Category: News

Our website has gone down again today. Seems to be related to yesterday’s outage. Tech support are looking into it and the site should be back online soon. Matt

Awfully sorry about the interruption of service of our website, I’ve done some changes in order to make it actually work again. Everything seems to be in running order, but if you folks do encounter any issues, please shout at us. [David]

Sorry for any inconvenience but the website is down and we are trying to sort out as fast as possible

Lee

A few weeks back Frank, Tim, David and I (Chair UKARA, Chair ATB, Vice Chair UKAPU, Chair UKAPU respectively) were invited by the Home Office for a symposium on the 2015/0269 EU firearms proposal, along with the rest of the UK firearms lobby. 2015/0269 is the European law change that would have effectively eliminated airsoft in Europe by reclassifying all replicas as firearms. Things are much the same as they were last month, i.e.. the airsoft lobby (the European Airsoft Association represents UKAPU in this regard) got a number of amendments in, which have been seemingly well received, that will reverse all the stuff in the proposal about replicas. The draft 2 of the proposal doesn’t include anything about reclassifying replicas as firearms (although some people are still seeking to put it back in). We took the opportunity to ask the Home Office to keep in mind that replicas should not be classed as firearms, and indications are that they agree and are happy with the pro replica amendments that have been put forward.

Actually this new ‘Draft 2’ doesn’t mean a great deal and all the recommendations and amendments could ultimately be thrown out. There’s been discussions by more EU committees than I can keep track of and at the moment there’s 847 amendments in play for this proposal! The vote will be at the end of June after which the Parliament and Commission will sit down and negotiate the final document. We’ll probably soon be asking you to guide your MEPs towards voting for our amendments. EAA are still working to make sure gas replicas aren’t accidentally caught up in the new definition of a firearm and I believe UK Conservative MEP Vicky Ford is assisting in that endeavour.

The proposal is still complete rubbish though and will seriously harm the firearms industry and in particular owners of deactivated firearms so please don’t forget about the plight of our cousins in the real firearms world.

In regards to the Policing and Crime Bill 2015/16 the airsoft lobby is still working diligently. At the moment you could say we are still throwing things against the wall and seeing what sticks, which is why we haven’t yet asked you to lobby your representatives. Positive progress has been made by the combined UK airsoft lobby this week and we hope we’ll be able tell you all about it soon.

For various reasons the PCB is probably not going to be finalised and enacted until the very end of the year.

Dispute his herculean efforts our Press Officer, Will Nowell, didn’t manage to meet Lynn Brown (the Labour MP who called airsofters ‘weird’ and ‘potential terrorists’ last month). Although she promised to meet him and Will made himself known and available for a whole week, a meeting was not forthcoming. Still though, I think through this and other channels Ms. Brown has got the message that airsofters are legitimate law abiding sportsmen who won’t stand idly by and let people defame our hobby.

Scotland is due to be covered by the new 1.3J/2.5J exception when the PCB comes into force alongside the new air gun act (hooray). Northern Ireland will still be restricted to 1J (boo).

As ever please keep supporting your representatives (if you are a player that’s us http://ukapu.org.uk/join/ ) and keep spreading the word about what is going on. Too many people think that the airsoft status quo is safe because we are ignored by the outside world. It isn’t, and we’re not.

My trip to London wasn’t all work though as I managed to swing by the Imperial War Museum for a couple of hours before my flight back to Aberdeen. Inside the museum I found a DH3 UAV that I used to work on, which made me feel a bit old!

Matt Furey-King, Chairman UKAPU

We are back at the weekend again and we hope that everyone has a brilliant time Airsofting! We are going to be at the Northern Shooting Show this weekend and if you can make it down, come by and say hello.

Don’t forget that our membership system is up and running and we would love if everyone would sign up! Encourage your Airsoft friends and family to sign up too.

UKAPU.org.uk

Hopefully we see a few of you this weekend, otherwise have a great time Airsofting all across the UK.

Don’t forget to Like, Comment, and Share our posts! Tag your friends in the comments below, keep the word going.

