Attorney General Lynn Fitch
Concerns raised over what could be a database of American gun purchasers.
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch has joined other attorneys general from 17 other states in calling on UPS and FedEx to clarify their practices pertaining to shipping guns.
The other state attorneys general come from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
The AGs say the two shipping companies are requiring federal firearms license holders to create three separate shipping accounts: one for firearms, one for firearm parts, and one for all other firearm-related products.
“Under this three-tier system, gun sellers cannot mix and match shipments, which reveals to your company whether they are shipping a gun, gun part, or a gun-related item,” the AGs write to the companies.
In addition to creating three distinct shipping groups, FedEx and UPS now apparently demand that gun store owners retain documents about what specific items those shipments contain and make that information available to UPS upon request. The AGs say these demands, in tandem, allow FedEx and UPS to create a database of American gun purchasers and determine exactly what items they purchase.
The AGs further state that it is disturbing that the companies’ policies permit them to “compl[y] with… requests from law enforcement or other governmental authorities” even when those requests are “inconsistent with applicable laws, rules and regulations.”
“In doing so you—perhaps inadvertently—give federal agencies a workaround to federal law, which has long prevented federal agencies from using gun sales to create gun registries,” the AGs tell the companies, adding that under their policies, the two can provide information at will or upon request to federal agencies, information detailing which Americans are buying what guns.
You can read the letters to FedEx and UPS here.
Frank Corder
