UKAPUGreat news for members of the United Kingdom Airsoft Players Union – £3 discount off your green fees at ANY of Op Tactical UK FOUR skirmish sites…including the Stan, Sheffield!
To claim this discount you only need to present your UKAPU membership card when signing in.
UKAPU annual membership is available for only £5, so with only 2 games at Op Tactial sites (http://www.op-tac.co.uk/) you have already made your money back and more – deals don’t get much better than that!
We are pleased to announce that the online application form, found under the ‘join us’ tab, is back in service. We can only apologise for the down time and hope that none of you have been put off of applying for UKAPU membership. UKAPU is, and always will be, staffed by volunteers. This includes IT and membership processing, so you may not get the same prompt response from us that you might expect from a regular business. However, unpaid voluntary staff are one of our strengths and help the association remain honest and independent.
We can only apologise for the problems we’ve experienced with our online form. Our web manager is feverishly working to get it running again so please bear with us and watch this page for updates.
We recently uncovered a small problem with the online membership application form. The form has been fixed so we hope that individuals who had difficulties applying in the last few weeks will try again, your membership is much needed and highly valued by everyone here in UKAPU management. Please contact membership@ukapu.org.uk if you have any further problems.
The UK is no stranger to Airsoft legislation but now it is the turn of the Californian Airsoft community to show down against a proposal which would require all Airsoft replicas to be 100% brightly coloured (think pink, red or blue for example) or translucent/clear.
Interestingly, paintball markers will not be subject to the same restrictions as the bill has been amended to propose all spot markers with projectiles measuring 10mm or more are exempt – This is clearly unworkable as paintball marker companies already produce realistic imitation firearms which would need a trained eye to distinguish from a real weapon. Under this legislation there is no provision made for Airsoft and this should be reconsidered.
One of the main points raised by the Airsoft Safety Foundation (created by Californian Airsoft retailers) is that by using bright colours parents could mistake Airsoft guns for children’s toys. If so, then parents may also underestimate the power with which some Airsoft replicas can fire.
UKAPU whole heartedly oppose SB 798 and wish to provide our brothers and sisters in California with a message of support for the hearing due on Tuesday 21st June – We hope that your efforts to oppose this bill are not wasted.
For more information on this bill please visit the Airsoft Safety Foundation website.
The new UKAPU site is now online! This site has many new features, more content and will be updated more frequently due to the improved interface. Thanks go out to our Web Admin, Linas Masteika, for getting everything completed.
A point of note is that we are now able to accept PayPal membership and renewal payments – This is something that people have been asking for and we have finally resolved the issues which were preventing its implementation.
This site is another important step forward as an association and will allow the committee to report important news updates in a more timely fashion.
If you have any comments or suggestions on the new website, or if you want to report any errors, then you can contact Linas atwebadmin@ukapu.org.uk
Gareth (our events manager) and I took a trip to the uprising event at the combat festival in April, held on the Swynnerton training area. Swynnerton is an active army exercise area in Staffordshire which used to be a munitions store. As such it is a big and somewhat overgrown playing area with a large number of bunkers, stores, warehouses and mock up FOB’s. Much of the area was quite overgrown with thorns so it paid to have thick trousers (DPM might be comfy but I’m still pulling thorns out of my leg 2 weeks later). The player numbers for the game were substantially less than expected which meant that the playing area had to be restricted. Personally I enjoy games with only a few dozen people per side and a restricted playing area, as the action is friendly and fast. It was certainly a change for the huge Uprising events held on Sennybridge training area; the Uprising team hope to hold an event at Senny later this year, have a look at The Uprising Website later in the year if you are interested in a big scenario led urban game. The Uprising game which was played on Saturday was furious and fun for the players. The training area was given over to the ‘scenario paintball’ players on the Sunday. UKAPU manned our stall for much of the weekend and tried to make these fellow geardo’s aware of the awesomeness which is airsoft! We also managed to recruit a few airsofters to UKAPU which really helps the association. On the Saturday evening the paintballers had a big party which we left when they started eating large volumes of paintballs. Paintballs are non toxic but I’m not convinced they are good for your health!
Overall the combat festival was well organised but the opportunities for airsoft play were quite limited as the Sunday airsoft events which were organised by the other companies were cancelled. I hope that the airsoft players were able to get a full refund for the CQB training which some of them had paid for in advance. I’m not sure that airsoft fits in so well with the festival but the players enjoyed themselves and the Swynnerton area is certainly worth returning to if any more airsoft games are played there.
Tim Clark aka KaRcop interviewed a few people at the event, including myself. The video can be found here.
Matt Furey-King
Chairman
If you are heading to The Arms Fair at The Grange this weekend, UKAPU will see you there. Come along and see our stall! UKAPU members are also welcome to place their for sale items on our private seller stall – come to the UKAPU area and have a word with one of the committee if you are interested.
If you are heading to The Uprising this weekend, UKAPU will see you there. Come along and see our stall!
In August 2010, Roland Fejes (an airsoft skirmisher and now member of UKAPU) attempted to import a Deepfire M72 LAW. The Deepfire M72 LAW is a high quality airsoft replica but ordinary in function, using moscart type airsoft ‘grenades’. These are commonly imported to the UK as they are a replica which you are permitted to import or buy when you are entitled to the skirmishers specific defence under the Violent Crime Reduction Act.
To Roland’s surprise, his replica was seized when it passed through customs and his house subsequently raided by a counter terrorism unit in order to check that he did not have ‘any other prohibited weapons’. Roland was given no paperwork to explain the situation and no notice of seizure. When he was contacted by the Police he was aggressively bullied and threatened with nonsensical charges including firearms and terrorism offences in an attempt to scare him away from seeking his legal rights. He was accused of importing a re-activated real launcher.
Clearly a fundamental mistake had been made – on top of which something was very wrong with the way the authorities were handling this situation. As a normal player with no legal expertise Roland did not know how to approach this, so one of our members suggested he get in contact with us at UK Airsoft Players Union. One of the key roles we have set for UKAPU is defending individual airsoft skirmishers against prejudice in the system.
Over the course of 6 months UKAPU used our knowledge, contacts and community standing to fight this injustice. Eventually UKAPU convinced a senior Police officer to drop talk of terrorism charges, at which point UK Border Agency and Scotland Yard began disputing the legality of airsoft skirmishers importing moscart devices. Again our considered protest won through, and by UKAPU persistently refusing to let this issue drop Roland had his item returned to him this week! By this, the Police have admitted that they were wrong to prevent him importing this airsoft replica, that the harassment was unjustified and that the charges were unfounded.
Everyone who has joined UKAPU has contributed to this latest victory; We were only able to force the powers that be to respect Roland’s rights because of the strength that our members have lent to UKAPU by joining, so they should give themselves a pat on the back! United, we Airsofters can stand up for each other, so if you haven’t joined yet then please look at our website – we will need your support in the next fight!
Matt Furey-King
Chairman