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GOA ALERT Action Item - time to email the mailman!

Mike

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Alert and action item below - here is the email I sent today which folks can use as a straw man:

--

To: michael.f.lee@usps.gov

SUBJECT: Objection to 73 Fed. Reg. 12321 (New Standards Prohibit the Mailing of Replica or Inert Munitions)

Dear Mr. Lee:

I object to the proposed regulation limiting the mailing of replica and inert munitions through the US Mail, and urge these proposed regulations to be withdrawn.

There is no justification for this regulation - such munitions are not "hazardous," and the US Mail system should not engage in petty pandering to the anti-gun lobby, here at home or abroad. Frankly, in light of the expected Supreme Court affirmation of the appeals court decision in Parker v. DC on Second Amendment grounds, the US Postal Service should be reviewing how it will expand the use of the national mail system to allow shipment of allfirearms, including non-inert munitions.

Again, I urge the USPS to withdraw the proposed regulation.

Sincerely,
YOUR NAME
YOUR ADDRESS
-----

Post Office Ban On Mailing Replica Or Inert Munitions

Gun Owners of America E-Mail Alert
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408
http://www.gunowners.org

Friday, April 4, 2008


The Post Office is wading into the gun control debate.

That's right, the U.S. Postal Service is trying to keep people from shipping
replica or inert munitions through the mail.

They have no authority in the law, since Congress has kept for itself the
power to decide what can and cannot be shipped. But the Post Office is
trying to say that replica or inert munitions are hazardous!

Gun Owners of America's attorneys just found out about this outrageous
proposal which was issued by the Post Office. Although the deadline for
postmarking is Monday, April 7, our attorneys say that e-mails and letters
should be sent anyway.

If you are a re-enactor or collector of replica or inert munitions, you are
in the Post Office crosshairs. If you are not directly involved in this,
you should still be outraged that a bunch of bureaucrats are trying to
further restrict Second Amendment activity.

By the way, there is one interesting dimension to all of this: Canada wants
the US to help shut off shipment of these items into Canada. So it looks
like our bureaucrats are eager to appease other governments by changing our
laws to make them as bad as our neighbors'.

You can read the Postal Service proposed regulations here:
http://uxoinfo.com/blogcfc/client/enclosures/Proposed-Ban_ShippingInert.pdf

You can read GOA's comments to the Postal Service here:
http://www.gunowners.org/fs0803.pdf

ACTION: Please send your comments to the Post Office ASAP. The letter must
be postmarked by Monday, April 7, 2008. Here's the contact information.

TITLE: 73 Fed. Reg. 12321: New Standards Prohibit the Mailing of Replica or
Inert Munitions

E-MAIL: michael.f.lee@usps.gov

SNAIL MAIL:
Manager, Mailing Standards
United States Postal Service
475 L'Enfant Plaza, S.W., Room 3436
Washington, DC 20260-3436


****************************

Please do not reply directly to this message, as your reply will
bounce back as undeliverable.

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Problems, questions or comments? The main GOA e-mail address
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address to distribution lists sending more than ten messages per
week or lists associated with issues other than gun rights.
 

sccrref

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Mission accomplished. I also added this into the email I sent.

This is just another nail in the coffin for USPS. The private sector will step in and take over where you do not meet the needs of the public. Can the USPS really affordthe loss of revenue from this course of action? Standard mail delivery will not be long in also going to the private sector.
 

Pointman

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Sent a customized version, also stating my dislike for not allowing OC/CC on US Post Office property.
 

Pointman

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FzSBLACKMAGICK wrote:
Forgive my ignorance...but WTH is a replica or inert munition???
A fake gun or fake ammunition usually used for display or re-enactment, such as Civil War era re-enactment, or historical American displays in a museum.
 

