Tommikka

You don’t require a VCRA defence (such as UKARA) to possess and as you are exporting then there’s no real issue as long as the item is illegal. (Edit — ideally “legal” rather than “illegal”) Look into the policy’s of who you are travelling with, double check the requirements for Sweden and if surface travelling check the countries you are passing through

If you or a friend are transporting through Europe as opposed to using a postage service then there are the laws in every country along the way. You would be importing, transporting and exporting via every country along the way Within the Schengen zone you are unlikely to encounter anyone unless you bring attention to yourself. But there are legal issues that can apply to any country slog the way - for example Germany and the requirement of the F stamp on air weapons

That would depend on whether your friend is willing to defraud HMRC using their UKARA to import

They are in Poland, thus not a UK retailer and won’t necessarily care as the VCRA does not directly affect them As a RIF crosses the border the buyer is the importer and responsible under the act

There are a number of costs to importing: 1). The item price 2). International postage These you will pay (but many Chinese/Hong Kong items are free post as the seller may be in a subsidised trading zone, and the international postal agreement treats them as a developing country) 3). There may be the option of “import insurance” or pre paid import fees to the seller In theory this means the seller arranges payment of import duty / vat, but often means they just make false declarations and will refund your costs if it gets picked up https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty 4) excise duty Depending on the classification of the goods there may be excise duty. (Mainly booze & fags) 5) customs duty The current threshold is £135. If the goods assessed value is less than that, then you don’t pay customs duty (But note that the valuation used may be the stated value on the declaration, or the goods are assessed at a value. These values used to exclude postage, but it is now taken into account) 6) Import VAT If thresholds are exceeded then you get charged VAT at the current rate (20% for most goods) This is where two thresholds apply - £15 for ‘goods’ or £39 for ‘gifts’ This is why many false declarations from China / Hong Kong state “gift” or “commercial sample” If any of those apply and you haven’t a prearranged account then you get sent a bill including carrier fees 7) carrier fees These generally have been around £8 to £20, but do vary. This is a fee raised by the importing carrier (not necessarily the carrier it was sent by as they may not have the international facilities) It is for their staff to handle your item, the paperwork and for it to sit in their bonded warehouse etc There is a way to avoid import costs - use UK retailers. Even if goods don’t appear to be available then contact some retailers, they may have them anyway, get it via their supplies or may import for you. The benefit is you support UK retail, they will be importing somehow already and are likely to be able to do it more efficiently than you

See if you can get contact details to check if they have sent out a RIF declaration or a fees bill to you, but hasn’t turned up

Shooting in your garden isn’t necessarily illegal in itself, but could be depending on specifics of the location, as there may a firearms offence of firing an air weapon within x distance of a public highway, or the controll on the potential of a B.B. crossing boundaries If there is no problem with the above then your neighbour complaining could turn it into an anti social / ASBO situation. Which isn’t illegal, but if an ASBO is issued due to complaints then non compliance can become an offence An additional concern would be how the neighbour reports it and a RIF could raise concerns by looking real - whether you get the bobbies just turning up to a neighbourly complaint or armed response kicking your door in You don’t need a RIF to shoot in your garden and there isn’t a VCRA RIF defence for target shooting But possessing does not need you to have a defence or any membership

That’s a subjective question A two tone could be identical to a RIF other than colour, as it has been painted (or built with coloured plastic) But a two tone AK47 could be very different to a RIF AK47 when they are made by different airsoft manufacturers and to different standards, such as a basic spring powered B.B. gun or a high quality airsoft gun

Not me, but they did register the society as a site, and they negotiated the position to act as an all encompassing UKARA site to cover all venues attended opposed to their original requirement to have the members play their qualifying games in a single site As an organiser I have only run airsoft events on an existing site so they do any UKARA / membership work involved

It doesn’t absolutely have to be on the same site, UKARA recognised Southampton Airsoft Society and permitted them to track members attendance across events hosted by the society on multiple sites

Not all Paintball guns look like Paintball guns. Tippman is an obvious one, as they have made guns styled on real guns from the outset. They recognise that the rental and casual player probably want a gun that looks like a gun. There are many Tippmanns out on rental sites that are hired out as an ‘upgrade’ to a ‘machine gun’ or ‘sniper’ Paintball guns have evolved to look like Paintball guns because they are not limited by the physics of real ammunition but are free to be ergonomically fine tuned in their size, shape and weight. There are not only people in airsoft who want realistic guns but they exist in Paintball too. Either because they think that’s what a gun should look like or they are of the magfed/milsim persuasion like airsofters. There has been a core milsim Paintball community since i began and this has grown with the availability of realistic magfed guns The classic tippman range is mostly mechanical/pneumatic, and are highly reliable, but are not as efficient as optimised low pressure “speedball” guns I was on one of the live streams this weekend at Paintfest/airfest when Soho52 interviewed Paul of GI Sports on Tippmann tech support. He was working on one of our pistols which blew a valve seal while we ran the killhouse which was an easy fix, but having dismantled to do the fix he found the condition inside. This was an original 2009 TPX pistol which hadn’t had the insides touched in nearly a decade. This reliability turned a one minute fix into a complete free full service, clean and rebuild Planet Eclipse are one of the market leaders and have very reliable electro/pneumatic solenoid guns. They look like paintball guns but are also the only “speedball” manufacturer to sell a “tactical” body kit for their guns They are also a British company who have been innovating in Paintball since 1991. This should be a good thing for airsoft HPA. There is relatively little to the functioning parts of an electro pneumatic Paintball gun and they can be dropped into virtually any body you can think of. Make it launch a 6mm ball rather than a 0.68” ball and then it becomes easier. I’ve even seen a glove/gauntlet paintball gun in use.

Not getting caught does not mean it’s legal. A VCRA defence is required for manufacture, which could be assembly or repainting a two tone and modifying to RIF I’m not aware of any prosecutions for non compliant sales either. However you are correct that UKARA is not required as a defence, it’s just one recognises method of showing the airsofter defence Occasional video making is not a defence. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/38/section/37 Those purposes are— (a)the purposes of a museum or gallery; (b)the purposes of theatrical performances and of rehearsals for such performances; (c)the production of films (within the meaning of Part 1 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (c. 48)_see section 5B of that Act); (d)the production of television programmes (within the meaning of the Communications Act 2003 (c. 21)_see section 405(1) of that Act); (e)the organisation and holding of historical re-enactments organised and held by persons specified or described for the purposes of this section by regulations made by the Secretary of State; (f)the purposes of functions that a person has in his capacity as a person in the service of Her Majesty. (Note that airsoft skirmishing is not a defence under the primary legislation but the Secretary of State can make other provisions and did so for airsoft) The Home Office are quite keen on paying attention to people claiming defences for film work, especially following a black market arms dealer claiming to work on films and using the secrecy behind the Bond franchise for the lack of his ability to justify his claims

But you do still need a VCRA defence as assembly is covered by “manufacture” https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/38/part/2/crossheading/imitation-firearms

Unlike America where it’s shoot first, ask questions later in the UK we also have cases where kids carry a cheap BB gun and there was at least one incident on CCTV where ordinary kids decided to point their gun at responding armed police. This resulted in a standoff until they dropped the gun. The policemen couldn’t believe they were going to be shot by kids In America though police respond to a call that tells them a kid has a gun that is probably fake , but gun down Tamar Rice in seconds because he lifts his shirt to show it. There was also a campaign in America to bring in brightly coloured guns

On the face of it this sounds similar to the case a few years ago which was the cause of introducing a legal requirement to secure air weapons under the crime and security act These aren’t the only cases and won’t be the last