PLEASE take the time to read this in FULL,I know most of it will be boring but it should all make sense.As with anything I or others post here,don't take it as gospel...go out and check for yourselves.
The following was posted on an airsoft website and has bearing on this thread.
I had mentioned the impending ban on replica guns some 18 months ago when serious stirrings first started in the halls of power,few people chose to listen.You of course have the option not to listen now and say "Oh it's just DeeDee sounding off cr@p again" and ignore me if you like,they are your guns and your potential loss if your wrong!
Humm well after my post last week regarding making another G11 but in bright dayglo green I set about digging out some left over parts from the last small batch of electric versions I did 18 months ago or so.
It all made reasonable sense to me,looking at the new proposed laws so long as it didn't look like a "known" firearm aka if Joe Public didn't recognise it as a gun there may well be some lea way if and when the new laws come into force.
All seemed to be going well then my mobile rings at an unusal time.I won't go into great detail about who it was but suffice to say it was one of the very few people I call a friend and somebody who has worn one of those unelected grey suits mentioned in another thread.After the usual pleasentries and general bemoaning of this VCR bill Chris asked wether I had looked more closely at some of the firearms amendments that had been passed in the last 20 years or so.
Off to the reference section of my now not inconsiderable library on weapons and time to do some reading.
OH DEAR! wish I hadn't bothered.
Can any of you chaps remember a guy by the name of Steve Harper? I crossed paths with Steve some years ago while he was the only guy in the UK able to remove the pins of a Brocock (Saxby & Palmer) pistol and he was sleeving them up into different airgun calibres with multi groove brass liners.Nice chap,a real lateral thinker to who had come up with some real weird airgun designs.Well Steve had quite a thing for Brocock cartridges and was merrily turning out things such as the Aircartridge Pen and Aircartridge Pipe (as in smoking pipe) but all that came to a screaming halt when the following was added to the 1968 firearms act (as ammended)
" Firearms (Dangerous Air Weapons) Rules 1969 (S.I. 1969 No. 47), rr. 2, 3
</si>2.
(1) Subject to paragraph (2) below, rule 3 of these Rules applies to an air weapon (that is to say, an air rifle, air gun or air pistol) -
(a) which is capable of discharging a missile so that the missile has, on being discharged from the muzzle of the weapon, kinetic energy in excess, in the case of an air pistol, of 6ft. 1b, or, in the case of an air weapon other than an air pistol, of 12ft. 1b., or
(b which is disguised as another object.
(2) Rule 3 of these Rules does not apply to a weapon which only falls within paragraph 1(a) above and which is designed for use only when submerged in water.
3. An air weapon to which this Rule applies is hereby declared to be specially dangerous.
[These rules are printed as amended by S.I. 1993 No. 1490. The effect of the 1993 Rules is to include, as specially dangerous, air weapons which have been disguised as other objects.]"
Off to see my legal council to see if this affected my now soon to be bright green G11.
More bad news...IT DOES.
The summation (and I quote directly) was.
"Dave,the bottom line of this VCR means that if it looks like a gun wether a real version of the gun exists or not,it is a replica and hence will be banned" (that we already knew) but the next statement chilled me a little.
"Also if it IS a gun (airweapon,low powered or otherwise)and doesn't look like one it is ALREADY illegal so they have the candle well and truely alight from both ends"
Pay PATICULAR attention to the line that states "Disguised as another object" had this read "disguised as a kitchen sink etc etc" then it probably would not have raised any concern but the wide ranging word "OBJECT" is a little too wide for my liking.I had in mind the thought of making a functional airsoft gun that looked no more menacing than a simple plank of wood but was warned by my councilor that "a plank of wood" could easily legally be defined as "Another object".
I get this gut feeling we are being stiffed every wich way from the middle???
Time for my weekly rant:
On that subject I took the time to read up in the threads John the Brick had posted over on the top paintball forum! I really CANNOT believe such a well founded and experienced bunch of people can be so goddam COMPLACENT in their attitudes!! the entire series of posts appear and read to be "Our guns are markers,we don't use replicas" with a couple of pictures of paintball guns and replica airguns for comparrison thrown in! The attitude is EXACTLY what I said it would be (god I hate being right) "It's not OUR guns this time so we don't care" and "Ours are markers,they don't look like guns anyways".
Well Paintballers,REALITY CHECK TIME!! it doesn't matter 1 jot if YOU think it looks like whatever ,it's what the GENERAL PUBLIC think that will decide convictions.You may think it looks like a space toy...if Joe P thinks it looks like a gun your BORKED.
"Ah yes but ours is a recognised sport"...yes chaps we all know paintball is superior?~? but then again handgun shooting is a goddam OLYMPIC sport and that is STILL BANNED in the UK (for all intents and purposes) so get a grip and realise it is the ENTIRE shooting sports fraternity that is under threat and not just the lowly airsofter.So when we have no guns left and YOUR "sport" is under threat there will likely be 10,000 or so LESS supporters than you would have had if you had exercised a little more foresight.
Rant over:
Kind Regards
Dave
I think what Dave has said boils down to one thing, we are involved and our sport is in danger. How can the top teams continue if they are nolonger able to get the new toys? the latest markers? and don't think you can fly to the states and bring one back as that would be an import.
as for the section on "specially dangerous" I read that as saying no matter how powerful it is (1, 6 or 12 ftlbs) if it is disguised as something else it's illegal.
cmon guys contact your mp and convince them to oppose this bill.
