ATLANTA, GA -(Ammoland.com)- UPS has stepped up its anti-gun campaign by requiring online sellers to ship an average of 50 handguns daily to use its 2nd Day Air service.
Sellers who do not ship at least 350 handguns a week risk losing their shipping accounts. Under the new agreement, UPS is only required to give customers a ten-day notice before cutting them off from the shipping service. The volume necessary means that most online retailers and manufacturers are now cut off from shipping guns through the carrier unless the handgun is shipped using the expensive Next Day Air service.
The notice was sent to UPS customers that deal in firearms. UPS has been under pressure from anti-gun groups and politicians to stop doing business with the gun industry. This new move appears to be a way that UPS can cut ties to most of the industry without jeopardizing its major accounts.
The letter also references updating its policies to be in line with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and state regulations. This reference most likely refers to new rules surrounding privately manufactured firearms (PMF). But UPS goes much further than required by law.
UPS has been at the center of controversy recently when it canceled the account of a seller of 80% lowers. The shipping giant notified Ghost Firearms of Florida that it would stop shipping from the company. It also told the online retailer that it would “seize and destroy” packages currently en route to customers leaving Ghost Firearms scrambling for options. At the time, Ghost Firearms had more than $30,000 in products that were endangered of being destroyed.
A month later, under pressure from the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, FedEx followed suit and stopped shipping unfinished frames and receivers. When one company bends a knee to a special interest group, the other is usually quick to follow suit.
Recently Giffords sent a letter to FedEx and UPS asking the companies to adopt “a policy of refusing to ship dangerous firearm products that are fueling the epidemic of gun violence in America.”
Some firearms advocates see this as backdoor gun control. Many gun owners buy firearms online because of the cost savings. The buyer still must pick up their ordered firearms from a federal firearms licensee (FFL) and be submitted through the same background check system as any other customer.
By requiring smaller dealers to use Next Day Air service, the cost savings disappear. Add in the cost FFLs charge for transfers, and buying a gun from a smaller online retailer will become prohibitively expensive. This change will hurt all but the most prominent online retailers.
The change will hurt small manufacturers as well. A manufacturer will have to ship 18,250 handguns a year or will be cut off from UPS 2nd Day Air Service. This number is more than the total number of guns produced by most companies.
UPS, which receives $252,016,057 in state/local and federal subsidies annually, is attacking an industry that helps Americans exercise the Constitutionally protected right to bear arms. This is not lost on Erich Pratt, Senior Vice President of Gun Owners of America.
“This is another example of the woke cancel culture coming from the anti-gun crowd,” Pratt told AmmoLand News. “The Second Amendment protects the right to keep and bear arms, and by default, that should include the right of gun makers to ship their firearms to market. If UPS is going to act like an enemy of our Constitutional rights, then they shouldn’t receive a dime of federal taxpayers’ money.”
AmmoLand News reached out to UPS for comment, but our calls were not returned.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
