Airsoft to be banned in the UK?

gouda

A friend of mine in the UK has told me the Government are planning on banning all airsoft toys in the near future. They are also proposing a total ban on replica and imitation firearms. It will be similar to the law they introduced on Brocock air pistols and rifles. I wonder if this is another step towards a total ban on all/any firearms?

Citizen_Erased

I don't think a total ban is possible but I can understand why they would want to outlaw airsoft guns. Not only do most of them fall into the category of replicas (creating problems with robberies and the police) but they also can be used as a weapon. With the whole yob culture thing going on I actually think it would be a good move so long as the dont gain to much momentum and begin depriving the responsible ones out there.

Dvs

Citizen_Erased wrote:

I don't think a total ban is possible but I can understand why they would want to outlaw airsoft guns. Not only do most of them fall into the category of replicas (creating problems with robberies and the police) but they also can be used as a weapon. With the whole yob culture thing going on I actually think it would be a good move so long as the dont gain to much momentum and begin depriving the responsible ones out there.

Hello Citizen_Erased,
with respect i feel this is a cop out and that they might be better served to use the existing law to convict those that commit a crime, be it with a airsoft gun, bread knife or baseball bat, without the need to ban,airsoft,bread or baseball!.
Dvs.

Sparks

I dunno. Maybe it sounds odd coming from me (since I seem to have gathered a reputation for being less-than-happy with the "let's all hang together" approach to this), but I wouldn't be willing to see airsoft banned just to ban them. I'd much, much rather see the crime of robbery or assault given far more strict punishments if any kind of firearm (replica or not) is used - and see the Gardai given the manpower and funding and ombudsman structures needed to enforce those laws more fully. Airsoft and paintball aren't things I'd be overwhelmingly interested in, and their public image is a bit of a nightmare (at least for airsoft, paintball seems sufficiently divorced from firearms in the public mind that the word just conjures up images of sad 40-ish balding Ross Kemp wannabes lobbing paint at each other). But apart from that, they're harmless enough at the moment, so why expend the resources on banning them when we already have enough criminal gangs using AK47s on each other and anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in the crossfire?

Citizen_Erased

Paintball seems to becoming a problem in America but then again what havent they thought of. People have been doing "Drive bys" with them etc...

Sparks

And in the UK and Europe as well - though the victims of the drive-bys have been speed cameras up to now. But then, they've been shooting them with 12-gauges and blowing them up with explosives as well.

Flattop 15

Not being a great fan of the people and the uses that airsoft and paintball are put to use.IE ejits shooting each other in cammo,or damaging property,or middle class teen "wiggas"needing a "piece" to compliment the latest LA Gangsta rap look.I can see why the UK firearms dictatorship would want to ban them.It is another "feel good"law showing that they are"doing somthing" against crime[despite that the plethora of laws against gun crime seems to have increased the firearms useage.]Plus proably it is just another step to dumb downor prevent any future generations of shooters in the UK.The boiling of frogs theory and all that.
All in all I would write off the UK in the next ten to twenty years as being a place to own anything more leathl than a feather duster.

Citizen_Erased

But only synthetic ones because killing birds is wrong... :rolleyes: