Longshot

I have a fairly old KWA P226 that’s always been solid, but now is giving me issues. It’s a gun based issue and not mag based (tried 4 of them). Essentially it just vents all the gas in the mag on one shot. From what I can see, the piece in front of the hammer that hits the gas release on the mag isn’t returning from its activated position like it should. The piece I’m referring to is in the centre of the photo. Any ideas before I try to open up the entire hammer group?

This thread has hurt my head and damaged my will to live.

The above is what I'm always trying to get across. Imagine I have a mate who's never played airsoft before. I convince him to come to a game with me by saying I'll even give him a lift there and lend him a gun. We book the game online. The morning of the game I'm driving to the site and he asks about the gun I'm lending him. When I tell all about the RIF he says: "mate, I don't want to be worried about damaging your gun, can I just buy it off you?" Am I (theoretically of course, since this is all theoretical until it's tested) allowed to sell him the RIF? I'd say I am, as the law stands, since I'm reasonably sure that he's buying it to play with it at the first airsoft game I'm taking him to and as such I'm supplying it for the purposes of playing a "permitted activity" (in this case "the acting out of military or law enforcement scenarios for the purposes of recreation") at a site with the correct insurance.

I think you've misinterpreted the entire thing, since if you're over 18 you can legally buy a RIF at any point and for any reason. The onus is on the seller, not the buyer. Therefore the seller needs to establish that you 'intend' to use the RIF for recreation at a site with third party liability insurance. Any law based on a person working out the other person's 'intentions' is obviously a bit dodgy, so UKARA is there so that the seller can say: "well, I figured if he was a member of a site with third party liability insurance and that they vouch that he's been playing there with them for months now it was safe to assume he was buying the RIF to play there with it." Silly hoop jumped through.

Look, I'll be honest. The quick answer to your question is 'yes,' if he has UKARA he can therefore buy a 'black gun' and give it to you. HASSLE NOTE: he's going to have to play at least three games over a period greater than two months (probably at the same site) before he can get sorted on the UKARA database. LEGAL NOTE: if he gives you the gun and you give him nothing in exchange it could be considered a 'gift,' if you give him something for the gun, like you've said you will, it's not a gift, and then laws are being broken.

The gun he's giving you as a gift? You understand what a 'gift' is, right?

It relates to this; last sentence of the first paragraph specifically. These water pistols are clearly IFs by the definitions given, and therefore shouldn't be sold to minors, though they're clearly aimed at minors and would certainly be sold to them. Bottom line: the law in this area is stupid and most people have no idea what it is anyway.

Here we go, I still have the photos!:

I simply gave to bring up this old thread again as it is related to this. I don't know where the images have disappeared to, but the water guns were entirely the same dimension as real steel: http://www.airsoft-forums.co.uk/index.php/topic/21151-morrisons-supermarket-selling-imitation-firearms/?hl=morrisons

The biggest problem with this is that most airsofters have no idea what they're talking about when it comes to legal matters, but they're still happy to try and talk about it. For example, the answers to your 5 questions above are: Yes Yes No Yes Yes But if you open a thread and ask one of those questions you'll just get a massive range of conflicting views.

I agree, it needs a name that's more literally descriptive, like 'paintball' is. I opt we call it 'little white balls,' as in: "this weekend my mates and I are going to the woods to play with our little white balls."

I'd expect grown ups playing at soldiers with toy guns like usual airsoft, only taking it much more seriously.

Which company are you looking at?

^ The 'point of putting them in there' is to ensure that entitled groups (those with the 'specific defences') are not prosecuted, but not being prosecuted for something is not the same as not having committed an offence. What jcheeseright is suggesting is also my interpretation of the law. The VCRA clearly defines importation of a RIF as an offence. Therefore it is illegal. It then goes on to note that those groups who have a specific defence against prosecution will not be prosecuted for this offence if they can demonstrate such as defence (such as the much touted 'airsoft defence' which is not one of those defences found in the original VCRA anyway but was later added here: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2007/20072606.htm). The fact that you will not be prosecuted for an act does not mean that act wasn't an offence, and therefore against the law. It may render it 'de facto legal,' in as much as you can seemingly do something illegal whilst knowing you won't be prosecuted for it, but that doesn't actually make the act any less of an offence. The term you used yourself, "answered for," highlights this; you can't answer a question if the question hasn't first been asked, and you can't answer for an offence with a defence against prosecution unless you have first committed an offence.

So what you're saying is that you wrote the post I was referring to badly? Owing that it clearly says and since the manufacture of a RIF (which is always illegal, but which you can avoid prosecution for by establishing a defence) and the ownership of a RIF (which is never illegal if you're over 18 and don't have some specific order against you) are two absolutely different things. I don't mean it in a dickish way, but surely you can see that the statement you've written, as you've written it, could easily be misleading to someone who's not fully aware of the law. Related to this I think it's worth giving people a link to this set of follow up regulations: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2007/20072606.htm when telling people to read the VCRA, since none of the conditions for establishing a defence to manufacture (or import or sell) that are in the original VCRA apply to most airsofters (the exception of course being 'e. Historical reenactment' if you're doing something like WWII airsofting). Rather the thing that is most likely to be used as the 'airsoft defence' (if anyone ever actually does end up in court!) is in those additional regulations.