Every week, someone emails us confused about why one item in their cart shipped to Canada without a hiccup and another produced a 'U.S. addresses only' notice. The answer is export law, and because most stores hide it behind a wall of legalese or — worse — a silent order cancellation, we wrote this instead.
The short version: the U.S. government maintains two regimes that control what leaves the country. ITAR covers items designed for military use; the EAR covers a broader list of 'dual-use' goods. Most of what we sell — bags, apparel, belts, camp gear — is plain commerce and ships anywhere the carrier goes. A small set of items, mostly certain optics and laser devices, falls under control, and those ship to U.S. addresses only. Full stop, no exceptions, not even to friendly countries, because the exceptions process is measured in months and lawyers.
What that means practically on this site: if a controlled item is in your cart, you see a clear notice on the product page and again at checkout — before payment, not after. We would rather lose the sale at the notice than take your money and cancel silently two days later, which is the industry's usual move and the reason this post exists.
The age question is a separate rule with the same philosophy. A handful of restricted accessories — certain lasers and defensive sprays — carry federal or state age minimums, so those checkouts ask for a date of birth and check the ship-to state. We do not store more than the verification result, and the other ninety-something percent of the catalog never asks.
None of this is us editorializing; it is the cost of doing business in this category lawfully, and every legitimate retailer carries the same obligations whether they say so or not. We just think saying so — clearly, before checkout, in sentences a human would write — is part of the job. The full policy lives on our compliance page, and the counter phone works if a notice ever confuses you.