A buddy of mine who works for a moving company called me yesterday asking about the laws for transporting guns by a moving company. He has a customer moving from Connecticut to Florida and among his belongings are 61 legal firearms. I know the law regarding interstate transportation of personal firearms, but what is the law regarding having a moving company do it?

Doesnt this fall under "contract carrier" clause ?

 

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/922

 

Difference in Common vs Contract Carrier...

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_carrier

 

Edit: It can get complicated if any of the operators of the carrier are prohibited by that code 922. 

 

Googling, most moving companies will already have these guidelines in place and are allowed to transport firearms but not allowed to transport ammunition. 

 

http://www.movingblog.org/can-my-moving-company-transport-my-firearms-across-state-lines-1.html

 

http://schroedermoving.com/moving_w_firearms

 

http://www.imove.com/blog/how-to-move-guns-ammo-and-hunting-gear-safely/

I moved my own because the mover was uncomfortable doing it.

I moved my own because the mover was uncomfortable doing it.

That's the issue, my buddy is the mover an he is fine doing it as long as it's legal.

I wouldn't have a moving company transport my guns for me, regardless of the distance involved.

I'd either transport them myself in my vehicle(s), or see about shipping them to myself.

 

That's just my $0.02

I agree, I would not hand my guns to anyone, I wouldn't even ship them to be honest. Shipping one gun to manufacturer for warranty work is one thing but shipping an entire collection is a different story. But the customer asked so my friend needs to know if its legal. Anyway, I forwarded him all the links provided, let him make up his own mind whether or not he wants to transport the guns for his customer.

 

Thanks everyone for the advise and the links.

Would you mind following up with him in a couple weeks? I'd be interested to hear what his decision is/was, and if there were any additional considerations he had to factor in. (insurance? licensing? etc.)

One of my big concerns would be if he's crossing state lines. How does that work if you contract a shipper to move your stuff, and it happens to be guns, and you're crossing multiple states?

 

Another thought I had about shipping: *IF* I had to do it, I'd see about maybe a shipping container rental? Something I can load up myself, lock up myself, and only I would have the key to. put on some kind of seal on the door so you'd know if it was tampered with.

Don't know the law, but when I moved a year and a half ago, the company I used was an affiliate of Wheaton. They told me their policy was no handguns, ammo, powder or primers. They would take my brass and long guns. I rented a U-Haul van to move the girlfriend's fragile stuff and loaded all of my firearms, ammo and reloading supplies and drove them down myself. They didn't even want to take alcohol or cleaning supplies in case something leaked and damaged other items on the truck.

I moved all of my guns, ammo, reloading stuff with a u-haul.  It was a PITA but much less than movers. They said they would move guns but no ammo/powder, etc.