UPS Man, The Goverment, and No Ones Business

[runco]

I haven't really been creative lately on my postings, and this pondering came to me recently, so here it goes:

 

A couple of weeks ago, I got lucky and ordered some 40 caliber bullets from Midway (180gr FMJ, 1,000 rounds) and they were delivered by the UPS man as my wife was walking out the door one evening.  Of course she is one of those wives that do not fully understand my hobby and my obsession.  Anyway, she casually mentioned to the UPS man in passing I guess this is another package for my husband and his other mistress, and the UPS man said yep seems like bullets to me, a lot of them.  She says don’t you get tired of delivering packages to our house, and she said he just grinned and said you are not alone. 

 

That got my wheels turning, nothing against the UPS man, sure he sees a lot, but could the government in a SHTF take your guns event, turn your neighbor in event, or a Martial Law event, subpoena records from UPS on who is suspected of receiving firearms related items, i.e. shipments from Midway, Brownells, and host of other places to draw attention to someone.   I wonder how long UPS keeps records of shipments TO and FROM.  Could the UPS man be lawfully compelled to inform the government who on his route is suspected to be a gun nut based upon goods delivered and suspected packages?    I wonder if the government version of the UPS Man, USPS Mailman, has amassed a database already of who, what, when, where and how.  I wished these retailers like Midway and others would use discreet unmarked packages to lessen the raising of flags.  I don’t wish to hide, but I sure don’t want to advertise either.  This is not a case of being paranoid, but I do try to be mindful of my surroundings and future possibilities, and it just isn’t anyone’s business what I do, what I order, as long as it legal.   Has anyone ever thought about this before?  No fear here, just basic tinfoil hat thinking on a Friday night.  So what say you fellow gun nutters!

 

 

[Ted S.]

I think it would just be easier to pull phone conversations or order histories from the businesses that sell the stuff.

[Chadastrophic]

Why hide what's on the shipping label when people just post on public forums they received a ton of bullets?

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[Ted S.]

Why hide what's on the shipping label when people just post on public forums they received a ton of bullets?

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

 

:usa:

[101]

I promise you there is not any possible way the USPS mailman is keeping track of what you are receiving.

He might know a few things that you might be getting but they deliver so much and help with different routes and can barely keep that straight, they are not tracking your shipments. They might speak if confronted directly but they are not logging anything.

I do not know about FedEx or UPS. My FedEx guy doesn't care for me since I order tons of ammo and yelled at him while in my underwear for trying to run back to the truck before I could answer the door and sign for a package. UPS tries that same stunt and it really gets on my nerves. I'm paying for delivery, deliver it! I should not have to come get it from you.

[mikegideon]

They have had the info for a long time. The reason they don't take our guns is that they can't survive it politically. They want to. They just can't. That could change pretty quickly, but for now, they just can't.

[Wingshooter]

I think it would just be easier to pull phone conversations or order histories from the businesses that sell the stuff.

 

I agree... and/or purchase history from the credit card companies.

 

 

 

However, I think shear numbers are on our side. It would take a huge amount of data processing and several armies to round up all the people that order ammo, etc. online. Not gonna say it couldn't happen, but seems unlikely to me.

[KKing]

I promise you there is not any possible way the USPS mailman is keeping track of what you are receiving.
He might know a few things that you might be getting but they deliver so much and help with different routes and can barely keep that straight, they are not tracking your shipments.

I can agree with part of this, there is no way they're logging your deliveries...at least WHAT is being delivered. They do have to have the tracking system that shows they actually delivered a package. My UPS guy just happens to be a car/gun guy just like me, and he started looking at labels of where my packages come from since he saw me so often. I didn't mind, he's a cool guy and it was done in the interest of striking up conversation and as far as I'm concerned he's very good at his job. We talk cars/trucks/guns/weather/women when he comes by (at least once a week, usually 2-3 times). It'd be very easy for him to tell someone that put pressure on him that I order a lot of ammo, just from the ORM-D labels on the boxes he delivers.

That being said, I highly doubt any agency would use this method of intelligence gathering, there are much easier ways for them as mentioned above Edited May 11, 2013 by KKing

[JohnC]

You can't hide anything nowadays.

Internet history, Bank/Debt and CC records, shipping records, vendor sales records, if they want to know what you're doing, I'm sure they can find out. Edited May 11, 2013 by JohnC

[Guest nra37922]

Only real option is to ONLY pay in cash and pick up ammo/reloading supplies yourself, no shipments....

[RichardR]

The day may come, but it's not today, probably not going to be tomarrow, but no-one can say for certain about what next week will bring.

[runco]

Why hide what's on the shipping label when people just post on public forums they received a ton of bullets?

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

I figured my fly was already unzipped that is why.

[runco]

You can't hide anything nowadays.

Internet history, Bank/Debt and CC records, shipping records, vendor sales records, if they want to know what you're doing, I'm sure they can find out.

Best answer yet, should have already thought through this.

[Dolomite_supafly]

I have thought I might receive a visit every time I order trash bags, a hack saw, some duct tape, a shovel, a tarp and a map of the nearest national forest. So far I haven't so I think we are safe.

