Tokuda demands US Postal Service withdraw proposed rule allowing direct mail delivery of handguns

U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda of Hawaiʻi sent a letter to Postmaster General David Steiner opposing a proposed U.S. Postal Service rule that would allow handguns to be mailed directly to individuals. 

Tokuda, Rep. Haley Stevens of Michigan and 74 other members of Congress are urging the Postal Service to withdraw the “Revised Mailing Standards for Firearms” rule published on April 2 that eliminates the required licensed intermediary for handgun transfers and allows direct-to-consumer delivery of concealable weapons. 

Last month, Tokuda and Stevens joined Rep. Mike Thompson of California, who chairs the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, in introducing the Keep Illegal Handguns Out of the Mail Act  to block implementation of the rule. They warn the rule creates a dangerous loophole that bypasses state gun safety laws and federal background check requirements.  

“The USPS was created to deliver mail, not handguns,” Tokuda said in a news release. “Allowing handguns to be shipped through the mail is an insult to the integrity of the Postal Service and a betrayal of its public mission.

She said the proposal weakens proven protections against illegal gun trafficking, makes crime guns harder to trace, and increases the likelihood that dangerous weapons end up in the wrong hands.” 

Leading national gun violence prevention organizations, including Brady, Everytown for Gun Safety, GIFFORDS, and March For Our Lives, strongly endorsed the push, warning that the policy provides an unchecked mechanism for illegal firearm trafficking. 

“If the Trump administration follows through with implementing this new USPS policy, they will effectively be handing gun traffickers across the country a new deadly tool to flood our communities with illegal firearms,” said Kris Brown, President of Brady, a nonpartisan organization that fights to end gun violence.

According to the FBI and data collected by Everytown Research & Policy, firearms are currently the leading cause of death among children, and handguns represent the main weapon used in assaults against law enforcement officers.