UPS Refuses to Ship Firearms Suppressors Used for Hearing Protection

SureFire SOCOM300-SPS Silencer
SureFire SOCOM300-SPS Silencer
National Shooting Sports Foundation
National Shooting Sports Foundation

NEWTOWN, Conn –-(Ammoland.com)- National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) this week learned that United Parcel Service (UPS) had changed its policy regarding the shipment of firearms suppressors.

New policy states that UPS will no longer ship suppressors, even between licensees.

[Silencers or suppressors are used for increased hearing protection and reduction of gun fire noise by caring gun owners.]

NSSF is working with UPS executives to determine what prompted the enforcement of this unwarranted policy.

We are unaware of any thefts or losses that would explain the shipping company’s sudden decision to enforce a prohibition against shipment.

NSSF will keep you apprised of developments. Separately, NSSF is also working with the U.S. State Department to achieve a change policy to allow export of suppressors.


Update Comments Emailed to AmmoLand from UPS:

“UPS accepts for shipment certain firearms, firearms ammunition and firearms accessories as long as the shipments comply with applicable law and are shipped in accordance with company policies. These shipments are between licensed manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors and exclude consumer shipments. UPS has for many years restricted shipments of silencers or mufflers as part of the company’s firearms and ammunition policy.

The company’s general policy is at the following link: https://www.ups.com/content/us/en/resources/ship/packaging/guidelines/firearms.html.

UPS recently became aware of a shipper that tendered silencers for shipment.

Consistent with the general policy, UPS informed the company that it could no longer accept shipments of packages containing those specific products. UPS will engage in discussions with licensed entities about compliance with all applicable laws and regarding the potential establishment of a contractual exception to the general policy under which UPS may ship such products. These discussions will occur on a company-by-company basis and are proprietary. “

Gun Silencers
Gun Silencers

About NSSF
The National Shooting Sports Foundation is the trade association for the firearms industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of more than 6,000 manufacturers, distributors, firearms retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations and publishers. For more information, log on to www.nssf.org.

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John S.

Not sure why my original post didn’t show up. Anyway…
As long as you are not shipping undeclared flammable or hazardous materials, UPS has no need to know what you are shipping. If you declare your items as finished machine parts you are totally within their rules.
I am an ex UPSer and ship with ANYBODY but UPS

Luke

Sorry to say it but UPS is a private company. They can make whatever rules they want about what they will and will not ship. And as for gun owners boycotting them…UPS made a profit of 4 Billion dollars last year. That means after all of their expenses, after all of their payroll they still had 4 billion dollars left. It won’t make a dent.

freewill

no one has the god givin right to ship thru UPS, but if they dont want to ship a particular item to me, then i wouldn’t have them ship anything else i need, i would certainly patronize somebody else, and urge everyone else to do the same.

Upsguy64

And for all you guys know this could be a financial move , think of all the money they would save in insurance in liabilities in both of them getting stolen and protecting their business. Also for those who think they get away with lying about what’s in their boxes, cause pkgs do break, crushed ,and ripped open. So when they find you could get a visit.

jamie

I smell a lawsuit

George

Well that is one way to lose business and create competition for yourself. Very retarded UPS.

JPVERN

Sounds to me like another opportunity for an individual to make good American money.
Leave the UPS/USPS/FEDEX/etc all out of it.
Have an individual ship them and pay accordingly. Atleast you’d know that some jackwagon in brown wasn’t tossing your package around and leaving it out in the rain or insecure.

Nate

they ship ammo all the time why not suppressors which save hearing

Janek

Sounds like a business opportunity. How about a shipping company that caters only to shooting and sporting goods customers?

Dave Friece

If it is not a flammable or explosive item, it is NONE if UPS’s business what is in the box !

wildman

“to determine what prompted the enforcement of this unwarranted policy.” Gee ya think it could have something to do with that big eared piece of monkeyshit and his gun grabbing baffoons

Frank

I ship with UPS daily. I know my way around their website. No where can I find any reference to suppressors. Whoever wrote this article here should reference where the UPS policy is located. Otherwise, I do not believe that the policy has changed.

i hate obama

I wonder if UPS will admit that the Obama administration is behind this just like operation choke point.

