Last week Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) announced that, after extensive negotiations and continued advocacy from both Alaska’s senate delegation and sportsmen and women across the U.S, the Department of Homeland Security updated the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) eliminated the expiration date from form 4457.
CBP form 4457 is required for U.S citizens to travel abroad with their firearms. Up until last week, the form’s deadline and agency’s inability to update forms in a timely manner created unnavigable and unclear procedural hurdles for hunters, too often forcing compliant and prepared hunters to cancel trips for which they had already put significant time and money into planning.
As we enter the peak season for international hunting, CBP’s repeal of the arbitrary deadline on this form could not have come at a better time for American hunters looking to go afield outside the U.S.
“Since its inception, the internal, government expiration date on the CBP Form 4457 has caused undue headaches for U.S hunters travelling abroad. Thank you, Senator Murkowski and Senator Sullivan, for your efforts to finally resolve this issue. With the international hunting season in full swing, hunters can focus on their legal pursuit rather than an irrelevant date,” said Ben Cassidy, Executive Vice President of International Government & Public Affairs, Safari Club International.
