UKAPUNews Posts from United Kingdom Airsoft Players Association.
From the feedback we’ve received, and much of the discussion we’ve seen online, it seems many people don’t understand what we are trying to achieve with getting clarification about the PCA airsoft provisions. I’ll try to explain;
UKAPU runs a hotline of sorts, members who have trouble with law enforcement can get in touch with us, and we advise them, and often interject by writing letters or sending representatives to try and sort things out. For privacy reasons we usually can’t talk about these cases, but they happen ALLOT. Across the country airsoft players who are behaving within the law are being bullied, all the time. They get dragged over the coals in a big way. Sometimes it’s simply confiscation of equipment, but we’ve seen cases of people being placed on extremist watch lists, threatened with deportation, thrown out of university and even firearms and terrorism charges. For playing airsoft! Words cannot express how much airsoft is on the back foot in this fiercely anti gun society. You may not hear about it, but we do, cases tend to come our way. It is happening, even if things seem quiet from your perspective.
So the problem with the new PCA ‘power limits’ is that they raise questions about what an airsoft gun is classed as, as the power output of airsoft guns varies so easily. A full auto airsoft gun capable of over 1.3J is a section 5(1)(a) prohibited firearm. Most full auto HPA guns, for example, are capable of over 1.3J. Are they section 5 firearms then? It seems like it. How do we stop HPA guns from being classed as section 5 firearms? You can make an AEG fire at over 1.3J with a spring change, and make a semi locked AEG fire fully automatic quite easily. Does that mean that all AEGs are readily convertible to section 5 prohibited firearms? These are only a few of the issues.
These sorts of questions have been grey area for decades. So the Police let it lie, they didn’t need the hassle of trying to pursue someone over it, as it would be a huge can of worms to open up. But now they aren’t really grey areas. In the future, when the authorities decide to pick on someone, they might not have to come up with some obscure infraction to charge an airsofter with, they may be able to hit them with possessing a prohibited weapon, which carries a 5 year prison sentence. When Police realise that airsoft guns should be power limited, I guarantee they will start sending guns off for power testing when they seize them. They already have them disassembled and tested on occasion, even though there doesn’t seem to be much purpose to it. UKBA never carried out chrono checking of imports pre PCA, but I bet they will now.
Most Police are totally comfortable with airsoft, and will not be interested in the slightest, but there’s 60,000 of us airsofters. It’s inevitable that some of us will come into contact with a bad cop having a bad day, or an administration with a point to prove.
A friend sent me an article which really shows what can happen to you on a bad day if you get caught out on a ‘technicality ‘, as many players are calling section 5(1)(a) of the 1968 firearms act. I hope you can see the paralels here. The defendant in this article said “I didn’t realise that my air rifle was technically a Section 1 firearm, officer” and ended up in prison. One day an airsoft player could find themselves saying “I didn’t realise that this airsoft gun is technically an airgun and a prohibited firearm, officer”. http://m.burtonmail.co.uk/man-bought-rifle-shoot-rats-jailed/story-21486935-detail/story.html
Another example; a friend of mine lives in a country where full auto airsoft is banned. This year he forgot to put his semi only selector plate back in after using his AEG at a game in a neighboring country. The police raided his home, found the offending AEG and now it looks like he will be going to prison. A different country but I still think it’s a very close parallel. You may not think the authorities care about airsoft. They don’t on the whole. But every once in a while the law is enforced as written, and one of us suffers very badly.
If everything was fine, we’d tell you so. We get accused of scaremongering, but if everything was fine, believe me we’d get back on with our lives and playing airsoft, instead of dealing with the stress of all this. What’s scary is the situation, not our portrayal of it. If anyone tells you this PCA stuff is nonsense, they do not understand the situation fully. The majority of the community hasn’t heard about the PCA. Many of the remainder are in denial, or haven’t properly read up on the situation. This applies to a surprisingly large number of people in the airsoft industry and media too, quite a few of them have not taken the time to read up or participate in the lobbying process, and are telling customers that nothing is going on. Players ask their advice assuming they know better, but many don’t. But this collective denial and wishful thinking doesn’t mean the PCA doesn’t exist. It is still the law. It is not a matter for debate, you can see the law on the government website. It has royal assent and commencement orders.
In summary- we are not preparing for some sort of mass police enforcement of the new ‘limits’, but it’s not possible to just ignore it all either. It’s about stopping some poor random player from facing firearms charges in the future and maybe 5 years in jail too. And it’s to prevent such a terrible threat from hanging over all of us every time we go to play airsoft, even if it’s not likely that you or I will be the person who gets caught out, it’s going to be an unpleasant situation if we can’t sort things.
Matt Furey-King, Chair UKAPU
This week the Airsoft Trade Body (ATB) is having another meeting. The previous incarnation didn’t take off, but new people are having another go and are determined to see it work.
Airsoft is going though a tough period, as are most shooting sports. If airsoft hopes to survive the whole industry needs to work to secure the future, not just the odd store or manufacturer. We are praying that ATB becomes a strong democratic sister organisation to UKAPU, and we give the project our full and enthusiastic support.
So if you work in the airsoft industry please do try and make it to the meeting on the 30th March at the Gaol, in the Midlands.
Contact The Gaol for more info.
