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.

Come on Chock, you know better than this! It's not illegal to own a RIF at all, regardless of whether you want to airsoft with it, do some historical reenactment with it or anything else. If a bunch of policemen randomly walked into your house, found you sleeping on a bed of RIFs and said: "why have you got all of these RIFs?" you could just answer: "because I want them" and that should be the end of that. If you're over 18 there's no law against buying RIFs and no law against owning them. Provided you don't get in trouble with the police (in the ways you've pointed out or for more serious crimes) and end up with a specific personal court order banning you from doing so, you can own all the RIFs you want. Get your kicks!

Yes, but if you have a RIF why on earth would you do that? (Unless you want to sell it, of course)

Your definition of 'helpful' seems to be 'a way I can change the law,' well I'm sorry, you can't, so nothing you hear from anyone will be 'helpful' to you in that case. The simple fact is that if you want a 6mm BB gun in the colour of 'blued steel' you will need to be able to provide the seller with a defence. For most sellers this will be by giving them UKARA details, and whilst others will accept (and be well within the law by doing so) other forms of evidence that you are intending to use the gun at a proper airsoft site, none of them should be willing to accept the angle of 'I really want to shoot at paper targets but it just won't be the same unless the gun looks proper real.' Here's the helpful bit; your options are: - buy two tone; after all, you're only shooting at targets - play some airsoft and therefore be able to provide a seller with a defence - attempt to get a seller to put themselves in a potentially very serious legal position by selling to you despite the facts that you cannot provide them with any defence - buy something in .177/4.5mm, since they perform in basically the same way as other guns (and certainly allow you to rapidly shoot targets) and look the same as 'real guns' (including blued steel variants) but you need only be over 18 to get one Hope that helps.

Frankly I wouldn't care if they were all two tone. When I play airsoft I do so because it's a game, not because I want to look all speshul forces. It seems to me that your initial post - 'I just want to do some target shooting' - needed to also include: 'but the fact that the thing can shoot targets is only partially the point, I also want a pretend gun that looks real.' The funny thing is that loads of proper target shooters, like IPSC people, go out of their way to make their pistols look less like 'proper guns' (as Rock-Climby-Dave has shown)

Am I the only one who's not seeing what the problem is? If you want to get an airsoft pistol for target shooting you can, just buy a two-tone. Nobody needs any defence for anything and away you go. If you just want to rapid target shoot then the colour of the thing really shouldn't matter.

The UKARA is not "flawed" in any way, since a flaw would imply it wasn't doing what it was supposed to do. The UKARA is supposed to be a group of airsoft retailers looking out for their own interests. That's exactly what it is, so it's not flawed. The UKARA database was created to provide the UKARA members - the retailers - with the ability to establish themselves a legal defence against prosecution for importing and selling RIFs if they need to. That's what it should do (according to the legal advice they've been given), so it's not flawed. Neither the UKARA or their database was designed to help you in any way. Whatsoever. So if those things are not helping you that does not mean they're flawed.

I recommend http://www.specs-by-post.com He did my RX Vice inserts for my ESS V12s and Ice a few years back and I've never had any problems. I must have sent at least a dozen people his way since then via forum threads like this and they've all been happy too. He'll do it for about £10-£15.

Let's clarify a few things, especially in relation to the last couple of points: 1, the law (as opposed to advice on the law, which is what the commencement effectively is) doesn't mention "regular" or "airsofter" anywhere. It says that to have a defence against prosecution for manufacturing a RIF you need to be manufacturing it "for the acting out of military or law enforcement scenarios for the purposes of recreation" at a place "for which public liability insurance is held" (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2007/2606/contents/made). In other words, technically you don't even have to have played airsoft at all in order to be manufacturing a RIF "for the purpose." 2, there is no age applied to the laws regarding manufacture. 3, none of this really matters as long as (as has been advised) you don't act like a dick with your IF or RIF. As far as anybody has ever been able to show in all the many years I've been involved in this hobby (and a fair few of the people who try are super dooper 'we're all being watched all the time!' conspiracy theorists) there seems to be literally 1 person who has ever been charged with manufacturing a RIF, and that was just added on to the list of other things - like threatening to kill people - that he was already in court for, and he did not get five years as a firearm offence for doing it. Actually I don't think he got any sort of repercussion at all from doing it.

It's not a "weakness of the system" since the system was designed to give the retailers an airtight defence against prosecution, which it should do. The system was not designed to help buyers in any way, so if buyers don't like something about it - like not being able to play at multiple sites - it's tough on them; UKARA has no incentive to change its system. This isn't me being a dick, but rather highlighting the way it is. UKARA is there for UKARA affiliated retailers. If they allow people to claim that they have played single games at multiple sites then all they do is open themselves up to the potential for fraudulent claims, thus weakening their legal position. With all that in mind OP, the short story is if you want to be registered with UKARA you're going to have have membership at a site and to do your three games in no less than two months there again.

This is an odd one, since, if that gun's roughly the real size of a gun, then it's already a RIF (given that its current colour is not one of those 'bright' colours defined by law). So I guess that means that you can do what you want with it, given that I can't see how it would be a crime to create a RIF out of a RIF. Hope that makes sense!