Update to my situation with my UPS package stuck in Kentucky at the UPS Worldport:
I have continued to receive daily "Your package is scheduled for delivery tomorrow" messages from UPS. However the package has continued to sit in Louisville, KY getting a daily 'Import Scan'.
Actually got to speak with a live human at UPS today. Not an easy feat. It seems like you have to fool their automated system to speak with a person, or it just hangs up on you if you ask for a representative. In my case when it asked for the tracking number, I just spoke it unclearly and after 2 attempts it forwarded me to a person.
Anyway the nice lady told me that my new airgun was under an 'Alphabet org Hold.' Sounded to me like this was something initiated by UPS and not Customs - they saw something they didn't understand or like, and put it on hold.
Anyway, I told the rep that it was not a firearm, and was more of a BB gun like a Red Ryder, only powered by air instead of a spring.
She emailed the UPS folks who put the hold on the shipment that it is not a firearm, and (her words) is an airsoft BB gun.
O.K., maybe this shipment will actually start moving soon?
WRONG. I am now cc'd on the internal UPS emails. Terse reply from the individual or group who did the Alphabet org hold: "Shipment submitted to CBP."
Now it is probably a real crapshoot whether I'll ever receive my new airgun, which is not a firearm per any Federal, State or Local laws where I live.
We are probably only beginning to see the results of the anti-gun crowd, who have been teaching children for some years now that all guns are bad, and they don't need to understand them or know anything more about them. So these kids grow up, get jobs like at UPS, and don't have any real understanding of reality. Just that 'all guns are bad.'