Shipping Guns via USPS? FFL Rules Explained

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A gun owner without a federal firearms license (FFL) can send a rifle or shotgun through the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to a resident of the same state or to a license holder in any state, where state law allows. A handgun is different: under USPS’s published rules, handguns are nonmailable unless mailed between parties the rules list.

That could change. On January 15, 2026, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, in an opinion for the attorney general, concluded that the department could not constitutionally enforce the handgun-mailing ban against firearms the Constitution protects. The Postal Service has proposed giving lawful handguns the same mailing treatment as rifles and shotguns, while keeping federal transfer laws in place. The August 2026 edition of USPS Publication 52 retains the handgun restrictions and their limited exceptions.

Start with the firearm, not the license

The August 2026 edition of USPS’s Publication 52, Hazardous, Restricted, and Perishable Mail still lists handguns and other concealable firearms as nonmailable except between specified authorized parties. An FFL is not a universal pass through that exception. For an owner without a license, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) puts it plainly: handguns are not mailable, and a common or contract carrier must be used to ship one.

USPS categorizes pistols, revolvers and concealable firearms, including short-barreled rifles and shotguns, as handguns. For its rifle and shotgun category, a rifle’s barrel must be at least 16 inches long and a shotgun’s at least 18 inches, with either weapon at least 26 inches overall and not concealable on a person. A shoulder-fired weapon can therefore count as a handgun under the postal rules.

Ordinary handgun parts are mailable, but that permission excludes handgun frames, receivers and components regulated under federal firearms law. Shipping a disassembled gun calls for checking the regulated component, not merely calling the parcel a box of parts.

For concealable air guns that fall outside the firearm definition, USPS requires Adult Signature service and compliance with state and local regulations.

Match the firearm to its recipient

USPS permits eligible unloaded rifles and shotguns subject to federal firearms regulations and state and local laws. The destination then determines the mailing conditions; in the table, a nonlicensee is an owner without an FFL.

Only the rifle or shotgun owner may open the interstate self-addressed parcel. The temporary custodian only receives the package for the owner and is not a substitute buyer.

A same-state transfer requires that the seller not know or have reasonable cause to believe the recipient is barred from possessing a firearm, and state laws may impose additional restrictions. For an ordinary sale to an unlicensed resident of another state, ATF says the firearm generally must go to an FFL in the buyer’s home state, where the buyer completes ATF Form 4473 and a National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) check. Addressing the parcel to the buyer’s home does not turn a sale into a shipment to oneself.

Federal regulations allow an eligible person to send a firearm to a licensed importer, manufacturer or dealer for a lawful purpose and allow that business to return the firearm, or a replacement of the same kind and type, to the original sender across state lines. That exception covers whether federal law allows the transfer, not whether a particular handgun parcel qualifies for USPS. For a repair, settle both the outbound route and the return carrier before sending the firearm.

A business FFL and a collector FFL are different

USPS’s business-license definition covers firearm manufacturers, importers and dealers, including gunsmiths and pawnbrokers, while its collector category covers acquiring and holding curios or relics. The business role matters because the handgun trade exception requires qualifying parties at both ends.

A qualifying business mailer must file signed PS Form 1508, Statement by Shipper of Firearms, with the postmaster, confirming its licensed status, the trade or repair purpose, and, to the best of its knowledge, the recipient’s qualifying business license. Under USPS’s published business-to-business handgun exception, completing PS Form 1508 does not make an owner without the required business license eligible for that exception.

Curios or relics are firearms of special interest to collectors for reasons other than sporting or defensive use. A firearm can qualify by being at least 50 years old, replicas excluded, through a museum curator’s certification, or by drawing a substantial part of its value from rarity or historical association. A curio-and-relic handgun may be mailed between licensed collectors only if it also meets USPS’s antique-firearm definition.

The antique definition covers muzzle-loading rifles, shotguns and pistols designed for black powder that cannot use fixed ammunition, except those that incorporate a firearm frame or receiver, were converted into muzzle loaders or can be readily converted to fire fixed ammunition. It also covers firearms with a matchlock, flintlock, percussion cap or similar ignition system made on or before 1898, and qualifying replicas. Fixed ammunition is a complete cartridge, with the projectile permanently attached to the case holding the primer and propellant. Check the exact definition before treating a collector’s license as sufficient.

USPS also provides official-duty handgun routes involving licensed businesses or authorized government agents, prescribed certification and listed official-duty recipients. Those narrow government routes are not permission for a public employee’s personal handgun shipment.

Prepare the parcel and choose the service

USPS may require a rifle or shotgun package to be opened, or written certification, to confirm that the firearm is unloaded and eligible for mailing. Settle that before sealing the package for the last time. Mailable firearms must be properly and securely packaged under USPS’s general packaging requirements. No markings on the outside wrapper or container may reveal that a mailable parcel contains a firearm.

