Today, I came to the unfortunate conclusion that the “gun fearing” syndrome has reached the corporations that we as American citizens pay good money to ship goods and materials, namely UPS and FedEx.
Any person not new to the gun ownership community knows that the only part of a scary black AR15 that is considered to be a weapon is the serialized lower receiver. It is for this reason that ATF only requires lower receivers to be labeled with serial numbers. The rest of the parts, are just that… PARTS. Why is this important and why are you reading this?

Today, I attempted to ship a stripped down upper receiver that was packaged and secured. I was asked by the attendant at the UPS store; “what is in the box?” Now, I’m not really sure that you (lady working at UPS) needs to ask that specific question, but the response I gave was; “PARTS”. Here is the synopsis of our conversation.

Me – Hi, I’m here to ship a package
UPS – Ok, what is the shipping information, and your information?
Me – (information given…)
UPS – What is in the box?
Me – Parts
UPS – Uhhh, what kind of parts?
Me – Gun parts
UPS – Oooh we aren’t allowed to ship gun parts!
Me – Actually, by law you are not disallowed to ship gun parts, these parts are not considered a weapon by ATF, as there are no serial numbers required. So you can ship this item by federal and state law.
UPS – (rudely) Actually, I’m pretty sure that I cannot ship that, in fact I am very sure I cannot.
ME – legally you can, what do you mean?
UPS – (RUDELY) I have received a bunch of emails and memos from the UPS corporate offices that tell me 100% not to ship ANY GUNS, GUN PARTS, THINGS THAT GO TO GUNS, OR AMMUNITION. All shipments of those items MUST go to a manufacturer or distributor.
Me – So this is UPS policy stating this, not federal or state law?…
UPS – Yes
Me – So this is a corporate decision to limit legal gun owners from mailing parts?
UPS – Yes
Me – This is a corporate decision to limit legal gun owners from following the federal and state laws?
UPS – Yes SIR (rudely)
Me – you’re telling me that this is a UPS corporate decision to restrict legal transactions of parts just because they are parts to a gun.
UPS – Well after all the shootings, you know… Have a good day.

I called FedEx and asked the representative the simple question about gun parts, and was given a very similar answer, and was not allowed to ship this part.

From UPS website: “UPS accepts firearm parts for shipment, provided the part is not a “firearm” as defined under federal law; the contents of the package cannot be assembled to form a firearm; and the package otherwise complies with federal, state, and local law.”

So where did I go wrong?

I’m not going to ask when, we as a nation became so scared about controversy enough to limit and restrict the legal transfer and sale of PARTS in this country, because I know that answer… However, I will ask this question. Why do we as a nation, continue to allow corporations that WE PAY to perform a service, to dictate what we are allowed to do based on the corporate administration’s feelings about a topic.

I want this information to be spread throughout the social media world, for all of us “scary gun owners”, to realize what and who we are paying to tell us what we can and cannot do (even though its legal).

I will post updates after or IF I receive responses back from UPS or FedEx.