hitmanNo2

Well Ni is easily explained as its still officially in the EU.  No idea about Scotland or Wales though

ROI is still in the EU, not NI.

You couldnt be more wrong if you tried,  NI is still being treated as part of the EU. I'm from NI I kinda know these things.  Otherwise the imposition of a border between the North and South would likely have set off the civil war again.  This was the reason for the long winded talk of a backstop during Brexit negotiations, the Windsor Framework and why there is effectively a sea border between NI and the rest of the UK for imports.  

Standard registered airmail

I've noticed Aliexpress gear on the whole has become faster, no doubt due to the VAT being paid at source, also noticed when I bought some HK gear that didn't require me to pay the VAT at source it arrived pretty fast as well, about a week.

Have to say since the change in vat and what not Aliexpress has become my default stop for most of my airsoft bits’n’bobs , don’t even look at gunfire or Taiwangun any more .

Well yes, so did I but there's this thing called the VCRA now...

VCRA

In subsection (7) “modern firearm” means any firearm other than one the appearance of which would tend to identify it as having a design and mechanism of a sort first dating from before the year 1870.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/38/section/38

It's a rather peculiar date, and may actually be intended to cover cartridge revolvers - the Colt Single Action Army was developed around 1869 and trialled in 1872. So that cap gun might very well be a "modern firearm" by that definition.

The real answer is that they're "getting away with it" because nobody really cares.  We know that there are airsoft sellers flogging unambiguous RIFs without real defences, and what would the defence be for this paintball "marker"?

https://www.bzpaintball.co.uk/tippmann-stormer-elite

Or for that matter, this gel "blaster"?

https://gelweapons.co.uk/collections/slr-gel-blasters/products/slr-gel-blaster-brown?variant=47816758591823

You might argue that those aren't non-firearm airsoft RIFs, but instead some super-secret sub-category of airgun firearm that isn't really an airgun firearm, nor a RIF.  I've seen claims that paintballs guns aren't considered as airgun firearms because the ammunition is (or rather can be) frangible, but I can't recall being pointed at any specific legislation or case law.

It's all a bit silly really isn't it, is my main point I guess.  Newcomers to airsoft pissing about with two tones and then we get stuff like this.

Where they ever ? 😳 not my favourite holder .

I'm pretty sure back in 2007/2008 they were popular due to Magpul Dynamics, Costa & Haley running them