mailable except when mailed to designated categories of persons. These are officers of the U.S. Armed Forces, National Guard and State militia, State and Federal law enforcement officers, watchmen engaged in guarding State or Federal property and postal employees. In all cases the firearms must be for use in connection with official duties.

In addition, customary trade shipments, including shipments for replacement or repair, may be made to manufacturers and dealers. On June 12, 1968, the Department strengthened its regulations under this law to make it clear that short-barrelled shotguns and short-barrelled rifles are within this prohibition, since it is our view that such weapons are capable of concealment on the person and therefore should come within the statutory prohibition.

At the same time the Department took steps to assist local law enforcement officials in carrying out their functions of applying State and local laws with respect to firearms, and to give further assurance that firearms sent through the mails are limited to those which are not concealable on the person. This action requires all firearm shipments to be so labeled and directs postmasters at the point of delivery to advise local law enforcement authorities that a firearm has been received for delivery.

I want to emphasize here that this regulation in no way restricts the mailing or delivery of any firearm which Congress has not prohibited in the mails. The firearm will be delivered regardless of objection of police. This is so because the Post Office has no authority not to deliver a firearm which is not statutorily prohibited. We must make delivery.

On the other hand, it will give police authorities an opportunity to enforce whatever local laws there may be on firearms. I might say I believe it arms the local police force with valuable information. We had some experience under this: it is quite recent, of course. Police officers and sheriffs, curiously enough in smaller communities and counties, are very interested in this information. They find it quite valuable to know exactly who in their community has or is about to receive a gun through the mail. The police officials in the more dense urban communities express less interest.

I am not saying that they feel it is useless information, but they are not as interested. They say they would be much more interested in having such information as the registration number or serial number of the gun or this type of information which we are not prepared or capable of giving them.

All we can tell them is the name of the addressee, that this individual at this address will receive a firearm. I think, however, that that is valuable information.

If the local law enforcement officials, for example, maintain for their own police purposes a list of characters in the community who are regarded as dangerous or potentially dangerous because of their background, because of addiction to alcohol or drugs, because of past criminal offenses or because of a mental derangement. If these facts are known, I would think it would be quite a valuable piece of information to know that such an individual as this just received a gun through the mail.

It is clear that the assassination of Senator Kennedy, coming so soon after that of Dr. King and the murder of a U.S. President only 5 years

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earlier, impelled us to reexamine the Department's position in the traffic in guns and in this connection our regulations on firearms.

Since it was judged that existing conditions required an immediate remedy, these regulations were issued with an immediate effective date. However, the Postmaster General also desired comments and views on the regulations. Accordingly, they were made effective only for a 90-day period and the public has been invited to forward to me arguments, data, and views on making these regulations permanent.

Before a decision is made on continuing the regulations we will, of course, consider the effect of any legislation enacted after the regulations were announced, as well as suggestions for any changes in them.

I must say, of course, it is our devout hope that our regulations will not be necessary 90 days after their publication, that in fact the Congress will have met its responsibility to the American people and will have enacted adequate legislation covering this problem so that our regulations are unnecessary.

At the time Postmaster General Watson announced the issuance of new regulations, he also urged private carriers to follow the lead of the postal service in doing what they legally could to assist local lawenforcement officers in keeping abreast of the traffic in guns. I am advised that the Air Transport Association has adopted a procedure for its members closely paralleling the labeling and notification requirements of the postal regulations. As I understand its action, the association members will require shipments of firearms to be labeled as such and to be accompanied by a letter of notification to law-enforcement authorities at the point of destination. The Department has also been advised that the Association of American Railroads, American Trucking Association, National Association of Motor Bus Operators, and REA Express are exploring the possibility of action.

Title IV of the omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, Public Law 90-351, approved by the President on June 19, 1968, has as its purpose assistance to States in firearms control. When it becomes effective in December of this year, it will have only a minimal impact on mailings of firearms. It deals directly with the transmission of firearms in the mails in only one particular. This is the provision of section 904 (c) which expressly continues section 1715 of title 18, United States Code, relating to mailing of pistols, revolvers, and other firearms capable of being concealed on the person.

