I wonder if others here have noticed any new US Customs restrictions regarding shipping parts for Antique firearms?
I recently was trying to get a replacement cylinder for a antique French M1873 revolver for another friends M1873 that needed it sent up from a guy who I have dealt with before and who is a very solid guy and seller. He gets them and other parts for these revolver direct from contacts in France. He has sent others before into Canada as recently as October 2015 without incident but had my recent ordered one held by US Customs since mid November.
Just recently after he began asking USPS why was it being held for the last 2 months at US Customs (Customs would not discuss it with him direct) and then putting in a Insurance claim for it he got a visit from Homeland Security.
This is his reply back to me -
Well, I don't know if the events of today qualify as the "light a fire under US Customs" as we had hoped for, but it did light a fire.
I was visited today by 2 agents of the US Immigration, Customs Enforcement division of the Department of Homeland Security concerning the M1873 cylinder.
It seems that my attempt to send this to you has violated some new regulations here in the US concerning the "export of weapons of war", which is in actual fact any and all firearms parts. These regulations have apparently only recently come into effect or the previous cylinder I sent to Canada just slipped through un-noticed.
In any case, I have a full interview with the DHS on Tuesday concerning this affair, todays visit was just the invitation. I was informed that I am not facing any charges yet, but likely will face a fine in compliance with the mandatory procedures in this case, hence the sit down on Tuesday.
The fact that I was unaware of these new rulings and regulations is not considered an excuse, but I will plead that the Postmaster should clearly have known about it, since the Post office read and processed the Customs form. Hopefully that will get me out of the fine, but I doubt it.
I did ask, if in the end would I be able to get the offending cylinder back, so as not to suffer a total loss, after the fine that I will have to pay for violating the law, and was told that, I could "possibly" get it back from US Customs, but that it might take a couple of months.
So, in short, this also places the matter of sending you any further parts, such as the trigger springs, are out of the question.
Apparently, antique revolver parts are the weapons of choice of the Islamic terrorists and other radical factions on this earth.
I did explain the antique status of the cylinder, and it was clearly indicated on the Postal Customs form. I do not know if it was physically examined or not, and hope to find out more detail on Tuesday.
I figure that my previous shipments and those of others have slipped by if the regulations have been in effect for any period of time OR, they are just starting to crack down on this, because of the hysteria being generated here for the elections and our socialist president to disarm US citizens even more thoroughly than you Canadians.
I can tell you that the agents I spoke with were fully aware of it's antique status, which leads me to think that they are just being a**holes about this. Here in the US, agents in bureaus like Customs, BATFE, IRS etc., make points by developing cases whether or not they have merit.
I recently was trying to get a replacement cylinder for a antique French M1873 revolver for another friends M1873 that needed it sent up from a guy who I have dealt with before and who is a very solid guy and seller. He gets them and other parts for these revolver direct from contacts in France. He has sent others before into Canada as recently as October 2015 without incident but had my recent ordered one held by US Customs since mid November.
Just recently after he began asking USPS why was it being held for the last 2 months at US Customs (Customs would not discuss it with him direct) and then putting in a Insurance claim for it he got a visit from Homeland Security.
This is his reply back to me -
Well, I don't know if the events of today qualify as the "light a fire under US Customs" as we had hoped for, but it did light a fire.
I was visited today by 2 agents of the US Immigration, Customs Enforcement division of the Department of Homeland Security concerning the M1873 cylinder.
It seems that my attempt to send this to you has violated some new regulations here in the US concerning the "export of weapons of war", which is in actual fact any and all firearms parts. These regulations have apparently only recently come into effect or the previous cylinder I sent to Canada just slipped through un-noticed.
In any case, I have a full interview with the DHS on Tuesday concerning this affair, todays visit was just the invitation. I was informed that I am not facing any charges yet, but likely will face a fine in compliance with the mandatory procedures in this case, hence the sit down on Tuesday.
The fact that I was unaware of these new rulings and regulations is not considered an excuse, but I will plead that the Postmaster should clearly have known about it, since the Post office read and processed the Customs form. Hopefully that will get me out of the fine, but I doubt it.
I did ask, if in the end would I be able to get the offending cylinder back, so as not to suffer a total loss, after the fine that I will have to pay for violating the law, and was told that, I could "possibly" get it back from US Customs, but that it might take a couple of months.
So, in short, this also places the matter of sending you any further parts, such as the trigger springs, are out of the question.
Apparently, antique revolver parts are the weapons of choice of the Islamic terrorists and other radical factions on this earth.
I did explain the antique status of the cylinder, and it was clearly indicated on the Postal Customs form. I do not know if it was physically examined or not, and hope to find out more detail on Tuesday.
I figure that my previous shipments and those of others have slipped by if the regulations have been in effect for any period of time OR, they are just starting to crack down on this, because of the hysteria being generated here for the elections and our socialist president to disarm US citizens even more thoroughly than you Canadians.
I can tell you that the agents I spoke with were fully aware of it's antique status, which leads me to think that they are just being a**holes about this. Here in the US, agents in bureaus like Customs, BATFE, IRS etc., make points by developing cases whether or not they have merit.