Small-arms ammunition regulated as a Class 1 explosive, associated primers and blank cartridges, and firearm propellant powder are prohibited in USPS mail. Putting prohibited ammunition in a separate parcel does not create a postal shipping option.

USPS’s general firearm rule requires tracking and signature capture unless the shipment is between licensed dealers, manufacturers or importers. For rifles and shotguns mailed between those licensed businesses, USPS recommends tracking and signature capture but does not require them.

The domestic firearm rules also apply to international mail, along with any restrictions listed for the destination country. Firearms prohibited in international mail include nonautomatic and semiautomatic rifles, revolvers and pistols, except those of .50 caliber or less made before 1898. A domestic permission should never be treated as permission to mail the same gun abroad.

Verify the recipient and the carrier

ATF’s FFL eZ Check verifies a business license using its first 3 and last 5 digits. The system does not validate Type 03 collector or Type 06 ammunition-manufacturer licenses, so an error for those types does not establish that the license is invalid.

FedEx’s posted firearm policy requires an FFL, account approval and a Firearms Shipping Compliance Agreement, and prohibits firearm shipping by customers who lack an FFL. A private carrier is therefore not an automatic walk-in alternative for an unlicensed handgun owner. The practical step for that owner is to ask a licensed business about a carrier-approved shipment.

United Parcel Service (UPS) accepts firearm products under an approved shipping agreement from licensed importers, manufacturers, dealers or collectors to authorized recipients. An approved UPS shipper may provide a label to a customer returning firearm products to that shipper or another UPS-agreed address. Customers may tender those packed, prelabeled parcels at UPS Customer Centers or The UPS Store, or schedule a UPS pickup, with the approved shipper responsible for compliance. For a repair, ask the receiving business whether its approved agreement provides that customer-return route.

Federal law requires written notice to the carrier when a firearm is shipped across state lines or abroad by a common or contract carrier to anyone other than a licensed importer, manufacturer, dealer or collector. The same law bars a carrier from requiring an exterior firearm label and requires written acknowledgment of receipt for an interstate or foreign firearm delivery.

Postmasters cannot give legal opinions on firearm shipments and are directed to refer customers seeking further information to ATF. Postal acceptance alone is not a substitute for checking the applicable transfer laws. A mailer can appeal a postmaster’s decision in writing to the Pricing and Classification Service Center, then appeal that center’s initial ruling to the USPS headquarters director of Product Classification.

The statute, the enforcement opinion and the proposed change

The federal handgun-mailing statute, 18 U.S.C. Section 1715, still states a penalty of a fine, up to 2 years in prison, or both for knowingly mailing a firearm it declares nonmailable. But the Justice Department’s January 15, 2026 opinion says the department may not constitutionally enforce that section against protected firearms, including handguns, and that USPS should conform its regulations. The penalty in the statute therefore does not, alone, describe the department’s announced enforcement position. The USPS mailing routes and paperwork requirements described here are its published acceptance conditions. The Justice Department’s announced enforcement position is a different question, as is the effect of any court relief on a particular sender.

The Office of Legal Counsel argues that the restriction conflicts with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation and burdens protected arms. The office reasons that continued enforcement makes lawful owners use burdensome workarounds or forgo transporting, receiving and maintaining their firearms, chilling the exercise of constitutional rights.

The ban was already being challenged in court when the opinion was issued. Shreve v. U.S. Postal Service, a lawsuit over the handgun shipping ban brought by Gun Owners of America and other plaintiffs, was filed July 14, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

The day after the opinion, the Justice Department declined to defend the law in a pending lawsuit challenging it, according to the New York attorney general’s office. On March 2, 2026, New York Attorney General Letitia James and the attorneys general of New Jersey and Delaware asked to intervene in Shreve v. U.S. Postal Service to defend the statute. James’s coalition argued that the law does not implicate the Second Amendment because it regulates a method of transferring firearms rather than the right to keep or bear them. The coalition said that until 1879, the Postal Service limited mail to papers or to a list of mailable goods that excluded firearms.

The coalition also argued that USPS has no legal obligation to ensure packages obey state gun laws, and that removing the restriction would force states to build costly new investigative and tracking systems.

In an April 15, 2026 filing, the government replied in support of its request for summary judgment in Shreve; on April 23, Judge Stephanie L. Haines granted the plaintiffs permission to file a sur-reply. Those filings ask for a decision, rather than establish that the court adopted either constitutional position.

Public comments on USPS’s proposal, Revised Mailing Standards for Firearms, were due May 4, 2026; the Federal Register still lists that notice as a proposed rule. The proposal would expand handgun mailing while retaining the requirement that firearms be unloaded and that mailers obey nonpostal firearm laws, including the Gun Control Act. The mailing routes described above come from the published August rulebook, not the proposal.

The practical next step is to establish the lawful recipient first, then arrange a shipping route the sender and carrier can actually use.