The prohibition of Public Law 90-351 does, however, apply to shipment of firearms through the mails in interstate commerce in the same manner as shipments handled by other carriers. The provisions of this law apply primarily to handguns and destructive devices. Insofar as rifles and shotguns are concerned, the principal restrictions in which the postal service is likely to be involved are shipment of a rifle or shotgun to (1) a person who may not lawfully purchase or possess it under the laws of his place of residence and (2) a person who is under indictment for or has been convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment in excess of 1 year.

Needless to say, these restrictions are minimal and it is hard to see how they will be of any measurable help in the curtailment of the traffic that concerns the committee and concerns us.

H.R. 17735 and S. 3633 would carry out the President's recommendations by generally prohibiting interstate shipment of all fire

arms, including rifles and shotguns, to individuals and restrict retail sales to residents of the State in which the seller is located. Such legislation would remove most rifles and shotguns from the mails. There are, however, a number of exceptions. A seller would be able to mail a rifle or shotgun to his customers residing within the same State, for example, from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. Rifles and shotguns could also be mailed to officers requiring them for official duty as well as to dealers. Also dealers would be permitted to return or send a replacement for a firearm sent in for repair.

While we agree with the chairman's concern which led to his introduction of H.R. 17949, I do not believe it will accomplish the objective of controlling sale of firearms, just as I do not believe that the regulations which we issued will be effective or any adequate substitutes for the right kind of legislation.

In the absence of other legislation it will simply drive shotgun and rifle shipments into the express service. I might add our estimates are that some 120,000 or possibly more firearms do move through the mails, but this leaves uncounted all the other millions of firearms that are sold each year in interstate commerce, and they are obviously moving by private express shipment.

So any effort, including the legislation proposed by the chairman, or our regulations which were all that we could do that simply affect the mail and do not attempt to control other means of interstate shipment, are going to be largely ineffectual. It is better than nothing but it certainly doesn't do the job.

If the administration's bill is enacted the greatest field for application of H.R. 17949 will be eliminated and H.R. 17949 would be effective only in the intrastate traffic. But here again express service would remain available.

H.R. 17949 would impose a prohibition on mailing of any firearm or destructive device. This would in effect supersede and repeal section 1715 of title 18, United States Code. The latter section has been expressly preserved by Public Law 90-351 and would be preserved and extended by H.R. 17735 and S. 3633, administration proposals, to include nonconcealable firearms.

We have no information at this time that would indicate section 1715 has not worked well and we know of no reason why it should be repealed. Accordingly, we would suggest that if H.R. 17949 receives favorable consideration, that it be amended to authorize continuance of the use of the mails for firearms shipments as now provided in section 1715.

And such exceptions, as the chairman knows, are permission to mail firearms under very rigid conditions to police officers, members of the State militias, members of such as the members of the FBI, postal inspectors, people who work in law-enforcement work generally.

We do not see any reason to prohibit the mailing to such individuals, particularly under the conditions prescribed in section 1715 and our regulations thereunder which require very strict identification procedures and affidavit procedures to insure that the gun is in fact delivered to such a law-enforcement official and to insure that his use for the firearm is for his official duties.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Nix. Thank you, Mr. May. Would you care to proceed, Mr. Montague?

Mr. MONTAGUE. Yes, sir.

The Postal Inspection Service is the investigative and law-enforcement arm of the Post Office Department, and is charged with protecting the mail and its custodians from criminal attacks and the mail from misuse by those who would defraud, extort, or otherwise utilize it toward criminal ends.

In light of such responsibilities, it can be seen that we are most interested in all legislative efforts to more effectively control and regulate the sale, shipment, and possession of lethal weapons. While weapons other than firearms may and do facilitate the commission of crimes and the destruction of life, the uniform crime reporting program, conducted by the FBI, continues to amass irrefutable evidence that the availability and easy accessibility of guns is, at the very least, a major contributing factor in the upward spiraling crime rate.

