I listed my post-ban Bushmaster M4 barrel on gunbroker.com, and (despite specifying that the auction was for US bidders only), a person from Finland bought it.  I rarely ship stuff international because I don't like dealing with the extra paperwork, but this person seemed nice enough, so I decided to proceed.  However, I was concerned about the legality of shipping a gun barrel to someone in another country.  When I posed this question on the awbansunset.com forum, this link was pointed out to me...

www.triplebreakproducts.com/exporting.htm

...but the person who posted it wasn't sure if this only applied to dealers exporting gun parts, or to private sellers also.  At this point, I'm thinking I'll have to back away from the deal and just re-list the item, but thought I'd tap into the massive ar15.com collective knowledge bank first.

--Mike

Relist it and keep your pooper intact.

Call the State Department in the morning, they will get you an answer.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK - Arizona Rep. John Shadegg got a standing ovation from his delegation Wednesday when he announced that, partly because of their complaints, USA Today had withdrawn convention credentials for film maker Michael Moore.

Shadegg had instructed delegates to call USA Today to protest the paper's decision to hire Moore for the week. When a top executive called him to ask why he was mad at the paper, Shadegg said he responded: "You're just nuts if you think we're going to buy your paper, when you credentialed kind of the anti-Christ."

As delegates rose to their feet, Shadegg said he got a return call a few hours later saying Moore's credentials had been revoked.

Shadegg referred to "Fahrenheit 911" as a "crockumentary."

He also said Kerry voters "have mental health problems," adding: "I'll probably get in trouble for that."

Quoted: Call the State Department in the morning, they will get you an answer.

I'm not 100% sure the state department would know.  I think Finnish authorities would be the ones who would be able to give you a definitive answer (if they spoke english ).


I ran into a somewhat similar issue, when I was going to send a guy in the Danish army a couple of USGI mags (in return for a spare part he sent me) - and I decided to check the legality, and turned out to be illegal to send any magazine parts into Denmark - unless they were being imported by a licensed importer.  So it was a big no-no to send them to an individual.

That's just an example - I've got NO reason to think that Finnish guns laws (which seem very relaxed) are anything like Danish gun laws (which are very restrictive) - but I don't think the U.S. State Departemnt would have been familiar with technical details of what is legal or illegal to ship to Denmark (or Finland).



I think the SAFEST thing is to call it off, unless the BUYER can somehow provide you with a letter, or government website or something, that PROVES that what he is asking you to do is legal.  Since owning AR15's is legal in Finland (and I think full-auto is even pretty easy to get), I imagine it might not be a problem - but you never know what weird laws and rules a country might have.

I just read some of the finland gun laws  and to put it in a nut shell about shipping parts to finland  the hoops that you and the buyer have to jump through are covered with red tape, permits like mad so pass

Problem solved... the buyer said I can simply send the barrel to an exporter here in the U.S., who will then forward it on to him.  He did, however, mention that he does these sorts of transactions frequently, and that there are no legal issues to be concerned about.  But I still feel much more comfortable simply shipping it to an exporter and letting him handle it from there.

--Mike

Go see a gun detailer that does exporting. My friend took a Colt 1911A1 to France for a French policeman, he had to fill out some paper work, but it wasn't all that bad. Our dealer in So. Calif. is Kings in Glendale, CA.

From the USPS site:

Prohibitions for Finland:
Radioactive materials.
Live plants and animals.
Arms and weapons.
Human remains.

Restrictions for Finland:
Medicines and drugs, including any substances that may be classed as pharmaceuticals by the Finnish authorities may only be addressed to authorized manufacturers, dealers, scientists, or public health officials for use or distribution in accordance with Finnish regulations. Such substances prepared in doses for use by patients must be clearly and correctly labeled showing the nature and quantity of the ingredients.
The authorization of the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture is required for the importation of meat and meat products.

A barrel is neither a arm or a weapon.  I'd guess safe on the receiving end.   You can call an embassy in the states, they'll speak english.  As far as the exporting end of it, no ideas.

Yes you can sell it to him, but an export permit is required before shipping it.....
So it isn't really worth it...