Matt
We have just been made aware that commencement orders have been published for the PCA 2017. Firearms provisions come into force on the 2nd May 2017.
In layman’s terms that means the airsoft ‘power limit’ of 1.3J for full auto and 2.5J for semi auto/single shot becomes law on the 2nd May.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2017/399/made
UKAPU and UKARA are still working to get clarifications on how to comply, but we still don’t have anything at all. It’s been over a year since we were promised these issues would be looked at. We are examining other further courses of action such as Judicial review. To keep pursing this we need the support of the community and industry. Without clarifications the only people at risk are airsoft people, it’s not a problem for the government or police, it will only be us living in a grey area, at risk of a 5 year jail sentence.
Matt
UKAPU member Tim Jacobs has made up this useful chart which shows the velocity of various weight BBs at 1.3J and 2.5J (the new legal power limits for airsoft). It’s a nice way to illustrate the point that with heavier BBs the permissible muzzle velocity is greatly reduced.
http://www.ukapu.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Absolute-fps_chart.pdf
I’d imagine there’s a fair few people who currently own airsoft replicas that are set up to fire at just below the common site limit of 350fps on a 0.20g BB, yet some of those replicas could fire 0.25g BBs at more than 335fps, which is over the 1.3J legal limit.
Sadly there’s still been no PCA clarifications from the government. With the commencement orders for the firearms provisions supposedly due to be issued in the Spring, this is completely unreasonable. UKAPU and UKARA were promised in March last year that these issues would be looked at, and both organisations continue to pursue the matter.
Matt
Looks like our closest neighbours could soon be facing a situation not unlike the VCRA crisis of 2006, when airsoft replicas were almost banned in the UK. Irish Airsoft Association (fellow members of European Airsoft Association) are all over it though. Good luck, UK airsoft stands in solidarity with you!
Matt
Breaking news-
The IMCO committee of the European Parliament has just voted in favour of amendment 107 of proposal 2015/0269 to amend the European firearms directive. 107 is the outcome of the trilogue compromise, and includes text which specifically exempts airsoft from the firearms directive. So airsoft replicas will NOT be reclassified as firearms.
If the initial proposal had not been amended then all airsoft replicas and even blank fire grenades would have been reclassified as firearms. This would have functioned as an Europe wide ban on airsoft, the same situation as Australia is in. By the way the UK is still in the EU and this directive still has to be implemented in UK law.
Big pat on the back to all the organisations that lobbied in favour of airsoft (notably UKAPUs parent body, EAA, and ASG/Cybergun) and the many thousands of airsoft players who wrote to their MEP.
There’s not much call for celebration though. The new directive will mean additional needless regulations for UK firearms owners such as magazine capacity restriction. Please don’t forget that many firearms owners helped fight this attack on airsoft. We also need to help them wherever we can, if either of our sports hope to survive. And the new regulation will do little to protect us from terrorism either, which was the supposed intention.
If you aren’t aware, this was the biggest legal crisis ever faced by airsoft in history, we nearly lost airsoft across the whole continent, and it’s not hard to imagine the rest of the world would have followed Europe’s example, as they often do. Yet very few people in the airsoft community took an interest. Many of you probably didn’t even hear about what was going on. As a community, we need to ask ourselves why news of this crisis wasn’t spread, why most people weren’t talking about it or fighting back. Airsoft won’t survive if we only give our attention to trivial matters.
European Airsoft Association will be in Brussels again, acting as your representatives, over the coming months to check there are no errors made when the firearms directive is redrafted.
Please don’t get this mixed up with the Policing and Crime Act, which is an unrelated ongoing issue.
But this EU proposal case is basically closed in regards to Airsoft. Phew!
Matt Furey-King, Chair UKAPU
The public are currently being warned to watch out for suspicious activity via a new campaign and hotline, ACT (action counters terrorism). It’s fair to say that the British public is more wary about firearms than ever before, and things are only getting worse.
Of course UKAPU is fully supportive of Government counter terrorism initatives, and we advise UKAPU members to take on board the advice in the campaign.
But as an airsoft player the likely risk you face is not from terrorism but from a member of the public calling the hotline about your legitimate airsoft related activities.
There are precautions you can take to reduce the likelihood of this happening, such as-
*Buy gun cases and slips, don’t carry an airsoft replica to a game loose in the car or in the original box.
*Keep airsoft replicas away from windows when storing or maintaining in your home.
*Let friendly neighbours know about your hobby (especially if you use them to ‘plink’ in the garden- which is perfectly legal).
*Wear civilian clothing to and from games
*Try to only attend games at professionaly run sites, good sites will have liaised with local police.
*Don’t share airsoft replica photos on public social media unless you make the viewers aware that it is airsoft.
*When carrying replicas by rail, coach, air or ferry, call ahead to let them know.
*Do read up on the relevant laws- when questioned, make sure you can explain how and why you are allowed to purchase and use replicas.
Please like and share- you may already ‘get it’, but there’s many players out there who don’t know how much trouble an airsoft replica can cause. Every time someone screws up it moves us closer to a UK airsoft ‘ban’. Many players don’t realise the Secretary of State can repeal the airsoft specific defence overnight with the stroke of a pen, and the government have made it known that they will do that if airsoft is causing trouble.
Matt Furey-King, Chair UKAPU
