Author: UKAPU News Desk

The December UKPAU management minutes are now up to be viewed on he side. Follow the link below.

http://ukapu.org.uk/ukapu-management-meeting-minutes-december-2016

Andrew

Happy new year to everyone in the airsoft world and beyond. What a year! We’ve seen changes in laws relating to Airsoft from Hollyrood, Westminster and Brussels. Despite being a niche, small sport, airsoft has stepped forwards and made a collective voice heard. Airsoft was on the ropes but we’ve kept it alive, together. There are other lobby groups who are amazed at what airsoft has achieved this year. We punch above our weight.

Next year we could choose to go on the offensive, push out our message to the world- airsoft might look a bit scary but it is a huge positive force in people’s lives. Let the public know, we are airsofters, we are lovely people and you should come and try the most fun sport on earth!

Happy New Year!

Matt & the UKAPU team

Last month we held our AGM in Gloucester. We rented out StrikeForce CQB for a members only game and held the Annual General Meeting in the safe zone after the game. Andrew Cade, UKAPU Secretary, recorded some footage of the game which I’ve edited and uploaded onto my page.

We had a really fun game and a very productive meeting. UKAPU made a big difference to UK airsoft in 2016, but 2017 could be even bigger, with the right support.

Thanks to everyone for coming and making it work, and especially to Strikeforce. The staff were very helpful and professional all day, the site is great and they generously allowed us to use the safe zone for the AGM itself. Cheers to Super Mega Tactical Airsoft News and Airsoft Nation for coming too.

A sad note to end on, but this was the last game for Mark Rasmussen, a much loved member of the European Airsoft Community (and founder of Airsoft Denmark) as he passed away the day after the game. We were lucky to have an excellent game with him and he had some helpful input during the AGM discussion. You can see him playing in the video. Mark is much missed. Marks Mum let us know that she will be keeping Airsoft Denmark running.

Keep an eye out for the AGM game next year, hope to see you there.

Minutes for the meeting can be found here http://www.ukapu.org.uk/agm-nov-2016/

Matt Furey-King, Chair UK Airsoft Players Union

• 

Courtesy of Airsoft Kings Airsoft Podcast, this has to be the first UKAPU patch I’ve seen being proudly worn by a dog!

Will Nowell, our previous Press Officer, gave them an interview earlier this year, you can check it out here https://soundcloud.com/airsoft-kings-podcast/s2-ep9-will-from-ukapu-explains-the-current-happenings-is-novritsch-a-cheater (Will got a little muddled on the section 5 thing, its still the big issue facing UK airsoft).

The Press Officer position is vacant by the way, as are a few other roles, so drop us a PM if you are interested in giving some of your spare time to help keep UKAPU doing what it does.

Matt

• 

A small update to the breaking news posted earlier in the week – proposed amendments we mentioned earlier have been passed into the final bill unopposed – which, to summarise things, have cleaned up the definition of what an airsoft gun is, and, for the first time, official recognition that 8mm airsoft guns are believe it or not, airsoft guns.

For those who wish to inspect the Hansard, feel free to click https://goo.gl/zgNf7P – it will take you to the lengthy passage which encompasses contains the changes.

~ David, Vice Chair

Let’s Make Mark Rasmussen ‘Player of the Year’.

Many of you will have heard that Mark suddenly passed away a few weeks ago. He was a hard driving community leader, nice guy and superb player. Popular Airsofts annual players choice awards have come around again so we think it would be a nice gesture if the community gave Mark the ‘player of the year’ award.

Please click the link below, put any other nominations down that you want to put in, and then put Mark down for Player of the year. Nomination period ends 30th December.

Like and share this post. Let’s use that potent airsoft social media power to make more good things happen!

Nominate Mark Rasmussen

Category- Special Airsoft Player Award

http://playerschoice.popularairsoft.com/

• 

Hello everyone ,

I’m really sorry about any delays on sending out your patches

This is the back log well over 200 patches in that pile and spent over 3 hours going through unfortunately this has been the only time I’ve had to do these and thats with two people doing

Once again I’m sorry if it’s taken so long and I will be pass this big task on to someone new it’s been a pleasure doing this for you guys 👍🏼

Lee Dempsey

UKAPU Register

• 

Huge breaking airsoft news – please read and share –

We finally are able to tell you some good news about the draft UK law affecting airsoft.