 

Seriously though I guarantee there is a database somewhere that has a line by line list of what you purchase. I would be willing to bet Walmart can tell you the last time you bought hotdogs and what else was bought at the same time. Even places like PayPal keep records on what you purchase.

[RED333]

We are all on a list somewhere, if you think you are safe, you are on that list as well.

[Moped]

We are all on a list somewhere, if you think you are safe, you are on that list as well.

Yep!  Just the fact that you post here in this forum, puts you on a list. 

[JGunner]

http://nsa.gov1.info/utah-data-center/

Until recently I did not believe the government had the computational resources to really track and analyze everything everyone does. Sure if they had reason to target a group of people, they could have done that. I believe this new data center gives them the ability to track everyone all the time and analyze that data. Big brother is watching, listening, and analyzing.

Here's an excerpt:

Data Storage Capacity
The storage capacity of the Utah Data Center will be measured in "zettabytes". What exactly is a zettabyte? There are a thousand gigabytes in a terabyte; a thousand terabytes in a petabyte; a thousand petabytes in an exabyte; and a thousand exabytes in a zettabyte. Some of our employees like to refer to them as "alottabytes".

[gregintenn]

Jimminy Christmas! The government, not the UPS guy gives a flying hoot what you are doing, as long as you aren't hurting anyone, breaking the law, or not paying enough taxes.

 

If you want to consider tin foil hat stuff, look at Google. Do you think it is a coincidence that random ads pop up that feature recent things you've searched? There's the folks who have the goods on you.

[Guest drv2fst]

I wrote software years ago that tracked millions of UPS, FedEx, & DHL packages for our customers.  The purpose of that software was to make sure that the customer was getting billed accurately.  They weren't!  We tracked somewhere around 100 million packages per year.  We never cared who was getting what.  But having gone through that data many times looking for opportunities to save my clients some $, I can tell you that they could VERY EASILY track who was getting gun stuff.

 

The good news:  They are unlikely to be competent enough to do it.  We were a very small firm and we knew more about this data than FedEx and UPS did, and it was their data!  FedEx and UPS sales reps would routinely ask us about their own clients shipping patterns.  Or they would make statements about those shipping patterns that I could easily disprove with their own data.  While I would like to think it was just that we "were really that good".  The sad truth is, I am constantly surprised by the incompetence of "IT professionals".

[Ted S.]

http://nsa.gov1.info/utah-data-center/

Until recently I did not believe the government had the computational resources to really track and analyze everything everyone does. Sure if they had reason to target a group of people, they could have done that. I believe this new data center gives them the ability to track everyone all the time and analyze that data. Big brother is watching, listening, and analyzing.

Here's an excerpt:

Data Storage Capacity
The storage capacity of the Utah Data Center will be measured in "zettabytes". What exactly is a zettabyte? There are a thousand gigabytes in a terabyte; a thousand terabytes in a petabyte; a thousand petabytes in an exabyte; and a thousand exabytes in a zettabyte. Some of our employees like to refer to them as "alottabytes".

 

I've been hearing about this for years on Coast to Coast AM. People like to dismiss the show because they talk about some 'out there' stuff, but you will be amazed when you see stuff you hear on Coast to Coast AM pop up in the mainstream news days, weeks, and sometimes months after Coast to Coast AM reports it. Awesome radio program.

[QuietDan]

They tried the whole gun confiscation thing at Lexington and Concord a couple hundred years ago and it didn't work out so well. And, now, they're not muskets and black powder . . . .

[QuietDan]

I have thought I might receive a visit every time I order trash bags, a hack saw, some duct tape, a shovel, a tarp and a map of the nearest national forest. So far I haven't so I think we are safe.

 

Seriously though I guarantee there is a database somewhere that has a line by line list of what you purchase. I would be willing to bet Walmart can tell you the last time you bought hotdogs and what else was bought at the same time. Even places like PayPal keep records on what you purchase.

 

True enough. If the government kept track of our purchases the way commerce keeps track of purchases, the next revolution would have already come and gone.

[DaveS]

http://nsa.gov1.info/utah-data-center/

Until recently I did not believe the government had the computational resources to really track and analyze everything everyone does. Sure if they had reason to target a group of people, they could have done that. I believe this new data center gives them the ability to track everyone all the time and analyze that data. Big brother is watching, listening, and analyzing.

Here's an excerpt:

Data Storage Capacity
The storage capacity of the Utah Data Center will be measured in "zettabytes". What exactly is a zettabyte? There are a thousand gigabytes in a terabyte; a thousand terabytes in a petabyte; a thousand petabytes in an exabyte; and a thousand exabytes in a zettabyte. Some of our employees like to refer to them as "alottabytes".

They couldn't track the Boston Bombers, even after the Russians warned us. I don't see where you have anything to worry about. I don't.

 

Dave S

[Rowdy]

Ammo can't be shipped discreetly by UPS. Every package has to be labeled ORM-D, which in redneck means "box full of bullets".

[45guy]

Funny, I just sold/gave away all my guns and ammo.