Another Gun Shipping Question (Fairbanks, Wasilla: transfer, purchase, costs)

[stiffnecked]

If you have to ship them through an FFL then yes you have to go through the background check and fill out another form 4473. What did your local cargo agent at Alaska Airlines suggest doing? Sometimes they have work arounds that you can use. It might be worth a trip over to the airport to ask them about it.

[MissingAll4Seasons]

Try FedEx... they may or may not let you do it, but they seem to have less whiney restrictions. Worth a shot at least. You might also have a better chance with them if you had a printed copy of the law.

We're going through the same thing, and it might end up easier and cheaper for one of us to fly with the guns as checked baggage while the other one makes the drive (since we have more than one handgun and restricted long gun)

[Jerseykat]

With Fedex you can ship firearms but there must be a licensed dealer, licensed collector or government agency on either both ends (shipper & recipient) or one sided.

To ship to yourself in AK you could either have your dealer ship it to you as they are licensed and
it can be delivered to you. Or you could ship to a licensee in AK and retrieve from them.
I know we have a few customers who ship arms home and they have arrangements with their local gun shops to use a pick-up location.
Guns must be packed in plain packaging, no marking to alert to what is in box, obviously unloaded also. Shipper must tell the agent at the counter what is in the package.
Ammuntion can not be shipped in same packaging and dangerous goods rules would apply going to Alaska. Express division can ship both handguns and rifles and has delivery or hold options.
Ground is restricted to rilfles and can not ship handguns. Also there is only the delivery option.
Oh and all firearms must be signed for, no release option available.

[MeganAK]

Man, this whole thing is stupid. We have spent the whole morning trying to come up with alternatives to get these stupid guns to the Lower 48. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

[MissingAll4Seasons]

Thanks Jerseykat - do you work at FedEx or have used them to ship your guns before? I just want to make sure that the "rules" are actually the "practice"... cuz UPS says the same thing but balks anyway.

Anyhow... if I have my dealer ship to me in AK, it's got to be Air Overnight, right? If that's the case, does FedEx have a holding area where my delivery can be held for 3-4 days until I can get there? Must it be delivered to an address or can I have it held at the depot and pick it up there in person?

On the flipside... if I ship them FedEx to a dealer in AK, do I have to go through the one-gun-a-day, credit/criminal history BS or can I just pick them up? What documentation do I need to provide the dealer that these really are my firearms? (none of them are "officially registered" and I don't have receipts and paperwork for all of them because they were inherited, etc).

Megan, I agree with you... this is soooooo dumb. Not as dumb as the food thing, but dumb all the same. You'd think that someone would get an FFL and a plane... they'd make a pretty decent living solving this little problem, I'm sure!

[MeganAK]

MissingAll4- We are running into the FFL problem because we are shipping handguns. If we ship them to a dealer, he has to go through the whole background check thing, and then he can only pick up one handgun every five days without having the ATF interrogate him.

[Jerseykat]

Hiya Missing,
Yeah I work at Fedex. My location is near a major airport so I get alot of firearms from people who can't take them on commercial airlines.
Basically it's the process I outlined.
You could have a firearm (handgun included) shipped to you by a licensed dealer/collector and have it held at a Fedex location in Alaska. Likewise when you are shipping them back you have to ship to a licensed person.

[MissingAll4Seasons]

Megan - yeah, we have 3 handguns ourselves. Trying to figure out if we can drop them off at our licensed dealer on this side and have him ship them to us on the receiving end (not a dealer)... thus circumventing the whole Forrm 4473 background check thing altogether.

Thanks JerseyKat. I think I'll check what my dealer will charge me on this end and double-check with FedEx in Fairbanks to make sure they'll hold the handguns (and how long) for me to pick up in person on that end.

[Barkingowl]

Just be happy that you don't have any Class III firearms.

[MissingAll4Seasons]

Barking - No Doubt!! Thank God for small miracles. We just want to get out of the Lower 48 before some nimrod decides to make any of our current weapons "restricted"!