Some 59.3 percent of the 9,552 murders reported in the United States in 1966 were committed through use of a gun; firearms were used as the murder weapons in 96 percent of all police killings since 1960. At this point I should mention that a few years ago two of our very able investigative aides were shot and killed in Chicago, while in the performance of their duty, by a trio of mail thieves with prior criminal records. In the last 5 years a total of 319 armed assaults have been made on custodians of the mails. When aggravated assaults and armed robberies, in which firearms were used, are added to the criminal homicides, the Nation suffers from the staggering total of better than 100,000 crimes committed in 1 year through the use of firearms. If I might call further on uniform crime report data: From 1962-65 a firearm was used as the weapon in 56 percent of the 36,000 willful killings in the United States. A handgun was used in 70 percent of these firearm murders, a shotgun in 20 percent and a rifle in 10 percent. During the same 4-year period, the Northeastern States, where fairly restrictive gun controls exist, reported 36 percent of their murders were caused by guns.

In geographical areas with only minimum gun controls, however, percentage rises from 55 to 64 percent. Certainly the argument that gun controls are not needed because a hardened criminal will arrange to obtain one regardless, is specious. Such a claim is not only refuted by the statistics, but also by ordinary human experience which persuades us that the ready availability of such instruments of crime and destruction can have no other effect than to increase their use for such purposes.

As President Johnson and Postmaster General Watson have stated, gun control in the truly effective sense must remain the responsibility of the State and local communities. However, as they have also both observed, the Federal Government must assist with respect to the movement of firearms in interstate or foreign commerce, or on a mail order basis, since such traffic tends to thwart the effectiveness of State laws and local ordinances.

It was precisely this congressional thinking that resulted in the passage of H.R. 4502 on February 8, 1927. Certain States had protested that their own efforts at handgun control were being hampered by the ease with which they could be obtained by mail from out-of

State suppliers. The legislation then passed is now reflected in section 1715 of title 18 United States Code, which prohibits, with certain exceptions, the mailing of pistols, revolvers, or other firearms capable of concealment on the person. Exempt are mailings made by manufacturers of firearms or bona fide dealers from one to another, or to specified military and law enforcement officials and personnel, who require firearms for use in their official capacity.

The statute authorized the Postmaster General to establish mailing regulations. These regulations as set forth in section 125 of the Postal Manual require, except for official shipments by authorized agents of the Federal Government, that a mailer must file a statementform 1508-with the Postmaster that he is a bona fide manufacturer or dealer and additionally he must obtain and file at the time of mailing an affidavit from the addressee certifying as to the addressee's qualifications for receiving the firearm under the exemptions provided. Among other things, the parcels must be plainly marked with the word, "Firearms," and the addressee, if not known to the Postmaster as a manufacturer or dealer, must establish his identity and sign a receipt-form 2162.

The Federal Firearms Act of 1938, as amended, requires, among other things, that all manufacturers, importers, and dealers in firearms, ammunition and components thereof, obtain a license from the Secretary of the Treasury before engaging in interstate or foreign commerce. I am advised that in 1966, a total of 104,087 persons and/or firms possessed licenses under this act.

Regrettably, the misleading nature of the phrase "mail order sale of handguns" as it has appeared in the press and elsewhere in recent years has caused many to mistakenly conclude that anyone may order and also receive, a handgun by mail. This, of course, is not so.

Various news articles which followed the disorders of last summer suggested that arsenals of small arms had cropped up in certain cities and hinted that they had been obtained from out-of-State mail-order houses. Although we have consistently investigated all incidents pointing to a possible violation of section 1715, United States Code 18, we decided to have inspectors personally call on a cross section of manufacturers and dealers to determine (a) whether they were aware of the postal requirements in the mailing of concealable weapons and (b) whether they were complying. Some 365 gun manufacturers and dealers were interviewed by inspectors during the late summer and early fall of 1967. It was found that substantially all were aware of the postal regulations and were complying with them. We found no measurable shipment of concealable weapons by mail to persons not authorized by statute to receive them.

Following through with this program we did find, however, that a few inexperienced postal employees were not fully acquainted with the acceptance requirements with respect to firearms and on our recommendation the Bureau of Operations issued a Postal Bulletin notice reminding all postal employees of the regulations governing the mailing of concealable firearms.

In fiscal year 1968, just ended, we completed about 270 investigations into the alleged mailing of concealable weapons in violation of sections 1715, United States Code 18. Evidence of a willful effort to circumvent the law was developed in some 29 cases and the facts were