I saw a auction for a pair of handcuffs listed on ebay by my friend Mark Cannon. Mark advises that it is unlawful to ship handcuffs and restraints from the US to any country except Canada without an export license.

I called the Commerce department to see if there were any exceptions IE collectors with single pairs of antique handcuffs. There are no exceptions and the penalties can be enormous. If you ship from the US to anywhere but Canada, you must go through the licensing process for every item and each transaction. (As a seller you have to register and you must keep records of everything). The Commerce department explained that the law was changed because of human rights issues in foreign countries. The good news is that most collector sales shouldn't be a problem other than a 4 to 6 week delay for the license for each sale.

I guess it's the world we live in.

Damon
ushandcuffs.com

I wonder how collectors or dealers are supposed to learn about such laws. Is any special paperwork now required to mail handcuffs out of the US for repair, with the intention of having them returned to the US after repair? And does this law affect the ability to carry handcuffs out of the US, in checked luggage for example?

The law does not recognize sending the cuffs out of the country for repair as an exception. The law also applies to carrying the cuffs in your luggage. I've taken many cuffs out of the US and never had a problem, even though it is technically illegal. I worry more about getting them into the arrival country.

For several years I've been travelling from the UK to the US and regularly bring gear back with me in my checked baggage, I've also mailed cuffs back to myself in the UK.

My next visit to the States is 15th of this month for around 10 days - watch this space everybody!

MikeR
a.k.a. Mikeintightpants
Birmingham, England

To my knowledge, there is no restriction against importing cuffs, just exporting them. I suppose you could be required to pay import duty, as you wouldn't have the customs paperwork demonstrating that you had already had them in the States.

I ran across an article on the internet about the new laws for restraints. These cover more than just handcuffs BTW. Thumbcuffs can not be exported to any country (including Canada) for any reason. Leg irons can only be exported to Canada. Handcuffs require an export license to anywhere but Canada. Medical restraints like straight jackets and human restraint leathers may only be sold to licensed medical facilities. And there are some strange new "re-export" laws covering exporting restraints to an authorized country for resale into an unauthorized country. All of this seems to have stemmed from a pair of peerless handcuffs that were recovered from a room in some middle east (can't remember which) country that was used for human torture.