How Many VIolations of Gun Laws?

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I respect Ben Stein. However, his naivete about gun laws is obvious. I hope he did the right thing or, conversely, made this up to prove a point.

Anybody want a betting pool on the date/time of arrival of BATFE or CADOJ?

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Special Report
Col. Denman’s Luger
By Ben Stein
Published 12/10/2004 12:09:37 AM

BEVERLY HILLS -- A few days ago, a package arrived in the mail from the widow of my late father-in-law, Colonel Dale Denman, Jr., of Heber Springs, Arkansas. I opened it and there was a leather holster and inside it, a German Luger pistol. My father-in-law had taken it from a captured German officer in early 1945 and kept it for almost sixty years. He had left his wife instructions that I was to get it.

You've probably seen ones like it in movies. They look deadly. The Germans made a lot of them to give as a standard sidearm to officers in World War II. I wonder what this pistol did. Kill totally innocent Jews? Lead a charge against British or American soldiers? I just know that after a fierce firefight near the Czech border, it was captured by my father-in-law, along with its keeper.

Now, I have it next to my bed in a drawer along with many letters from Col. Denman.

I know there are a lot of these Lugers around. You can buy them at antique gun shops and gun shows. But this one is special to me. Here is what it says:

My brave father-in-law, representative of tens of millions of American men and women who have gone off to fight for freedom, fought against cruel, tenacious enemies. They often lost their lives in so doing. They prevailed and I get to live in spectacular freedom, glorious, bright freedom, every day because men like Col. Denman were as brave as they were.

I have relatives and friends who get out of bed every morning and do an hour of exercise to keep them fit. I don't do that. My exercise is that I get out of bed and hit my knees and thank God for waking up in America, where I live in peace and freedom, no Gestapo chasing me, no KGB putting me in the Gulag, no Hamas blowing me up. All thanks to men like Col. Denman and the heroism he showed capturing this Luger.

That exercise does not keep me thin, most assuredly. But it does set me up for my day by putting me into an attitude of gratitude for the men and women who wore the uniform and still wear the uniform in Iraq and Afghanistan and everywhere. My wife is not giving me any presents this holiday season and I am only giving her one. Instead, we are sending gifts to the American fighting men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan to show we're thinking of them. This Luger reminds me it's the least we can do.


Ben Stein is a writer, economist, actor, and lawyer in Beverly Hills and Malibu. He writes "Ben Stein's Diary" each month for The American Spectator.

Source
 
Anybody want a betting pool on the date/time of arrival of BATFE or CADOJ?
:shrug:
If the feds can't find something more productive to do, they're overstaffed.
 
I see no problem with violations of minor, unconstitutional laws. I think the BATFE has better things to do than chase down Ben Stein (though I don't see how he did anything illegal), or an old WW2 vet for not sending a firearm through an FFL.
 
Yes. They are hunting down Walther P22 parts looking for evil silencers. Ben Stein is advertising that his relative:

Transferred a handgun across statelines
through the mail
without BCI
without the 10 day wait in CA
possibly without the HSC
unregistered


etc.................... :what:

I know that they are BS laws. But the revenuers are anal.
 
or perhaps he actually did things legally, but spelling out the entire process would do nothing to enhance his story and only add needless paragraphs to his point. Literary license and all that.

The point of the story was symbolism, not the pistol or the PRK gun laws.
 
Mr. Stein is a friend of the G. W. Bush administration, so he probably has nothing to worry about from the feds. California’s AG Lockyer on the other hand …

~G. Fink

Of course, the pistol could be deactivated or something like that.
 
He did not violate any FEDERAL guns laws.

You can receive firearms across state lines without an FFL as part of an inheritance. See § 922(a)(5).
 
or perhaps he actually did things legally, but spelling out the entire process would do nothing to enhance his story and only add needless paragraphs to his point. Literary license and all that.

The point of the story was symbolism, not the pistol or the PRK gun laws.
Dude you're ruining a good rant by thinking logically. ;)
 
Mailing it was a violation on the part of Mrs Denman unless she holds an FFL.

