In which case, the story would have been on the BBC evening news and in the National Newspapers, his family would have been calling for an enquiry and some MP looking for publicity would have been ranting on about how dangerous "BB guns" were and Airsoft would be the nail that was sticking up when the Home Office needed a scapegoat and got their hammer out.
Be careful what you wish for.
The VCRA started with a statement "the public would like some controls on the sale of replica weapons, particularly to under 18s"...