Originally Posted by aniok:
I'm careful to follow the rules and I don't recall any problems. I'm pretty sure that I told the PO what I was sending. The address makes it pretty obvious. I remember a pleasant transaction at the PO. That's why I asked when the rules changed. I guess I can contact the PO and ask.
It doesn't matter what someone at the Post Office told you (or let you do). It is not a policy a postal employee can interpret on their own whim, it is a settled matter of federal law. It is illegal to mail a handgun frame unless manufacturer/dealer FFL to manufacturer/dealer FFL (there are very limited exceptions for military, LE, etc.) This has been so for decades (back to the 40s).
The controlling statute is 18 USC 1715.
Sec. 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,
Commonwealth, Possession, or District; to officers of the United
States or of a State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, 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, Commonwealth, Possession, 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.
http://law.onecle.com/uscode/18/1715.html
What you did was a felony. The fact that some postal employee assisted you in breaking the law is not a legal defense. I wouldn't recommend doing it again. And, I wouldn't admit to doing it on a public forum. Fed time is hard time.