Bill

Nazi scumbags! US Government. Same thing! Abolish USPS! REorganize the government! Get rid of the scum that only persecute the weak. Single individuals. Never would they ever take a stance like this if it involved a major corporation! Our government is of the corporations, for the corporations!!!! Do away with the current government. And start over!!!!!!! Watch what you say they will send the nazi storm troopers after you!

Laddy

I have a retired post office employee as a neighbor who constantly tells me firearms cannot be shipped through the mail. No long guns, no handguns, no nothing by no one including FFLs. I’ve pointed out to him I’ve both shipped and received firearns via USPS and he calls me a liar. I’ve printed out the PO’s own stuff to show him he’s not correct. He still says I’m lying to him. I think the PO sometimes hires some mentally challenged people.

TEX

My father told me something that I have never forgot when I was about 10 years old ! He said,’son,never waste your time arguing with an idiot’ !

Mr Ed

When ever I ship I never mention gun,just “machined metal parts”. Not lying either,and not so tempting for coming up missing. UPS can take a hike,don’t need them anymore.

Charlie Kilo

UPS recently lost 3 TBAC cans in VA, maybe this move was because they can’t track packages and lost Title 2 items…

Kirt

Other couriers have lost suppressors in transit either through internal theft or negligence. The insuing investigation was staggering, plus the bad PR, and the accusations of possible terrorist infiltration, they’re just not worth it. Picture a pallet of these all in small individual boxes sitting in a warehouse over the weekend, come delivery time the shipment is light one or two pieces. Nothing personal NRA or conspiriousy theorists but you don’t want to be on the end of that meat grinder.

Vanns40

I used to work for a firearms manufacturer many moons ago. UPS “loses” a LOT of guns over the course of a year. We’d send out or receive pallets of handguns and always find that, in the middle of the pallet, someone had removed a couple of boxes, taken out the individual handguns and replaced the empty boxes. We had no idea where along the line it happened and never found the guns unless they were used in a crime and showed up, so this business of liability from UPS, all of a sudden, is BS.

Allan T

Thankfully we still have FedEx as an alternative for the time being.

Klaus Schadenfreude

This story does not jibe with what UPS says. UPS RESPONDS: Thank you for your email. Any firearm muffler or firearm silencers are able to be shipped under specific guidelines, automatic weapons are not authorized to ship via UPS. Shipping options for authorized firearms shipments: – UPS Scheduled Pickup Account – UPS Customer Center drop off Firearms cannot be shipped using On-Call Pickup Service, UPS Drop Boxes, The UPS Store, or any third-party retailer. Additionally, firearms cannot be shipped using UPS Express Critical service or any international service. Firearms (with the exception of handguns) may be shipped through the following… Read more »

TEX

A few years back I sent a EOtech sight back to them to have it repaired. The lady at the post office asked me what an Eotech was and if it is a firearm related item. I told her it was not a firearm part but a sight that mounts on an AR15. She said it was agains’t their policy to ship it because it was a firearm related item. I was so pissed off but just smile and left. I took it to FedEX and they had no problem shipping it for me. What made me madder than anything… Read more »

CraxyD

She was full of $#it. I’ve gotten parts from Ruger for my P95 via USPS more than once.

3percenter

My wife orders bakery items, and most originate from China. To avoid various tariffs most are marked as “cell phone parts”. Not much difference…

james

The fines for the shippers is without merit.
If they can get away with holding FedEx and UPS responsible for what they are shipping and IF it will be used improperly or illegally, that is beyond their control.

If they ship me an axe and I use it to kill my wife, they are not responsible.