FzSBLACKMAGICK

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Messages
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Palm Bay, Florida, USA
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Pointman wrote:
FzSBLACKMAGICK wrote:
Forgive my ignorance...but WTH is a replica or inert munition???
A fake gun or fake ammunition usually used for display or re-enactment, such as Civil War era re-enactment, or historical American displays in a museum.

That's what it sounded like to me...

Why on earth would they consider that dangerous???

Makes no sense whatsoever.
 

DreQo

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FzSBLACKMAGICK wrote:
Pointman wrote:
FzSBLACKMAGICK wrote:
Forgive my ignorance...but WTH is a replica or inert munition???
A fake gun or fake ammunition usually used for display or re-enactment, such as Civil War era re-enactment, or historical American displays in a museum.

That's what it sounded like to me...

Why on earth would they consider that dangerous???

Makes no sense whatsoever.
Perhaps their justification is somewhere along the lines of it being very difficult to discern the difference between replica/inert munitions and fully functional ones. Not that I agree with it at all, but that argument might be enough to fool the ignorant sheeple.
 

packnrat

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ups has free tracking with all shipments.

and gets it there in fair time.

as for the usps......well they do come in third or fourth....(sic) even behind fex-ex.


:what:

.
 

WARCHILD

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Corunna, Michigan, USA
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imperialism2024 wrote:
As an employee of USPS, I don't know why anyone would actually want to ship items with them, unless they want them to either arrive late or not at all...

+100!!

As a retired mechanic for the afore mentioned good 'ol PO, I would NEVER ship anything that was important to me with them. Being a union shop steward for many years, I was shocked at the number of thefts of mail that are on record. The careless handling of many packages (especially X-mas) is shocking, and I could go on and on. Basicly it's a double sided coin. The post office became an indipendant corp. back in the 70's, so they can make some rules on their own as a business. However the federal laws still apply because it is still protected and subsidised by the feds.
 

Pointman

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USPS is pretty bad. UPS isn't that good either. I used to work for them, and because of the way they handle packages, stuff is damaged all the time. Years later I asked the UPS driver for the company I worked at if UPS could stop damaging our stuff during shipping (I was pretty upset that a rush order was damaged in transit), he laughed and his reply included a cuss word--not at all professional.

After UPS damaged a computer monitor we shipped and refused to pay the insurance claim until we sued, we switched to Fed Ex. Things arrived undamaged, and fast. I called Glock about factory upgrades (which they'll do for free), and they said they only ship Fed Ex.
 

Task Force 16

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I'm a little puzzled here. Why would the USPS not ship replica weapons, when they've been shipping real weapons all along.

I work for a guy that has a CCL (Collectables & Curios License) and he collects and trades WWI/WWII small arms. He has a fairly large collection of WWII issued M-1 Carbines, all of which are shootable. There is no telling how many of these Real WWII rifles he has sent me to the post office with, to ship. And the Postmasters know full well what we are shipping. They won't, however, ship ammo.
 

SANDCREEK

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The National Association of Letter Carriers (union) supports and contributes $$$ to anti-gun political candidates (Obama, Clinton, et al). That money comes from US when we buy stamps or ship with USPS.
 

noname762

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sccrref wrote:
This is just another nail in the coffin for USPS. The private sector will step in and take over where you do not meet the needs of the public. Can the USPS really afford the loss of revenue from this course of action? Standard mail delivery will not be long in also going to the private sector.

Well here it is about one and a half years later and the talk lately is this: The USPS may close or is closing some post offices. They may have to lay off thousands of employees. They may cut delivery from 6 to 5 days a week. Between email and Fedex, UPS and other private sector shipping outfits the USPS does NOT NEED to cut their own throat.

Now I know alot of young people don't even use the snail mail. I LIKE SNAIL MAIL. I AM OLD TOO. I LIKE CASH TOO. I still write checks to pay my bills and then I mail them.

I would rather see the price of stamps go up than lose the USPS and see the US Mail privatised.
 

shad0wfax

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I don't believe in the USPS. I avoid using them at all costs.

