Shipping Firearm question...

[J385M]

Anyone have any suggestions for the best way to ship a firearm? I'll be travelling out of state for some training and need to take my off-duty gun. Because it's personal business, im not taking my department issued weapon. I had been told to ship it in a locked case via FedEx, however I'm a bit concerned about it getting lost. Has anyone ever encountered this before and, if so, what did you do? Is it worth taking the chance on having it shipped as opposed to taking it with me on the airplane? I'm even more concerned about it getting misdirected as part of the "luggage" stored in the cargo hold of the plane. Thanks for your help.

[cmras24]

I worked for TSA you can notify the airlines that you will be transporting a gun. You have to put the gun in a locked gun case unloded. They will properly tag the weapon and it will be placed in the belly of the aircraft. The weapon can be subject to screening by the baggage screeners. As long as you do not have it on the concourse. But it has to be stored in the belly of the plane. If you want to ship it to your destination, you can ship weapons from gun shop to gun shop.

[gdowkpc]

I didn't know you could ship a firearm except by a licensed dealer.

[Switchback]

I have shipped weapons FedEx many, MANY times. We often do this for Special Operations missions. I have shipped my MP5, M16 and Remington 40X all by FedEx without a hitch.

Gdow, I think think FFLs are requireed only for transfers.

[corporal716]

I have a friend with an FFL. He does business from his home. He ships and recieves weapons all the time via ups and Fedex.

[Scruit]

If you only need an FFL for a transfer then how about the seller of a gun shipping it to me via fedex so I can hold it for him temporarily for a trip that he is goingt o take to my place in the near future. Then the trip gets cancelled. After I hold it for a couple more months he decides he doesn't want the gun any more and sells it to me...

What rules/regs are in place to stop people form abusing the scenario above?

[rdp]

The ways to ship a gun are....

To the manufacturer.
To a gunsmith
To a FFL

The manufacturer can ship it back to you at the same address you shipped from. The same goes with a gunsmith.

If you are shipping guns in any other circumstance, you are supposed to ship it through a FFL.

Some states are anal about only allowing firearms to be transferred to residents of that state. So if you ship it to a place where you aren't a resident, you may screw yourself.

Take Switch's example and do that....I have not had any problems checking weapons in for flights. They do like to see the locked pelican case compared to some soft bag. They gave me a lil' heat about the soft bag I had ( the gun was cased inside and heavily padded).

[corporal716]

What is to stop people from just shipping weapons and not reporting the contents? I ship classic car pats all the time via ups. They have never asked me what was in the box. It could be anything. Do they x-ray them at some point?

[rdp]

The same thing that stops people from sending bombs through the mail......

NOTHING!!

[Switchback]

HUGE FINES for not declaring weapons... that is, in the event they were to find out.

Just a little FYI.