Longshot

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.

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.

Don't listen to anyone else. The SAS will descend on your house within 24 hours if you don't paint the entire thing fluorescent pink. Also, IIRC, it has to also glow in the dark.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Don't listen to anyone else. The SAS will descend on your house within 24 hours if you don't paint the entire thing fluorescent pink. Also, IIRC, it has to also glow in the dark.

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

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

This thread is great, writ large the ignorance of the average airsofter who thinks he knows what's what because he's chatted to some people in the safe zone!
 
UKARA is a means by which you can provide a seller with a defence against prosecution so they can sell you a RIF; selling is a crime, retailers want a cast iron (ish) way to cover themselves because they're the ones breaking the law. UKARA is it, though by the letter of the law they just need to believe you are purchasing for use in a permitted activity.
 
UKARA is your means of providing a defence for yourself if importing, as you're committing a crime by importing a RIF. Like a retailer, customs want something documentary so they can satisfy themselves 100% that while you are illegally importing a RIF (it is still a crime) you have a defence against prosecution for doing so.
 
UKARA is meaningless when it comes to ownership as owning a RIF (even if you NEVER play) isn't a crime. There is no part of any law in the UK that prohibits the ownership of a realistic imitation firearm and so you do not need a defence.
 
Manufacture is where you can satisfy yourself that you have a suitable defence, since the wording of the skirmisher's defence is just that the RIF is to be used for the permitted activity. By the letter of the law you can plan to go to a game, paint your gun and then never go.

Actual wording of the airsoft defence in UK law :
 
"3.(1) It shall be a defence in proceedings for an offence under section 36 of the 2006 Act or under paragraph 4 of Schedule 2 to that Act for the person charged with the offence to show that his conduct was for the purpose only of making the imitation firearm in question available for one or more of the purposes specified in paragraph (2).
(2) Those purposes are
(a)the organisation and holding of permitted activities for which public liability insurance is held in relation to liabilities to third parties arising from or in connection with the organisation and holding of those activities;
 
(b)the purposes of display at a permitted event."
 
If the RIF is sold to be used at one game no offense has been committed, the law says nothing about how many times or how often you have to play.

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

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?

Airsoft has been a fashion parade for YEARS, this isn't a new thing at all.

Bear in mind that most people measure their range like they measure their knob size.

Ah, I see what you mean now.
 
It is super dumb, because most cap guns are 80-100% the size of their 'counterparts' and should also be banned by the same logic. VCRA is quite poorly written and the whole bit about guns seemed really tacked-on in general; it was mostly to combat anti-social behaviour outside pubs anyway if one reads it.

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.

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 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 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 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."