My little brother, 17 years of age, is finishing up a year of foreign exchange program in the south of france.

He found himself at a french flea market, wandering around for the experience of it all, and ended up trapped in french conversation with an elderly couple who were just delighted at his willingness to sample their culture.

When they left the market, they gave him a box of odds-and-ends, to sell as he liked. For the full experience I suppose.

He found a blackpowder pistol in the bottom of the box. Authentically aged, barrel dated 1810. I believe it's a caplock but he didn't describe it too well.


My question: How the hell do you get such a prized little trinquet back here, stateside? How do you ship a firearm out of a country where firearms are prohibited and supposedly all confescated long ago, and how do you get it into a country where just about everything brought in is electronically scrutinized and anything under the 'weapons/bombs' category will get you in trouble?

My one singular hope lies in the idea that this gun should not be in any wise ATF regulated, as it obviously does not qualify under their rules of regulation, no matter how you slice it.

But how to get it stateside? Anybody out there with some help? I have about two months left to help my brother or he's gonna chicken out and ditch it in a trash can. HELP!!!!