Planet Eclippse and the other paintball retailers this affects you as well as your lively hoods are at stake.
The following was posted on an airsoft website and has bearing on this thread.
I had mentioned the impending ban on replica guns some 18 months ago when serious stirrings first started in the halls of power,few people chose to listen.You of course have the option not to listen now and say "Oh it's just DeeDee sounding off cr@p again" and ignore me if you like,they are your guns and your potential loss if your wrong!
Humm well after my post last week regarding making another G11 but in bright dayglo green I set about digging out some left over parts from the last small batch of electric versions I did 18 months ago or so.
It all made reasonable sense to me,looking at the new proposed laws so long as it didn't look like a "known" firearm aka if Joe Public didn't recognise it as a gun there may well be some lea way if and when the new laws come into force.
All seemed to be going well then my mobile rings at an unusal time.I won't go into great detail about who it was but suffice to say it was one of the very few people I call a friend and somebody who has worn one of those unelected grey suits mentioned in another thread.After the usual pleasentries and general bemoaning of this VCR bill Chris asked wether I had looked more closely at some of the firearms amendments that had been passed in the last 20 years or so.
Off to the reference section of my now not inconsiderable library on weapons and time to do some reading.
OH DEAR! wish I hadn't bothered.
Can any of you chaps remember a guy by the name of Steve Harper? I crossed paths with Steve some years ago while he was the only guy in the UK able to remove the pins of a Brocock (Saxby & Palmer) pistol and he was sleeving them up into different airgun calibres with multi groove brass liners.Nice chap,a real lateral thinker to who had come up with some real weird airgun designs.Well Steve had quite a thing for Brocock cartridges and was merrily turning out things such as the Aircartridge Pen and Aircartridge Pipe (as in smoking pipe) but all that came to a screaming halt when the following was added to the 1968 firearms act (as ammended)
" Firearms (Dangerous Air Weapons) Rules 1969 (S.I. 1969 No. 47), rr. 2, 3
</si>2.
(1) Subject to paragraph (2) below, rule 3 of these Rules applies to an air weapon (that is to say, an air rifle, air gun or air pistol) -
(a) which is capable of discharging a missile so that the missile has, on being discharged from the muzzle of the weapon, kinetic energy in excess, in the case of an air pistol, of 6ft. 1b, or, in the case of an air weapon other than an air pistol, of 12ft. 1b., or
(b which is disguised as another object.
(2) Rule 3 of these Rules does not apply to a weapon which only falls within paragraph 1(a) above and which is designed for use only when submerged in water.
3. An air weapon to which this Rule applies is hereby declared to be specially dangerous.
[These rules are printed as amended by S.I. 1993 No. 1490. The effect of the 1993 Rules is to include, as specially dangerous, air weapons which have been disguised as other objects.]"
Off to see my legal council to see if this affected my now soon to be bright green G11.
More bad news...IT DOES.
The summation (and I quote directly) was.
"Dave,the bottom line of this VCR means that if it looks like a gun wether a real version of the gun exists or not,it is a replica and hence will be banned" (that we already knew) but the next statement chilled me a little.
"Also if it IS a gun (airweapon,low powered or otherwise)and doesn't look like one it is ALREADY illegal so they have the candle well and truely alight from both ends"
Pay PATICULAR attention to the line that states "Disguised as another object" had this read "disguised as a kitchen sink etc etc" then it probably would not have raised any concern but the wide ranging word "OBJECT" is a little too wide for my liking.I had in mind the thought of making a functional airsoft gun that looked no more menacing than a simple plank of wood but was warned by my councilor that "a plank of wood" could easily legally be defined as "Another object".
I get this gut feeling we are being stiffed every wich way from the middle???
Time for my weekly rant:
On that subject I took the time to read up in the threads John the Brick had posted over on the top paintball forum! I really CANNOT believe such a well founded and experienced bunch of people can be so goddam COMPLACENT in their attitudes!! the entire series of posts appear and read to be "Our guns are markers,we don't use replicas" with a couple of pictures of paintball guns and replica airguns for comparrison thrown in! The attitude is EXACTLY what I said it would be (god I hate being right) "It's not OUR guns this time so we don't care" and "Ours are markers,they don't look like guns anyways".
Well Paintballers,REALITY CHECK TIME!! it doesn't matter 1 jot if YOU think it looks like whatever ,it's what the GENERAL PUBLIC think that will decide convictions.You may think it looks like a space toy...if Joe P thinks it looks like a gun your BORKED.
"Ah yes but ours is a recognised sport"...yes chaps we all know paintball is superior?~? but then again handgun shooting is a goddam OLYMPIC sport and that is STILL BANNED in the UK (for all intents and purposes) so get a grip and realise it is the ENTIRE shooting sports fraternity that is under threat and not just the lowly airsofter.So when we have no guns left and YOUR "sport" is under threat there will likely be 10,000 or so LESS supporters than you would have had if you had exercised a little more foresight.
Rant over:
Kind Regards
Dave
I think what Dave has said boils down to one thing, we are involved and our sport is in danger. How can the top teams continue if they are nolonger able to get the new toys? the latest markers? and don't think you can fly to the states and bring one back as that would be an import.
as for the section on "specially dangerous" I read that as saying no matter how powerful it is (1, 6 or 12 ftlbs) if it is disguised as something else it's illegal.
cmon guys contact your mp and convince them to oppose this bill.
Planet Eclippse and the other paintball retailers this affects you as well as your lively hoods are at stake.
