The Brits have Won!

[Jed636]

Hello Canada!

Im Steven Hayman from England. To my knowledge the VCR bill was not orginally going to effect airsoft but the sad, bored, do-gooders of my country decided to go after us as well. Abit stupid when you can a real steel in the pub cheaper than an airsoft AEG.

It was a hard battle which we should not have had to fight. Thankfully common sense won through.
If I can help, just say.

Best of luck guys.

[KillerCreed]

Thanks for the information. Why did you say you can help?

[capt ryan]

what is needed is public awarness, to most people AEG'S BB'S etc mean little in fact most peaople here in UK possibly drive past skirmish sites without knowing the battles that take place, everywhere we look in modern society the media is utilised and possiblt this is where airsoft needs to walk along this path over zealous government officials bad information etc means people go "oh whats that then wow aint it dangerous" this along with the few individuals that use their weapons in a manner to bring them to the publics attention is bad press all negative stuff for us.

a fly on the wall documentry or as mentioned in a previous post local and federal officials should be invited, hell we vote them in to sort issues like this out lets show them the facts.
or a publically recognised airsoft body that trains and regulates its use

basically we should use the media to promote our sport, hobby ,interest when all is said and done when someone points a long black tube at you and ask you to release the contents of your wallet, you aint gonna be peering closely to see if it says tokyo marui and the truth is i could go to canadian tire mmmmmmmmmm ok a long swim and walk to get there and buy a screwdriver and go on a mad spree and kill main injure countless peaple yet i dont see any regulations stopping us on that one

from an aifsofter from across the water i hope that you gain what we have managed here a small bridgehead in the mad world of government ineptitude

regards nick

[The Waco Kid]

Originally Posted by Jed636

Hello Canada!

Im Steven Hayman from England. To my knowledge the VCR bill was not orginally going to effect airsoft but the sad, bored, do-gooders of my country decided to go after us as well. Abit stupid when you can a real steel in the pub cheaper than an airsoft AEG.

It was a hard battle which we should not have had to fight. Thankfully common sense won through.
If I can help, just say.

Best of luck guys.

Originally Posted by Gaius

Thanks for the information. Why did you say you can help?

I believe he was being curteous & I assume offering to provide additional information on the VCRB/A saga in Britain.

The situation in Britain is still unresolved. Regulation should have now been in effect to limit purchases of Airsoft Replicas to persons who are registered through there skirmish sites as noted by CanadianChick. However due problems the Government has now pushed back the start date until September '07.

In the UK the ABA & some dedicated individual airsofters put in a lot of work to prevent an outright ban. There were large scale pertitions in some cases also involing groups who had an interest in "Air guns" & real steel firearms owners. However these were not especially effective as the British government tend to sideline even large pertitions such as ones with millions of signatures.

Basically the parts of the VCRA that were relevant tio airsoft were (as used expect) a bit of a fudge. Without being technical Airsofts fell between two horses of being a replia, ie looking like a gun but not firing a non-lethal projectile, and being firearm because they still do actuall fire something.

The VCRA was amongst many other things intended to reduce the availiblity of air Weapons & convertile replicas. However the government massively under estimated the number of airguns/replicas/airsofts out there already and a consultaion paper by the Police giving estimates of the number in circulation was a big surprise to them.

Therefore, along with stong lobbying, the difficulty (& cost) of trying control the already prolific number of airguns/replicas/airsofts around convinced them to make the usual administrative compromise.

Purely from the airsoft stand point a responsible user now has to go to a recognised skirmish venue get a briefing, safety check & pay for registration.
Obviously this doesn't help a pure colletor buy a new gun but they could simple attend a few games and sign up.

Given that even the British Goverment admit that problems with airsofts have been minimal & involved people who had bought their (generally pistols) airsoft from a unlicenced market trader or other suspect source this section of the VRCA will have very little impact on criminal activity.

Happy days.

If there is one thing the British now how to do is create needless bureaucracy, after August 15th 1947 we just gave it to India to run......