doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Bringing a shotgun back from Europe

Several years ago, I bought a Darne 12 Ga in Paris, which I have used for sporting clays in France. I am less and less able to be in Europe on holiday, so I would like to bring the Darne back with me on my next trip to France.

What forms and procedures do I need to complete in order to bring the gun back with me?

Any advice will be appreciated. Note, I am not asking for it to be shipped to the States but rather simply to bring it back with me (in a locked case etc).

Thank you�

Berrien Moore

Don't know if I can be of specific help with your wanting to take it with you out of France...but I have imported a gun from France and a set of barrels for it is currently on the way. There are forms and taxes to get it out of France that will amount to about 500.00, and an import permit from the ATF on this side of the pond (and probably the utilization of a customs broker) that will run you as much or more. Feel free to PM me if I can be of any more assistance.

Mike

You are actually going to have as much of a problem with US Customs as you will have with the ATF. I'm not even positive that you can legally do what you are considering, since, for taxation purposes, it will be considered an import by ATF and US Customs, regardless of how long you have owned it. Being an import, it will have to go through a licensed dealer, or, better yet, a really sharp importer, and a Customs house broker.
It is (or, used to be) pretty easy to return from outside the US with your own shotgun IF, and this was a huge if, you had the little chit (Customs form 4457) properly filled out by a US Customs officer BEFORE you left. You don't. That will be a problem.
I am positive that there are US Customs officers that are professional, helpful, and willing to go the extra mile to see you and your effects happily returning to the US from wherever-but I NEVER met any like that. Not once. They took special joy at Port of Minneapolis in making anyone with a firearm, miserable. PLEASE don't believe you can simply show up at US Customs, after an international flight, with a shotgun and try to make the point that it is your gun, without form 4457 being properly filled out and dated.

Duty and ATF excise tax, both collected by US Customs, will be due on the gun, in the event you successfully bring it to the US.

I wish you good luck. I'd honestly ponder selling it in Europe before attempting what you are considering.

Best,
Ted

My first trip back from Argentina I lacked 4457 and the agent was not happy but went to a desk and came back with a form and sent me and my gun on the way. I fly into Houston, not NY similar anti places. You might want to check Briley, 10 years ago they helped bring in a K-80 from the UK and their charges were less than 200 inc tax.

bill

The Customs website makes it clear that the 4457 form is NOT a requirement. Instead it is only one form of acceptable proof that you acquired the property in the USA and took it out of the Country. A dated bill of sale or sales receipt serves the same purpose.

Ted is correct though about the Minneapolis airport customs. I tried once to use my Canadian gun registration card to show prior ownership and the officer informed me that they would not accept a document issued by a FOREIGN GOVERNMENT! I told him to either let me go or go ahead and confiscate my gun as I had a plane to catch. He let me through with my gun...Geo

Ted is correct about both points.

My reading of the original post led me to believe that he didn't acquire the gun here in the USA-he got it in Paris.

It will be considered an import.

I used to think it was just me that had problems with Port of Minneapolis.

It isn't.

Best,
Ted

Ted is correct. I bought the shotgun in Paris about 10 years ago (12 ga. Darne V-22), and now I want to bring it back with me. I have the original bill of sale.

There must be a way--after all you can bring cars back!!

Thanks!

Berrien

You can bring some cars back. Years ago, I was actually contacted by the local office of the ATF, to help a South African immigrant to the US, who had gotten some spectacularly bad advice regarding his personal shotgun and his late 1930s Morgan automobile. No one at ATF can actually import a gun, you have to be an FFL or an importer to do that. Someone at US Customs told him to bring both of them in the container with his household items, and both were promptly seized when the container was opened.
The gun I could help him with, the car I couldn't. The gun was less than thirty days from being destroyed by Customs when I sent the paperwork to Washington through the local ATF office, with their promise that it would be expedited. They actually did do that. The gun was cleared before the car, but I never did hear how the car ended up.
There exist areas of regulation that overlap between ATF and US Customs, and from what I've seen, both agencies are uncomfortable when they have to make a decision that involves those areas. One would think it would be cut and dried, but a CYA attitude often exists that makes headway difficult.

Best,
Ted

To quote my French Colleagues, "Merde"

These folks offer import of guns.

http://bsaltd.com/gunserv.htm