Category: News

Hi everyone we are still trying to unravel what happened with the IMCO vote on Wednesday. It was very fast, complicated and a little contradictory. Will let you know.

Regards,

Matt

On Wednesday the 13th July the IMCO committee will vote on the proposal 2015/0269 to amend the European firearms directive. Allot of work has been done by airsoft players, the airsoft industry and airsoft groups to get the proposal changed, notably by the European Airsoft Association (EAA, which UKAPU is a core member of). The first draft of the proposal would have stamped out airsoft in Europe by classing all replicas as firearms. The amendments that we have helped write will be voted on during Wednesday’s meeting, and should serve to delete the sections about classifying of replicas as firearms. The airsoft community did a great job of lobbying and showing airsoft in a positive light, so the amendments have been well received and we are heading towards a win on Wednesday. We also hope blank fire grenades aren’t banned (EAA did what they could to stop that too) but that remains to be seen.

In November there will be a yes/no vote on accepting the finalised proposal. We can’t relax until then but if things go our way on Wednesday we will almost be out of the woods. Live shooting sports are still in danger of being devastated, quite intentionally, and there’s still very little focus on the weapons used by criminals and terrorists.

It wouldn’t hurt if everyone sent a last minute email to their MEPs asking them to vote in favour of the rapporteurs amendments to remove airsoft and replicas from the scope of the proposal.

https://www.mysociety.org/wehelpyou/contact-your-meps/

Courtesy of the EAA here are links to the Agenda and live feed for the meeting.

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=COMPARL&reference=IMCO-OJ-20160713-1&format=XML&language=EN&secondRef=02

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ep-live/nl/committees/video?event=20160713-1500-COMMITTEE-IMCO

Fingers crossed!

Kind Regards,

Matt Furey-King, Chair UK Airsoft Players Union- UKAPU

Hello all.

Frank Bothamly of UKARA dropped me a line with some helpful corrections in regards to the post I wrote about airsoft and brexit, clarifying the situation with VAT and import duties. The aforementioned post has now been updated.

https://www.facebook.com/UKAPU/posts/966670233445947

Hope you are preparing to rain down plastic death on your foes tomorrow.

Regards,

Matt, Chair UKAPU

Afternoon ,

Once again I’d like to thank everyone that has supported UKAPU and I’m sorry for the delay on sending the patches out.

But I’m up to date now

Lee

We’ve received some questions from airsoft players in Scotland about the air gun amnesty and licencing. Airsoft is outside of the scope of both the UK firearms act and the new airgun laws, so airsofters won’t need a licence and don’t need to hand any airsoft replicas in to the police.

Until the PCB 2015/16 is enacted the legal definition of airsoft is a bit of a grey area but you should be fine if you keep you power below 1.3J (full auto) or 2.5J (single shot/semi auto).

Paul Cook is our Scotland rep. If you want to talk about Scotland airsoft issues we have a UKAPU Scotland page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/265899950412835/

Matt

Hello Airsofters ,

All those that have signed up in the past month or so . I’ve not forgotten about you , I received the new patches yesterday and i’ll start processing ASAP and by the end of weekend all the outstanding members waiting for patches will be sent out.

Sorry for any delay and Thank you for your support

Lee

As you may have heard(!), the UK has voted to leave the EU. What will this mean for airsoft?

First of all, let us look at the EU firearms directive and proposal to amend the directive 2015/0269-

The first draft of proposal 2015/0269 seeks the reclassification of all replicas as firearms, which would result in a nigh on a blanket ban of airsoft in the EU. Due to this unprecedented Brexit situation, we don’t know if EU directives enacted during our succession from the EU will legally have to be enacted into UK law, and it’s certain that the amended firearms directive will come into force before we become independent. We’ve consulted with the Home Office and UK MEPs and even they don’t know for sure. Depending on what arrangements Westminster comes to with Brussels, we could even be subject to the EU firearms directive post-Brexit like Switzerland is. I hope not, for the sake of our comrades in the live shooting, but who knows. Live shooters and de-act owners are facing some devastating restrictions unless the proposal is changed drastically. Thanks to the protests and lobbying done by the administration and members of the EAA (including UKAPU), not to mention the airsoft industry and many thousands of players Europe-wide (with the support of superb MEPs such as Daniel Dalton and Vicky Ford), the status quo is set to be retained, airsoft replicas are on course to remain outside the scope of the directive. UK players should be proud of the part that they have played so far in reversing this situation. We really halted the airsoft apocalypse, which I’ve no doubt would have bled over to other continents before long.

So anyway, UKAPU and anyone involved in UK airsoft can’t suddenly just ignore what’s going on with the changes to the EU firearms directive, but assuming that next months’ vote goes well and our amendments are approved, airsoft will carry on as normal even if the new directive is applied in the UK.

Policing and Crime Bill 2015/16-

Not much change here, except that with the apparent implosion of both the UK’s main political parties it may become more tricky to bring attention to our, comparatively, fringe issues (update- true enough, the next PCB reading has been postponed to accommodate a debate on Europe). No additional changes to airsoft laws in Scotland or Northern Ireland either.

Travelling Abroad for Games-

As airsoft and replicas are regulated by national laws, and most of those laws are different in each state, there won’t be any change to the way you transport replicas in and out of European countries. It seems likely that we will reach a reciprocal arrangement with Brussels and UK citizens will not require a visa to visit the EU.

Importing Airsoft Goods (updated based on advice from UKARA)-

Within the EU, if you order goods from airsoft shops in other EU countries,you simply pay local VAT of the country you ordered from (which may be less or more than UK VAT).

If the UK is outside of the EU with no trade agreement, if you order from an EU country you will not pay the local VAT but UK customs will add (currently) 20% UK VAT and approximately 3.5% duty.

Potentially if the UK is outside of the EU with a trade agreement, if you order from an EU country you will likely not pay the local VAT but UK customs will add (currently) 20% UK VAT and possibly you won’t need to pay 3.5% duty.

Another effect of the leave vote is the weakening of the Pound, so goods sold in foreign currency will cost more in GBP than the did pre referendum. Fingers crossed, this is a short term effect.

Buying from UK Airsoft Retailers (updated)-

UK retailers barely sell any UK manufactured airsoft items, nearly everything they sell is imported, so the weak pound has increased the cost of wholesale goods coming to the UK. Almost certainly the retailers will need to pass those increased costs on to the customer, but again, hopefully the weak pound is a short term problem.

European Airsoft Association-

The UKAPU committee has decided that UKAPU is 100% committed to remaining as members of the EAA. The primary reason we created the EAA was to counteract anti-airsoft EU legislation, which might not be a problem for the UK in the future. However, there’re many other good reasons to work closely with our cousins in other European associations, so this relationship is something we want to maintain. EAA membership is in fact available to all countries geographically in Europe, not just EU countries. After all, even though we’ve decided to leave the EU political block, us Brits are still Europeans culturally and geographically. Airsoft players are airsoft players, it’s a condition which transcends politics and borders.

Please share this post so we can inform as many players as possible.

Matt Furey-King,

Chair UK Airsoft Players Union- UKAPU

Big day for the future of the UK tomorrow. There’s few certainties, no right or wrong answer and allot of misinformation out there. But you can be sure leaving the EU will be a huge change which will affect your life (for better or worse depending on who you listen to).

Its only to the most self interested and opportunist politicians advantage when the population become apathetic and disengaged from the democratic process. So whichever way you feel about it, use your vote.

Matt