Eric

UPS is afraid that the end users may be doing something illegal then get caught up in legal issues like FEDEX’s current drug shipping problem. FedEx is being fined millions for delivering drugs illegally.

TEX

@Erik,they are delivering what drugs illegally ?

Bill

FEDEX Has drug dogs to check packages. When they come threw the hubs for drugs. I know first hand on this. I worked has a driver and the dogs would check all package for drugs. If found the cop would follow the package to the address and arrest the person at the address. Try to get the person name who sented the package too.

CommonSense4America

Moderators,,,why wasn’t original my post posted? If I don’t know why, I can’t correct it.

Tsgt B

Just tell them it’s a sex toy to be given as a gift at a “gay wedding”. They’ll probably ship it for free!

james

I hope the big firearms dealers like Budsgunshop.com dump UPS.

I guess UPS will stop accepting pharmaceuticals, blood products, etc etc etc.

Good point about the bakery being forced to do business with everyone.

Russell

EASY…. FEDX ! I’d bet some Social Liberal works in the front office and they have found a way to push their personal agenda ,………. leave a big note on your door next time you ship…….. NO SUPPRESSORS NO UPS ! ……… I Just did.

Robert Bradley

My first thought exactly! When I was the first air ramp supervisor in Fairbanks, AK in 1980, they had a in-house contest toto change the name of their planes commonly called Brown Tail, an air manager in Anchorage wanted to call them Up The Poop Shoot for the UPS on the tail of their planes, we all laughed. Well, up theirs now! My business goes some other carrier. I could tell you several other reasons not to use them!

Bob Rhodes

I agree with Earl .They ship pot to the pot stores, but not legal suppressor’s between licensed FFL’s . That seems like twisted liberal thinking to me.

Brigadeir

Don’t know why my post didn’t show, I didn’t say anything un-PC. My brother’s company (small though it is) has completely boycotted UPS. He ships all guns and other items via Fedex or USPS. He also instructs customers sending guns/parts to him (he has a gunsmithing and blueing / finishing business) to ship Fedex or USPS and he tells them why. UPS is blatently Anti-Gun in their policies and actions. If EVERY gun supporting business and person boycotted UPS they would quickly see the error of their ways. I refuse to ship items UPS and request Fedex or USPS when… Read more »

Brigadeir

My brother’s company (small though it is) has completely boycotted UPS. He ships all guns and other items via Fedex or USPS. He also instructs customers sending guns/parts to him (he has a gunsmithing and blueing / finishing business) to ship Fedex or USPS and he tells them why. UPS is blatently Anti-Gun in their policies and actions. If EVERY gun supporting business and person boycotted UPS they would quickly see the error of their ways. I refuse to ship items UPS and request Fedex or USPS when ordering from Ebay or Amazon, even if it costs a buck or… Read more »

DrSique

What is your brothers business name or web site. I am looking to get my lever action Winchester reblued. And, I will be shipping FedEx.

Jpax

FedEx has played the same game. It was FedEx who refused to transport Cody Wilson’s ‘Ghost Gunner’ CNC machine, based simply upon its marketing and FedEx’s corporate will to eff-over the 2nd amendment. Wilson’s machine is intrinsically and functionally no different from any other CNC device, and is a completely legal item to both sell and own. The problem was entirely FedEx’s attitude towards firearms. Switching our dollars from one enemy of our civil rights to another enemy of our civil rights isn’t a great long-term option. Dragging one of more of these carriers through a brutal and very public… Read more »

Ken Birdsell

REALLY !
Once again UPS shows why they choose Brown for a company color. Best representation of what they are full of. I guess they make so much money today they can afford to play god and decide who can and whom cannot ship with them. Now understanding they can set their own rules for doing business, a freedom right. I plan to exercise my right and ship with someone else. THIS IS UPS BROWN “bull shit”

brian

brown shirts is the appropriate name.

avlisk

I didn’t think of it, but I’m glad you did. All of you folks who are products of the US public schools, get thee to the Google and look up Brownshirts, and you’ll get a nice history lesson. Coincidence? I wonder. In a world of cause and effect, all coincidences become suspect. Do you guys know that in some countries, you can buy suppressors/silencers off the rack at the local corner store alongside your slurpee? Why is it that here, in the land of the free that they are considered evil and restricted?

gary

like the two before me said, to helll wiht ups. there are other ways to ship all our things not just our gun products.

