I sent a letter to the editor about the piss-poor reporting of the facts, rifles and shotguns are legal to mail by anyone via USPS as long as they comply with the requirements.
[url]http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/pubs/pub52.htm[/url]

Under the dumb-ass of the day awards:
[url]http://www.heraldnet.com/Stories/02/7/12/15650430.cfm[/url]

Man charged for mailing rifle that discharged

KENT -- A man has turned himself in to face charges stemming from the mailing of a loaded rifle that discharged in a Postal Service distribution center in this Seattle suburb, officials said.

The man told investigators he failed to check the chamber of a .30-06 rifle before breaking it down and packaging it with an unloaded .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun, ammunition and fireworks, said Jeff Scobba, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Seattle.

No one was injured when a bullet was discharged from the package and slammed into a metal shipping container early June 18, but shaken postal workers summoned the Port of Seattle bomb squad,, which detonated the package.

Only gun dealers and law enforcement or military agents can mail weapons legally, all weapons must be declared, and mailed unloaded and mailing fireworks is illegal.

The man was staying at a recreational vehicle park in Bothell when he mailed the package, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

You can't mail a handgun, either, IIRC.