As a result of the Walther recall it became necessary to ship a pistol to S&W for them to change the hammer block. As we were packing the box I noticed the list of dos and don’ts with regard to shipping. The package is going FedEx, but it must go Express because it is a handgun and it cannot be placed into a dropbox. When dropping it off you must tell the clerk the package contains a firearm. Long guns can go ground, but there are restrictions on that as well.

This got me thinking about how to legally ship via UPS. The rules are very similar with UPS and are much easier to read since all the rules are in one place. That really only leaves one place to ship and that is the good old US Postal Service.

The USPS does not allow a mere mortal to ship a handgun, but will ship long guns. If you hold a FFL you can ship a pistol using USPS using form 1508. Unfortunately I have seen many stories about how the USPS employee did not know their own rules and denied shipping until the shipper provided a printout of the rules to them for review.

So before you decide to ship that firearm somewhere, be sure you know the rules since it is not as cut and dried as one might think.