At the start of the year the government released the Policing and Crime Bill (PCB), which included a clause to set the lethal threshold at 1 Joule of muzzle energy. This would mean that a barrelled device would be essentially regarded as an air gun if it had muzzle energy of over 1J. In 2015 the law commission suggested (based on input from UKARA and UKAPU) that airsoft replicas should be allowed an exemption from the 1J lethal threshold, as 1J would be far too low for our needs. The government accepted this and wrote it into the PCB.

The first draft of the airsoft exemption was not that great. 8mm airsoft would not count and, arguably no airsoft device would have been able to use the proposed exemption because they are capable of firing non plastic BBs. The airsoft associations were invited to discuss the exemption with the Home Office firearms department in March, and the results of that meeting, plus 8 months of lobbying behind the scenes, have finally paid off.

Trying to get exemption through at all was a feat. Though the government supported the exemption it came under attack from a Labour MP and then later from a Conservative Lord. The anti-gun groups and even part of the gun lobby objected to it.

But through a combined effort from UKARA and UKAPU we’ve managed to not only get the exemption for airsoft through, but also convince the government to make some small changes to it, which have just been submitted in the form of amendments (these are yet to be voted on at time of writing but should be integrated during the Lords report stage). When the Bill is enacted in early 2017 we’ll have clear power limits for airsoft and a better definition of what an airsoft gun is. Not only will those limits reflect the realistic power output of airsoft replicas, but they will also not interfere with the normal power limits that we use for gaming. So instead of being limited to 1J, we’ll be able to play on mostly as normal.

The lion’s share of the Home Office lobbying work was done by Frank, John and Adrian at UKARA. Without some shrewd tactics and persistent lobbying from them we’d never have got the amendment on the table. UKAPU spent a lot of time rallying airsofters and lobbying MPs without them there may have been more objections from MPs and Lords. Though we’ve not been able to talk about it till now, it’s taken a constant barrage of letters, calls and meetings throughout 2016 to get to where we are. The guys from UKARA also commissioned expensive laboratory testing of the penetrative properties of 8mm BBs, so we could ask the Home Office to extend the exemption to 8mm airsoft replicas as well as 6mm. UKARA have spent close to £10000 fighting for the airsoft industry.

The Home Office also deserve thanks. Some people imagine they are anti-airsoft, but in reality the civil servants have invited the airsoft associations to comment on the bill and have taken those comments on board even though this created more work. They have done their utmost to ensure that the airsoft game and industry isn’t compromised by the new law. Government Ministers such as Mike Penning MP have spoken in defence of our right to play airsoft and supported us throughout.

The elephant in the room is, still, fully automatic replicas over 1.3J. If it is capable of more than 1.3J then your replica may be regarded as a section 5 firearm. This could mean that GBB and HPA replicas are prohibited weapons, and it could mean you might land a 5 year prison sentence for importing an AEG which is more powerful than advertised. We also need to ensure that airsoft replicas aren’t regarded as ‘readily convertible’ to firearms, as they can all be converted to exceed the new thresholds. UKARA and UKAPU have been raising this issue with the government for the last year, and it seems they have now taken it on board. We are due to see them early next year to discuss a solution, separate to the PCB.

For your convenience the amended clause 111 is below.

The status quo has been more or less maintained but only through a mammoth effort behind the scenes. Please spread the word, people need to understand that airsoft needs constant protection, and the only way we’ve achieved this win is by working together under the umbrella of airsoft associations.

Matt Furey-King Chair UKAPU and Frank Bothamley Chair UKARA

Amended clause 111 of the Policing and Crime Bill 2015-16

(5) After section 57 insert—

“57A Exception for airsoft guns

(1) An “airsoft gun” is not to be regarded as a firearm for the purposes of this Act.

(2) An “airsoft gun” is a barrelled weapon of any description which—

(a) Is designed to discharge only a small plastic missile (whether or not it is also capable of discharging any other kind of missile),

and

(b) is not capable of discharging a missile (of any kind) with kinetic energy at the muzzle of the weapon that exceeds the permitted level.

(3) “Small plastic missile” means a missile that—

(a) is made wholly or partly from plastics, and

(aa) is spherical, and

(b) does not exceed 8 millimetres in diameter.

(4) The permitted kinetic energy level is—

(a) in the case of a weapon “is capable of discharging two or more missiles without repeated pressure on the trigger, 1.3 joules;

(b) in any other case, 2.5 joules.”

Interview with Stretch- career objective ticked off! Matt

• 

The 2016 AGM and November management meeting minutes are now available for you to view. Here’s a link to the site page:

http://www.ukapu.org.uk/agm-nov-2016/

•