Help needed with courier to transport air gun from Delhi to Punjab

[thind_aman]

Hello IFGians,

Hope you are all doing great.

I need some help. I'm based in Delhi and I have two .22 IHP air rifles which I want to send to my native place near Kapurthala, Punjab. I have spoken to customer care representatives of a few courier companies regarding this but they outright refuse saying they don't move 'weapons' (don't even get me started here). I've spoken to Gati, Trackon and Bluedart so far.

So, if anyone can connect me with a contact in a courier service who has done this before, I would be really thankful.

I look forward to your reponses.

Thanks and Regards,
Aman Thind

[sohampaul11]

What a coincidence! I shipped my rifle by Gati today. I never mentioned that there is a 'weapon' or 'rifle' inside. I marked the item as 'Sports Items' and that it is a gift. They categorised it as 'Household Goods'. Also a declaration has to be written that the item is for personal use only and has no commercial value. I mentioned a value which was significantly lower than the price of the rifle. The rifle in question is an Anschutz,which is quite expensive but I declared the value as 4000/-. Mine had a hard case and all the accessories that came with it. I had added extra padding so that the rifle doesn't get damaged in transit and marked a cautionary notice that the item is fragile and has to be handled with care. The total weight was 16 kilos and the item was shipped to a district in Chattisgarh from Kolkata. Total shipping cost for door delivery came to 1518/-. Gati provides a free pickup in my area, so my process was completed in a jiffy.

[Big Daddy]

Try another franchise of Gati. Its used by many members.

BD

[taurean]

Hi Aman,

You can ship it through India post. Always choose land/surface delivery and NOT speed post. They will just casually ask what is inside and you can mention it as metal stand etc as I said while shipping my ARs. No package opening/inspecting from their side. Make sure that you disassemble and bubble wrap really well while sending through india post. I have got two ARs delivered from KoviBazar and had one returned as well through India Post. It costed me just around INR 230 per AR from Kerala to Karnataka. It took roughly 4 days from shipping to delivery and they give web tracking as well..

Regards,
Taurean

[GNV]

Fed Ex delivered an airgun from AARMR to me.
I think any courier would ship the item. Only declare it as some mechanical tool or a sport item. That should work.

GNV

[Basu]

The cheapest could be India Post .
You get tracking no.there.

Basu

[vsraja]

It can be stripped into three parts(barrel with catcher,receiver, stock) to reduce the size of the shipment. You can also use old news papers in place of bubble wrap and place inside any cardboard box and use parcel tape.Then you can stick a paper with to and from address including the declaration ''sports goods''.Try india post or professional courier.Also some bus operators like KPN will provide the service.

[goodboy_mentor]

It is understandable that nobody is trying to break the law but only trying to avoid harassment by not labeling it as air gun. Labeling it as "metal stand" or something completely unrelated may unnecessarily create problems. It may give opportunity to the corrupt elements to harass and create problems. Instead labeling as sports items or sports goods appears more reasonable. Along with the dismantled air gun, some other light sports items may also be packed like folded paper target charts, table tennis or badminton rackets or some other small light sports items etc.

[taurean]

Hi mentor,

If your reference of 'metal stand' is w.r.t my reply above, let me clarify that I was not referring to any labelling on the item. I just mentioned it as 'metal stand' to the guy at the parcel counter as a casual reply to their formality query .. thats all. I don't endorse labelling the item incorrectly and if a better substitute like 'sports good' comes to mind, the better. Just to clarify things.

Thanks

[thind_aman]

Thank you everyone for the comments and tips.

So, everyone is using some sort of workaround to get the airguns shipped. Why can't these companies ship the air guns as air guns? Is there a specific law that prohibits them from doing so?

Moreover, if anyone has a contact in Gati (Delhi), could you please share?

Regards,
Aman

[goodboy_mentor]

Just to clarify things.

No issues, my reply was not pointed at any individual but in good spirit so that unnecessary problems may be avoided by anyone reading this thread.

Is there a specific law that prohibits them from doing so?

If I can correctly recall as per Arms Rules, no commercial transportation of firearms or ammunition can be done without holding license for same. Therefore no organization will be knowingly transport any firearm or ammunition unless they have license for same. I think the Indian Posts is exempt from this requirement(please read Arms Rules to confirm this). Of course you can personally carry the firearm if you are traveling within the area validity of license. But for air gun you do not need license to personally carry it.

[thind_aman]

If I can correctly recall as per Arms Rules, no commercial transportation of firearms or ammunition can be done without holding license for same.

However, an air gun is not a 'firearm'. Or am I missing something?

Regards,
Aman

[goodboy_mentor]

However, an air gun is not a 'firearm'. Or am I missing something?

As per definition of firearm in Arms Act 1959, air gun is a firearm but as per Notification GSR 991, the air guns that satisfy deal wood test are exempt from all provisions(including definition of firearm, as well as requirement of license for transportation) of Arms Act 1959. The Notification GSR 991 can be read here http://www.indiansforguns.com/viewtopic ... 335#p50363

The confusion has also been multiplied by notification of Arms Rules 2016. I am not aware if Notification GSR 991 was denotified when Arms Rules 2016 were notified. In order to acquire "force of law", this notification of Arms Rules 2016 needs to satisfy the Section 44(3) of Arms Act 1959. As per Section 44(3) of Arms Act 1959, this notification of Arms Rules 2016 needs to be approved by both houses of Parliament within it's 30 working days. I doubt this has happened.

Now these courier companies instead of understanding all these fine points of law, blindly refuse to accept air guns.

[Anand]

thind_aman wrote:
However, an air gun is not a 'firearm'. Or am I missing something?
As per definition of firearm in Arms Act 1959, air gun is a firearm but as per Notification GSR 991, the air guns that satisfy deal wood test are exempt from all provisions(including definition of firearm, as well as requirement of license for transportation) of Arms Act 1959. The Notification GSR 991 can be read here http://www.indiansforguns.com/viewtopic ... 335#p50363

The confusion has also been multiplied by notification of Arms Rules 2016. I am not aware if Notification GSR 991 was denotified when Arms Rules 2016 were notified. In order to acquire "force of law", this notification of Arms Rules 2016 needs to satisfy the Section 44(3) of Arms Act 1959. As per Section 44(3) of Arms Act 1959, this notification of Arms Rules 2016 needs to be approved by both houses of Parliament within it's 30 working days. I doubt this has happened.

Now these courier companies instead of understanding all these fine points of law, blindly refuse to accept air guns.

While I agree with the above statement by goodboy_mentor, a similar thing happend in 2009/2010 when an "advisory" was sent to all Home secretaries that the 2010 changes made to the "Arms Policy" (whatever that is ) be followed which was even till recently being implemented by LA's. As improper and illegal as this was/is, it still bears that it will affect the licensee as there is no counter to this, until proven illegal in Court. So as ridiculous as it seems, there is no choice but to "obey" the "rules"/"policy" that is "in force" at the present.

It is illegal to misrepresent what you are shipping to the Postal Department /shipping/courier company. Unfortunately most of the employees/management don't want to deal with "weapons" even if their company has a policy regarding the same due to additional hassles. So if you tell them what it is they will not ship it, and if you dont then you are doing something illegal. . This has been the story of India so far!
Anand

[thind_aman]

So, as per the discussion so far, here is what I understand;

1. Airguns are perfectly legal to be shipped by courier companies but they are too stupid to understand the law or they just don't want any hassles.
2. Though it's illegal to do so, everyone misrepresents the contents of the package while shipping their air guns.

Just wondering that what a banana republic do we live in.

Thank you everyone for your comments and suggestions. Highly appreciated.

Regards,
Aman Thind