Shipping a gun to a gunsmith

[Evil_Ed]

What's the deal with FFL requiring a copy of your drivers license in the box with the gun? This came up for me last year when I wanted to get something cerakoted and I refused to do it due to risk of identity theft.

It's possible to do some nasty things with a copy of someone's drivers license. I don't trust them to secure it in perpetuity when professional corporations can't even handle securing this stuff.

It seems like a coin flip whether a gunsmith demands a copy of my ID the last couple of years. I never remembered any asking for it. Is this some new ATF requirement?

If your FFL is sending your gun to another FFL, no license is needed.

If you're shipping a gun directly to an FFL without using another FFL to send it, then the receiving FFL needs a way to book the gun in. The easiest way is to ask for a driver's license as it has the name and address of record of you, the sender. Same reason you have to give your license to the guy behind the counter when you buy a gun...they need to identify you so they can book it in to the correct name and address, and book it back out when they ship it back to you.

[Screwball]

What's the deal with FFL requiring a copy of your drivers license in the box with the gun? This came up for me last year when I wanted to get something cerakoted and I refused to do it due to risk of identity theft.

It's possible to do some nasty things with a copy of someone's drivers license. I don't trust them to secure it in perpetuity when professional corporations can't even handle securing this stuff.

It seems like a coin flip whether a gunsmith demands a copy of my ID the last couple of years. I never remembered any asking for it. Is this some new ATF requirement?

If you are worried about identity theft, why would you send a gun to that entity? I mean… just seems like an odd thought process to me.

Being an FFL-03, and being close enough to dealers I’ve used previously to hear the horror stories… I can understand why some FFLs refuse to receive from individuals. I’ve told people sending me a firearm that if you don’t have an FFL, I need to have a copy of some sort of government issued ID that has your name and your address. I’ve been told that they understand. Gun comes without anything. [emoji849]

I’ve requested it afterwards, and have had people tell me I didn’t let them know to send it… forward the email with the statement highlighted. Had one tell me he didn’t need to… and said that I will be forwarding his contact info to the ATF if he doesn’t want to supply it so they can assure him it is required… sent it right after. Might sound harsh, but I’m not screwing around when I have a FFL. Think most dealers/gunsmiths/businesses are in a similar boat. People want to send a gun and not the info I need to log it… I’m only going to ask twice.

It isn’t a new ATF requirement, but what is needed to log a firearm in my bound book. Receiving from another FFL is easier, as it is a name and license number. “But can’t you just use the return name/address?” Yea… because no person in the history of mankind has ever put a fake address on a box. I don’t usually see people presenting other people’s ID… even at work, if I have seen it, it is because someone had their spouse’s passport.

For dealers, it’s even worse. Think of hunting down someone who likely was already paid for their gun, and trying to get ID after receiving the firearm. Not to mention that firearms need to be logged within a specific amount of time from receipt. So, they now waste time/energy to hunt that down… when they could be doing something more productive… like transferring a firearm to a paying customer.

If a gunsmith has your gun for one day or more, it has to be logged in their book… and out when they send it back. If you take your gun to a gunsmith and they change X while you wait, then give the gun back after… it does not need to go in their book. You can look at ATF’s Q&A, specifics on gunsmith work and what is required is listed there.

[DamonL]

I found this on the UPS site. You have to use pick up service, unless you have a pre-packaged, pre-labled package. You can't just drop off a packaged firearm anymore.

https://www.ups.com/us/en/support/sh.../firearms.page

"Firearm Products may be shipped only through a UPS Scheduled Pickup Account using various UPS pickup services.

Note: Firearm Products are not accepted for shipment via UPS Drop Boxes or UPS On-Call Pickup®, and may not be tendered to, dropped off, or picked up at locations of UPS Customer Centers, The UPS Store®, any third party retailer, or any UPS Access Point™ location, with the sole exception that pre-packaged, pre-labeled Firearm Products may be dropped off at UPS Customer Centers. Firearm Products are not eligible for Delivery Change Requests (including, but not limited to, requests to reroute) or UPS My Choice® requests."

[RevolverRob]

So using that service, or for that matter any FFL to ship to a gunsmith who has an FFL, does my local gunsmith have to log them in and then 4473 the gun back to me when it returns from the gunsmith?

That is of course always the case on transfers, but is there a loophole of some sort that allows them to act as a shipping agent without having it cross their bound book and necessitating the 4473/NICS when I get it back?

With ShipMyGun - you are the sender and recipient. The deal is they have the pre-existing accounts with FedEX/UPS to force them to comply with their new shipping policies. UPS will only honor shipments of firearms from those with existing contracts/accounts. ShipMyGun has the account, you buy the label from them, but you ship as the sender. Your name is on the return portion of the label.

It's just like buying a label from UPS or FedEx. Or if your buddy had a business account and you paid him for a label on his account.

I just sent a gun to a P-F'er and it took all of ~5 min to get his FFL added to the ShipMyGun database for receiving. It cost the FFL nothing and it was a quick job to then buy a label and drop it at the UPS hub for shipping.

FWIW, it appears PirateShip may also let you ship a handgun or HazMat materials. I haven't actually tried it, but there is a box to check on a PirateShip account. It's the same story, PirateShip has a contract/account with various shippers and you just buy the labels. We are using PirateShip for FART now and it works well. Accounts are free and shipping prices are good (less than going to the PO).