Delaware attorney general opposes gun sales through the mail
Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings has joined counterparts in New York and New Jersey opposing a federal court case that could allow firearms to be mailed through the U.S. Postal Service.
In the suit filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, plaintiffs are challenging the constitutionality of a federal law preventing certain concealable firearms from being mailed through the postal service.
Federal law passed in 1927 barred the USPS from mailing certain weapons, but the U.S. Department of Justice recently issued an opinion stating the statute is unconstitutional as applied to certain firearms, including handguns. DOJ stated it will no longer enforce the statute and instructed USPS to issue conforming regulations, Jennings said.
“There is no good reason – none – to do away with a nearly century-old commonsense gun safety measure like this one. If the White House isn’t going to step up to keep this law in place, then we will,” she said in a press release.
The brief filed by Jennings and others said harm would follow if a court struck down this statute. As the states explain, an order undermining this statute would risk allowing individuals prohibited from owning a firearm – including convicted felons, domestic abusers, and individuals subject to restraining orders – to get a gun through the mail, contrary to state licensing and permitting laws. And the types of guns that might be mailed across state lines include those prohibited by state law, such as ghost guns, Jennings said.
“In other words, people who are barred by state law from purchasing weapons would gain a new way to acquire them via the mail, without undergoing a background check. Moreover, they could also obtain weapons that are otherwise illegal to possess in those states,” she said.
Unlike common carriers such as UPS, DHL and Federal Express, Jennings said USPS has no statutory obligation to ensure the packages it carries comply with state laws on the acquisition or transfer of firearms, creating a loophole in state laws.
Jennings also said the changes to the law would inhibit the states’ ability to identify the sellers and purchasers of guns used in crimes through the federal ATF eTrace system.
In 2023, she said Delaware used data from eTrace to successfully identify the purchasers of 79% of such guns searched. Without that data, she said law enforcement agencies will have higher administrative and investigation costs as criminal investigations will become more expensive and time consuming.
Law enforcement would have to create an entirely new investigative and tracking structure to account for the unregulated mailing of concealable firearms through USPS, she said, and the tracing will be harder.
If individuals can simply circumvent the federal firearm licensees system by mailing concealable firearms via USPS, Jennings said, state law enforcement will have a reduced probability of identifying the path a gun traveled before it was used in the crime. The system helps identify firearms traffickers.
