "They should secure their facilities and check the backgrounds of their employees to make sure they aren't hiring crminals."
Carl Roy, the manager of another Maryland gun store, Maryland Small Arms, was quoted as saying employees at his store called UPS several times about gun thefts but couldn't get the company to respond.
George Rice, the owner of Shooters Paradise in Ventura, CA, who had some 70 handguns stolen in UPS shipments, was even more critical.
Rice also criticized the UPS security division as "slow and lackadaisical."
As previously mentioned in Gun Week, the package handling system at UPS is such that a ground shipment may be handled by 100 or more of their employees. Next day air shipments get handled by six or seven.
Since all UPS shipments are now bar-coded for tracing purposes, it seems to me UPS could have solved the problem in other ways.
The New Gun Week is published three times a month by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) on the 1st, 10th, and 20th. Hindsight is a commentary written by SAF President and Gun Week Executive Editor Joseph P. Tartaro. This commentary may be reprinted so long as credit is given to the author and the publication. For more information or to subscribe, write Gun Week, PO Box 488, Buffalo, NY 14209, or call 716-885-6408 Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST, or inquire on Compuserve to John Krull, Production manager-JohnSAF@Compuserve.com or gunweeksaf@broadviewnet.netAlso, check out the New Gun Week at http://www.GunWeek.com