doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Recent English gun import..fees very high!

Perhaps because it's coming from Britain. As an occasional tourist to America I find that U.S. customs the most officious and obstructive in the world; at least to British citizens. You ought to see the questionair that we have to fill in before landing. I am always tempted to tick 'yes' to the one that asks if I was a member of the Nazi party between 1932 and 1945. (I wasn't born until 1954). It's a doddle getting into Russia! Good luck with the import. Try routeing it through North Korea for a more positive response. Lagopus.....

A friend who had 35 years with the State Dept returned home from Central Asia. He had several very nice Russian Icons and some other antique weapons. The customs agent said "These are illegal unless you have the permission from the host government". He had all documentation but had to surrender the items. "We'll call you and it will take a few days". Five months later he went to Orlando to find out what had happened. "We have no record of those items".

What is illegal sometimes depends on who wants your stuff.

Thanks for the input drduc.

Customs at the Orlando International Airport (OIA) are in my opinion totally out of control.

Besides the ransom on my shotgun that I wrote about, just in general Customs at OIA were rude and "high on the horse" arrogant in my dealings with them.

I am really sorry to hear of all your troubles. I have been bringing shotguns into the USA for sale at shows for some years now and only run foul of customs once at JFK. A 1st rate customs broker (no longer with us - but his son is) got me out of trouble in 24 hours on a Jewish holiday! I learnt my lesson and play it strictly by the book, no nods, winks or funny stuff and my stock always glides straight through.
More up to date, I can thoroughly recommend Hipage at RDU in NC and Montgomery at PHL. They both know their stuff and their prices are entirely reasonable.
They have both dealt with pre- and post- 1899 guns for me.
And no, I am not on a retainer!

Some time ago I imported a gun from Australia. Like Larry, I filled out my ATF Form 6 and had my local dealer import the gun. Zero problems. When the gun came in via international mail to the local post office, my dealer went there and paid the duty. I then paid him when I picked up the gun for the duty and for his FFL services. Was pretty darn simple. That was probably ten years ago. Might be a lot lot worse now then what it was.

This is what I did. I bought a gun in Paris. I left it with the dealer while I waited for the Form 6 which I applied for thru a local gun shop here in Philly for $20. I did all the paper work, the Feds even mailed the approval direct to my house. Next time I was in Paris I picked the gun up and brought it as luggage back to the US. Paid the custom fee at the airport, they kept part of the Form 6. All very easy and straightforward. However, it wouldn't be possible to do something similar in Britain. A dealer there cannot just let you take the gun away with you unless you have a shotgun certificate and you also will need a export permit. Nevertheless I'm not sure that if you just showed up at a UK airport with your gun and cert. they would even ask for an export permit. Lots of UK sportsmen take their guns abroad for sport in the normal course of events. It must be assumed that they will be bringing them back also. I constantly fly back and forth to Ireland with a shotgun. The only place I've ever been asked to show some paper was at JFK and that was rather strange. Two NYC policemen inspected the gun, even looking thru the barrels and shining a light into the bottom of the leg of mutton case and all this right at the check in counter. They had me stand over ten feet away while they carried on these shenanigans. I just knew that all I had to do was start laughing to find myself in trouble. What fun the war on terror has turned out to be.
nial

nial, funnily enough until they 'simplified' the dealing with guns here you could have just bought one from the U.K. dealer with no trouble at all. All you would have had to have done is show that you were not a U.K. citizen (passport) and not remaining in the country for more than 30 days. It was similar for U.K. citizens who could just travel to and from Europe with their British certificate. Now we need an International Permit and a sponsor in the next country. So much for simplification. Still, it keeps someone somewhere in a job. Lagopus.....

Well, lots of things were good about the good old days. I flew PanAm to Morocco in 1971, out of JFK. My shotgun made the trip in the cabin, with the crew. Gate agent tried to give me a ration of shit about it; finally solved when the crew came by and I handed the gun to the pilot.

Re drduc's State Dept guy, some State people (and others pretending they're State) learn to ship stuff back as "household goods" even when they're supposed to declare them--just to avoid the hassle. I bought the first sxs I ever owned while working in the embassy in Morocco (Navy rod & gun club in Spain). Made the mistake of following the rules. It got hung up in NY in Customs, and I wasn't even able to get the proper form to get it released, after I was back home in Iowa. Eventually got it done without any additional fees, but it was a serious PITA.

When I imported the gun from England, I do recall having to send a letter to the dealer verifying that it would be used for sporting purposes, so he could get an export permit.

I have been importing guns on a continous bases for 38 years. Most of the time I have seen problems (not on my imports) is because of paperwork errors, not knowing the rules or regualtions or dealing with an ffl who does not know how to do it. I have had to help a number of folks who used a regular ffl and they got it all messed up and I had to intervien. One guy here had his guns tied up for 8 months. When I was finally called and got the guns out of GO, they were all rusty. These were high grade Belgium Brownings.

John Boyd
Quality Arms
Houston, TX

John, if it was "just" a case of slip-ups in paper work, or simple little errors caused by using an FFL insead of an importer, professionals that were employed by an organization that is in charge of regulating those imports, say, US Customs people, would quickly aid and assist those whose property was in jeopardy, and they would do so in a timely and courteous fashion.

They don't. At times, it seems as if they almost prey upon these situations. The experience you related above, of legal property being held 8 months, would seem to indicate as much.

If the law allows for an FFL to make "occasional" imports, the procedure should be streamlined so as to eliminate simple errors, or have them dealt with at the office clerk level. You friends Browning fire arms were not anti-tank weapons, they were legal, collectable and valuable civilian pieces that were destroyed by incompetant US Customs minions.

So it goes. It's too bad, really-these people are supposed to work for us, and not a one I've ever dealt with could comprehend that.

Best,
Ted