26th Nov 2002
Wine vs. AK-47
All Mark (notice he tops my “Friends Who Don’t Blog But Should” list):
Rick,
My childhood best friend, who lives in Florida, offered to send me three
very valuable bottles of vintage champagne, but soon discovered that to
do so would be a violation of state law, possibly a felony. I did a
little research, and discovered an incredibly complex patchowrk of state
laws governing the intra- and interstate shipment of alcohol, including
wine.It is completely forbidden to ship wine anywhere using US Mail. UPS and
Fedex will ship it only among so-called reciprocal states, those who
have agreements for the legal shipment of alcohol, such as California.
But Flordia is among the most restrictive states.On the other hand, it is perfectly legal for almost anyone to ship a
handgun, rifle or shotgun from anywhere to anywhere. An unlicensed
person can ship a rifle or shotgun by US Mail. (Unlicensed persons
cannot ship a handgun by US Mail, but licensed ones can.) UPS will
accept handgun shipments by Next Day Air only. Rifles and shotguns can
be shipped by UPS ground service. UPS will accept shipments of
ammunition. FedEx will only ship firearms via their Priority Overnight
service. Ammunition must be shipped as dangerous goods.What kind of country is this? Well, it’s one that ruled by the large
industrial interests, that’s what. Most if not all alcohol shipping
restrictions are in place to protect businesses, not individuals,
although some laws, like those in Florida, wax poetically about how the
laws are protecting the citizenry. What is it doing, however, is
protecting the status quo three-tier distribution system in that state.And it will only get worse with our current administration. Much worse.
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