As we jump into October, it’s time for the first part of the UKAPU half-year review, a round up of what we have been doing and our plans for the next six months.
We at Team UKAPU have been hard at work in what will soon be our 10th year, continuing to promote and defend the unique thing we love that is airsoft as well as educating and assisting our members with any legal queries they may have.
Admittedly things have been quiet here, but we like it like this. We see it as a good thing when we’re whirring away in the background; it means we can take it easy and skirmish! The chairman took some time out of his schedule to attend IWA in Nuremberg earlier this year as a visitor – it was a rather fruitful networking exercise finally managing to meet some of those who are involved in the press side of airsoft as well as looking at all the newest AR pattern airsoft replicas out there – and who knows, perhaps we’ll be back next year?
Our membership is still growing, even at a time of relative peace within UK airsoft – an indicator of how our community is maturing. More people care and want to have a collective voice for the future of airsoft.
For those who haven’t yet joined but somehow are seeing this, membership is still free (and donations are gladly accepted) – please visit https://www.ukapu.org.uk/join/ for more information!
Keen members may have come across various posts on the website and/or Facebook indicating the official position of UKAPU with regards to defences. We often get asked whether or not we are able to support our members in purchasing RIFs, and this is something that we do not currently offer at this time. A change to the website has even been made to the sign up process to inform prospective members that this isn’t something we do.
Something that this past year has highlighted is how the media have continued to publish negative stories seemingly blaming airsoft, with little snippets of information that contain misleading information. We have been working with both various Police forces (who appear to be the source of this misleading copy) and publications themselves to ensure that correct yet succinct information is given out to the reader.
We have also worked with a publisher of series of well known manuals that are used by police officers to review their understanding of the law – to fix some rather interesting inaccuracies regarding airsoft legislation in the UK/NI within one of their publications. We will let our members know further information when available. The chairman would like to express his thanks to a poster on the Airsoft Forums UK discussion board for bringing this to the community’s attention.
Our members often come to us about questions they may have, and one of the questions that stands out is the Northern Ireland question – specifically, seeing if we can bring 1.3J/2.5J to Northern Ireland. It is our long-term goal to standardise power limits between the mainland and NI, however there are few stumbling blocks we’d need to climb over, one being how to handle the Republic of Ireland’s 1J limit. This is especially important given how many of our Northern Irish members play Airsoft on both sides of the border. We are still actively looking at how to move forward in the best manner with regards to this, and would actively like your comments on this matter, even if you don’t live in the island of Ireland.
Sadly due to our volunteers being unavailable, we weren’t able to attend the Midlands Airsoft Fair but to make up for it UKAPU were at the UK’s biggest gathering of airsoft skirmishers – the National Airsoft Festival! Despite the chairman and other members of the committee being regulars at NAF, it was UKAPU’s first time in formal attendance for many years – which we found to be a great success.
Anyhow, I’ve typed out a fair amount, and my fingers need a break. Keep tuned for the second part of the review, which will come out shortly.
On behalf of all of the UKAPU committee, we’d thank you for your ongoing support.
~ David