mailed a rifle yesterday

[TRX]

A friend of mine sold off his motorcycle and all of his guns to cover the deductibles and co-pays for some urgent family medical expenses.

That was an unsatisfactory state of affairs, so I boxed up a nice 1946 Izhmash sidefolder Mosin carbine, checked the postal regulations, and went down to the post office.

Five days before Christmas, I'm expecting an hour or more. Somehow, I was the only customer in the building. The clerk dropped the package on the scale and started the "animal, vegetable, mineral?" questions. I said, "this package contains a firearm," since the USPS web site says they need to be informed if a package contains one.

The clerk very nearly panicked. He went in back to check with his supervisor. Half a dozen people peeked around the corner to look at the madman with a gun in the Post Office. A postal inspector eventually came out, multitasking two different telephone conversations with somewhere.

I got the impression they don't handle many guns at my local post office...

I went over what was in the package with the inspector, assured her it was going to an 07 FFL and that it was not loaded, she relayed it to one of the phones, got a reply, and told the clerk I was good to go. He tapped on his keyboard, shipping and insurance came to sixteen dollars. Take *that*, Feral Express!