After a longtime customer in Ukraine fell silent during Vladimir Putin’s invasion of the country, Adrian Kellgren’s family-owned gun firm in Florida was left holding a $200,000 cargo of semi-automatic weapons.
Fearing the worst, Kellgren and his company KelTec decided to put those stranded 400 guns to good use, sending them to Ukraine’s fledgling resistance movement to assist civilians in defending themselves against Russian military shelling of their apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, and hiding places.
The contribution by KelTec, based in Cocoa Beach, is a high-profile example of Americans collecting weapons, ammo, body armor, helmets, and other tactical gear in response to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s commitment to arm his compatriots. Many other grassroots attempts, however, have been stymied by a lack of familiarity with the complicated web of regulations that regulate the international transportation of such equipment.
Kellgren, who has dealt with such red tape for years, was able to contact with a diplomat in the Ukrainian Embassy through a Ukrainian neighbor, who assisted him in obtaining a federal arms export license in just four days. This procedure can take months.
Workers at KelTec’s warehouse forklifted four plastic-wrapped pallets holding their 9 mm folding rifles for transport to a secret NATO-run facility this week, as Congress debated whether to transfer more modern weaponry and defense equipment to Ukraine. The weapons will then be smuggled into the conflict zone by the shipment’s new receiver, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense.
Elected politicians, sheriff’s departments, and organizations from California to New York claim to have collected hundreds of sets of body armor and millions of rounds of ammunition for Ukraine.
Last week, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis launched a campaign to get surplus ballistic helmets and other equipment from police and sheriff’s departments.
However, dangers are all around us, 400 bulletproof vests were stolen before they could be shipped by a New York City group coordinating a collection campaign.
Many of the organizers are unfamiliar with foreign arms export regulations, which may necessitate permission from the Departments of State, Commerce, and Defense to transport even non-lethal tactical gear. Organizers of one such push in New York are relying on KelTec’s recent acquisition of a license to export 60 long rifles.