An FFL is only required on the recieving end, not the sending.

It has been pointed out that sending weapons as part of an inheritance is OK by federal law. (although maybe not by California law).

Considering that Ben Stein served as an attorny for MULTIPLE sitting Presidents of the United States I suspect that he probably knows and complied with the law on this one.

Has anyone considered that the man may just have a C&R?
 
He's not talking about the recieving ffl rule yeager.

MAILING handguns as in UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE is a no-no unless you have an FFL is the general rule.

IIRC the USPS has to have a form filled out by each dealer when it comes to mailing a firearm. I'm unsure as to what specific rules the USPS has when it comes to transport of firearms whether inter or intrastate.
 
"Just received a package inthe mail" is kind of a generic term.
If I'm going to send a friend a package, I'll tell them that I'll drop it in the mail tomorow.

I don't tell them I'll send it to you via DHL/UPS/FEDEX

Now if he said he picked the package up at a post office, or received it in his mailbox, that's a different story.


There is no way he would be prosecuted if he did anything wrong at any rate. Could you imagine the bad publicity that would come out of busting an unassuming and likeable old man on some nitpicky charge?
Would the US postal Service be able to prove that a pistol wass sent to him in the mail without testimony from the sender?



At any rate, don't try this at home folks.
 
MAILING handguns as in UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE is a no-no unless you have an FFL is the general rule.

Agreed. Now if we ASSUME that she did send it through USPS (it doesnt say in the article) what she did is violate a USPS policy. She did NOT, however commit a crime. Its a pretty big difference.
 
Actually, it is a violation of federal law for a non-licensee to ship a handgun by USPS.
Title 18, United States Code, Chapter 83

§ 1715. Firearms as nonmailable; regulations


Pistols, revolvers, and other firearms capable of being concealed on the person are nonmailable and shall not be deposited in or carried by the mails or delivered by any officer or employee of the Postal Service. Such articles may be conveyed in the mails, under such regulations as the Postal Service shall prescribe, for use in connection with their official duty, to officers of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, or Organized Reserve Corps; to officers of the National Guard or Militia of a State, Territory, or District; to officers of the United States or of a State, Territory, or District whose official duty is to serve warrants of arrest or commitments; to employees of the Postal Service; to officers and employees of enforcement agencies of the United States; and to watchmen engaged in guarding the property of the United States, a State, Territory, or District. Such articles also may be conveyed in the mails to manufacturers of firearms or bona fide dealers therein in customary trade shipments, including such articles for repairs or replacement of parts, from one to the other, under such regulations as the Postal Service shall prescribe.

Whoever knowingly deposits for mailing or delivery, or knowingly causes to be delivered by mail according to the direction thereon, or at any place to which it is directed to be delivered by the person to whom it is addressed, any pistol, revolver, or firearm declared nonmailable by this section, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

(As amended May 24, 1949, c. 139, § 40, 63 Stat. 95; Aug. 12, 1970, Pub.L. 91-375, § 6(j)(24), 84 Stat. 779; Sept. 13, 1994, Pub.L. 103-322, Title XXXIII, § 330016(1)(H), 108 Stat. 2147.)
 
I think this is what some would call a "circle jerk". So much assumption of how and what he or MIL did or did not do. Who cares?
 
As noted, he may have left out details for brevity. He said "mail" but it may have come common carrier. Some people say mail when anything arrives even if UPS brought it. Also as noted, an inheritance gun gets special consideration and is exempt from many laws. Stein is an attorney, by the way. I suspect that he has a passing understanding of the law.
 
The point is that we have so many restrictive laws that folks inadvertently (or may inadvertently) run afoul of the law without even thinking. This elderly lady allegedly popped a luger into the mail to Ben and he received it with warmth. Only trouble is that BATF, USPS, and CALDOJ would think otherwise.
 
MAILING handguns as in UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE is a no-no unless you have an FFL is the general rule.

There is a clause that the rule only pertains to modern firearms. Antiques can be mailed legally by non FFL's. It's even up on the wall on a poster at my local Post Office.
 
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