Will Nowell

UKAPU Press Officer

Good evening ,

Just a update that all existing members details were moved over to the new database and all you need to do is reset your password . We are working so that you can subscribe within the system but it’s not currently active yet but we will tell you when it’s up and running. Anyone having any problems please just drop us a pm

UKAPU.org.uk

Lee Dempsey

General Secretary UKAPU

Fellow Airsofters,

We here at UKAPU would like to extend a MASSIVE thank you to all our members, both new and old. We’ve gained over 100 new members since we announced the change to our website, but our battle is not over.

We still need the support of the community, the more numbers we have, the more evidence we have that there are dedicated players around the UK who want both representation and security.

The more details we have on player numbers, the more we can explain how many players there are in the country.

Most importantly, remember that membership is completely FREE! Don’t forget that by next week we are announcing membership benefits including: discounts at select stores and discounts at Airsoft sites around the UK.

We can’t do this without you, so keep Sharing and Liking our posts to keep us going. And don’t forget to sign up!

UKAPU.org.uk

Lee Dempsey

UKAPU General Secretary

It’s Saturday! We know that some players are currently out playing the sport we love, and some others are currently preparing for a Sunday of BB heaven.

Earlier this week we asked the community to come together and provide us with information and questions that we could take to Lyn Brown, who is currently one of the largest threats to Airsoft in the UK.

We here at UKAPU would just like to thank the entire community for all their contributions and questions. There are so many that we can’t wait to take all this information to Lyn Brown and use it to better inform her about Airsoft. We are hoping that when she finally agrees to set a date for our meeting, we can either video record it or in the very least, record an audio version of the interview.

We may ask for a few more hands during the interview as we know there are players from all walks of life and if anyone has video equipment, we would love for you to get involved.

Don’t forget, sign up for membership on the UKAPU website, as the more numbers we have, the more details we have to take to Lyn Brown.

Welcome to UKAPU

Don’t forget to Like, Comment, and Share our posts! Let’s keep this going until we save Airsoft in the UK. We love our sport and we need to keep pushing to protect it.

Will Nowell

Press Office UKAPU

We are pleased to announce that our website is live again. We know that it had seen better days but now thanks to the fantastic work from our volunteers, the website looks better than ever.

Website link – http://www.ukapu.org.uk/

Included in our new website redesign, we have updated our membership system! This is the most exciting part as we have designed three different levels of membership: Bronze, Silver, and Gold.

We encourage everyone to visit the website and sign up for membership, it gives us a solid foundation to approach government officials with accurate details on the number of Airsoft players there are in the United Kingdom.

Membership benefits will be announced very soon, we are just finalising some details with retailers and sites around the country.

Thanks to everyone who signs up, we are here to represent you when Airsoft is placed in danger. We will continue to argue and fight for Airsoft in the UK. Don’t forget to Like, Comment, and Share.

William Nowell

Press Officer – UKAPU

We here at UKAPU have been busy over the past few days, but this time we need the Airsoft community to help us! As you may, or may not know, Lyn Brown MP made some arguably negative comments about Airsoft during a meeting for the Policing and Crime Bill. We wanted to share what she said.

Video conversation – http://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/eb47b5a1-f38d-46da-86cb-26be4536bf7a

Skip forward the video to 10:44, as that is when Lyn Brown starts speaking about Airsoft.

Written conversation – https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2016-04-12/debates/a44b70cb-a948-4f2e-9838-5edd7c1057e7/PolicingAndCrimeBill(SixthSitting)#contribution-16041250000155

Have a watch and listen to what she says, it’s important to understand her side. What we are looking for is questions to ask her when we meet her. We’ve developed some questions to speak to her about, but we want the Airsoft community to join in. If you have any questions you want to ask her, post them in the comments below.

Now is the time for you to get involved, we will take all comments and questions onboard. We understand that it’s a stressful time but keeping the questions clean would save us time.

Don’t forget to Like and Share this post. If Lyn Brown continues on this path, Airsoft could be dramatically changed in the UK, affecting players and businesses around the county.

Will Nowell

Press Officer – UKAPU