(HELENA)– Seventeen state attorneys general joined Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen in asking major shipping companies to clarify new policies that allow them to track firearm sales with unprecedented specificity and bypass warrant requirements to share that information with federal agencies.
Reports from Montana federal firearm license (FFL) holders made to Attorney General Knudsen’s office indicate that UPS and FedEx are now requiring them to ship separately and track firearms, firearms parts, and firearm products so gun purchases can be tracked, and documents retained about what specific items those shipments contain.
Knudsen and the coalition of attorneys general sent letters today to leadership at both companies requesting additional information on their new policies and the possibility that the effort was coordinated in part with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
Attorney General Knudsen’s letters state, “these demands, in tandem, allow [UPS/FedEx] to create a database of American gun purchasers and determine exactly what items they purchased… In doing so you, perhaps inadvertently, give federal agencies a workaround to normal warrant requirements.”