I'm a big fan of e-mail and cell-phones for most of my communication needs and UPS or FedEx for my package needs.

Nationalized package/mail systems can kiss my arse!
 

Bustelo5%

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I am very confused about why the USPS would even try to do what they are trying to restrict this. The USPS has to break even every year meaning that the amount of money it they need for operation is the only money they get to use. So if they use i mil then they have to operate at 1 mil. This idea of closing down post offices is a super bad idea for the tons of vets I have met who have worked for the USPS its one of the best non uniformed services to work for after someone retires from the armed services. My step dad made it to being the second in command Post Master thats awesome for a job where you dont get shot at.

Well all of us citizens can all just band up and start our own firearms Currier service maned by ex postal employees. Customer service would be great since there wouldnt be any pissing off of postal employees,Head lines reading " Ex USPS Employee in Standoff Transporting Inert Munitions with Assult Riffle" lol
 

since9

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Pointman wrote:
Sent a customized version, also stating my dislike for not allowing OC/CC on US Post Office property.
Just stumbled across this...

Despite it being nearly a year old, it has both recent and looming relevance:

While in the service, I carried U.S. Mail aboard military aircraft for distribution to the troops and civilian (DoD employees, consultants, and contractors) downrange (and carrying their stuff back, of course). It legal to ship certain types of classified mail through the U.S. Postal Service, and that applies to all U.S. Postal Facilities. It's not that banning guns at US Post Offices will prevent armed theft of the mail. However, the ante with respect to punishment for anyone who ever tried is upped considerably.

But that's not the reason.

In the Old West (well, really, all of the U.S.) payrolls were often shipped through USPS.

But that's not the reason.

The real reason for the ban, has to do with the expression "going postal." In order to provide a "safer" (I know, I know...) environment for their workers. We all how, if everyone were armed and well-trained, those who went postal wouldn't last very long. Yet the blooming media's gross overreaction resulted in the ban, despite the fact that the USPS Commission on a Safe and Secure Workplace found that "Postal works are only a third as likely as those in the national workforce to be victims of homicide at work."

Furthermore, despite more than thirty acts of postal mass shootings resulting in death since 1983, one guess as to what percentage of those were made by either OC or CC citizens waiting in lines? I'll give you a hint: 98% of all shootings were inside jobs (Source: my ex-brother-in-law, who was a Postmaster for 20 years, and is now a Postal Inspector).

YET!!!... On October 14, 2009 the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the conviction of a postal employee for possessing a gun in his vehicle while parked on a non-public United States Postal Service (USPS) parking lot in violation of a federal regulation at 39 CFR 232.1(l).The court’s opinion in United States v. Doroson can be found here.

The circuit panel wrote:

"the Postal Service used the parking lot for loading mail and staging its mail trucks. Given this usage of the parking lot by the Postal Service as a place of regular government business, it falls under the ‘sensitive places’ exception recognized by Heller"

Frankly, I strongly disagree with this opinion, as even the National Park gun ban allowed folks to store their guns in their cars while on National Park grounds (parking lots). Congress repealed the ban on carry within National Parks last year, and it is (if I'm not mistaken) set to go into effect on March 1, 2010.

Lest we forget it's history, USPS has its roots in our Constitution, and was actually established by Ben Franklin in 1775 by decree of the Second Continental Congress. Our Constitution made it one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution.

The Carry of Firearms at US Post Office was legal for more than 215 years!!!

Therefore, I still think banning carrying at one's local post office is a dumb law. Aside from a bad media rash in the 1990s, there is no compelling reason to call a Post Office a "sensitive area." I reserve that description for an upper right molar that's giving me fits...
 

zack991

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Screw USPS. I just have it delivered through FEDEX or UPS, I hate the USPS as it is. Last year I got a Christmas card from 03. I would never trust them with my ammo anyways. Give it a few more years and private company's will replace USPS as a mil service, and I am willing to pay money for it.
 
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