I'm in an argument on another msg board about this so;

Could I say, sell a pistol to Photoman and ship it directly to him since we're both in WI, or do pistols need to go through an FFL?

*photoman has nothing to do with this, just needed an example.

No you canNOT ship it to him. If you were to meet face-to-face you could give it to him without an FFL otherwise an FFL is required for shipping. Although you can ship directly to an FFL but cannot recieve.

Is that a federal law then?

Good question Inferno.
I've never had to deal with it, but I've seen it come up before.
IIRC, it was argued pretty thoroughly on GT.

I think the transaction is legal, but difficult.
I'm pretty sure that you MUST, by law, disclose the contents of the package to the carrier if it contains an arm.
You'll get mired in policy issues here that have little to do with law.

I don't recall any federal constraints on an in-state private sale that specifically require it to be a face-to-face deal.

I'd be a skeptical SOB if someone I didn't know tried to get me to ship a handgun ANYWHERE though.

Federally, I believe you can do it, just like rifles.  However, I don't think any of the contract carriers will actually ship it to an individual.

Quoted: Federally, I believe you can do it, just like rifles.  However, I don't think any of the contract carriers will actually ship it to an individual.

Are you required to disclose what your shipping?  I shipped some sketchy machine gun parts last year without saying shit about what they were.  They were going to a dealer tho so I guess it wouldn't have made too big of a difference.

I beleive you're required, why else would you pay $30 overnight shipping rates with a big "steal me" sticker on the box?

A nonlicensee may mail a shotgun or rifle to a resident of his or her own state or to a licensee in any state. Handguns are not mailable. A common or contract carrier must be used to ship a handgun. A nonlicensee may not transfer any firearm to a nonlicensed resident of another state. The Postal Service recommends that longguns be sent by registered mail and that no marking of any kind which would indicate the nature of the contents be placed on the outside of any parcel containing firearms.

That is from atf.gov.  It does not say that you can not ship a handgun to a non-licensee intrastate.  It only says that you can not ship it through the USPS.  So the way I see it, you shipping a handgun to a person in Wisconsin from Wisconsin is perfectly legal.

Also from atf.gov.

A nonlicensee may ship a firearm by carrier to a resident of his or her own state or to a licensee in any state. A common or contract carrier must be
used to ship a handgun. In addition, Federal law requires that the carrier be notified that the shipment contains a firearm and prohibits common or contract
carriers from requiring or causing any label to be placed on any package indicating that it contains a firearm.

Dale beat me to it.

I remembered the ATF stating that the carrier was not allowed to label the package with a big steal me sticker for just that reason.

However,

You must disclose the contents, and the big two contract carriers require that either the shipper or the recipient be a "licencee".

In other words, your scenario is legal, but purt dern near impossible without using a comparitively fly-by-night in-state shipping company.

I believe Dunham Express or Spee-Dee Delivery would work in this situation, but I don't have a copy of their policies on hand.