DrSique

Huh, so bakeries can be forced to make homosexual wedding cakes, because they serve the public, but UPS can refuse their services to law abiding gun owners. Certainly, Eric Holder will send a battery of attorneys over to UPS headquarters in order to get this all straightened out. 90 Million firearm owners need to take their business elsewhere.

Earl

Ok If they don’t want to support firearms owners by shipping our suppressors maybe it is time for all firearm owners to move all of our shipping to FEDX or elsewhere friends lets hit them in their pocket book.

john Carr

EXACTLY! Screw them. There are other carriers that will gladly ship them. When you order something tell the company not to use UPS.

Laddyboy

Totally agree.

JD

Never tell a carrier what is in the box. I have shipped a couple pistols UPS ground and just said it was car parts. Screw ’em

Bruce A.

Careful with that… you are violating Federal law IF you are not sending to an FFL receiver.

RIck

When I had to return a pistol to Charter Arms they told me if asked to say that it was “Finished Machine Parts.”

Dave Noice

I put “machine parts” as a description when shipping non-serialized gun parts.

Not illegal and not lying.

kjatexas

You are required by law to inform them you are shipping a firearm. Don’t know the law regarding a suppressor.

Silence DoGood

In the eyes of the law, a suppressor IS a firearm. So is a DIAS or even the old “lightning link.”

TEX

@Silence,cans ain’t firearms under NFA rules but are regulated like them.

D

No you are not by law required to tell any shipping company what you are shipping. If they ask you can legally say finished machine parts or machine parts which in effect that is what a firearm is, “A finished machine part” !!

Vanns40

Start doing your homework before you post.

Thomas Ramsay

UPS What happend to Boycott that will hurt them in the bank account,

Jpax

A few of the harmed parties, including the manufacturers, need to join up in a multi-billion dollar lawsuit against that type of crypto-facist azzhattery and solve it once and for all. A public corporation’s “policy” cannot subvert, restrict, nor deprive citizens of the transportation in commerce of legal goods, nor of their lawful and civil right to own (ie – receive into ownership) those goods. Moreover, the goods in question are those repeatedly found by the highest courts in the land to be those which the harmed citizens have a Natural Right to possess. UPS had best grease up well… Read more »

CommonSense4America

What if a gay couple wants one for their wedding? I don’t have any idea WHY they would want one, but that’s none of my business.

PaCo

AWESOME RESPONSE

Steve Harris

I agree, I think it’s time they are sued for their arbitrary politically based shipping rules. If it’s legal then they should ship it, its not their place to moderate people’s access to these items. this is no different then refusing service based on race, religion or social standing.

Brian

UPS has the right to decline any business they choose. We have the right to decline to use UPS as a shipper if this policy holds.

Mark

It’s ok to leave some of my guns I ordered outside my door and not signed for, to get wet or stolen.

lobo

BOYCOT UPS> Caqn we go to FED-EX

durabo

UPS has just – ahem! – shot itself in the foot. Alfa-Mike-Foxtrot, UPS. In all of my future business, I will ship with FedEx, DHL, or anyone BUT you. Buster Brown, you are going down!

desert

Simple solution…..ALL GUN OWNERS, boycott UPS!!

TEX

To hell with UPS !

George Pankey

I personally think it’s sucks that ups won’t ship suppressors. But the number one thing I want to support, the reason I served is to preserve the freedoms that this country was founded on. And ups has every right to not ship whatever they damn well please, it sucks but that’s the way it is. I’ll take my Business elsewhere.

Rick

Bibi ups