Not to own until he is 18, the UK Law is same for RIF's as it is for Air guns and real steel.
Yup, sorry, but I'm going to have to flag up
[citation needed] on that. This isn't intended as personal, just an examination of the law as it's written and demonstrably applied.
We'll start with
Policing and Crime Act 1968 Section 125 which amends the Firearms Act 1968 by saying that airsoft guns are not firearms for the purposes of that Act. One notable exception is
Section 19 which specifically mentions imitation firearms, and 24A (below).
We could have a bun-fight over whether the multiple mention of "air weapons" in the Firearms Act still apply to airsoft guns, even if they're not "firearms".
That could be problematic, since
Section 24 does prohibit gifting "air weapons" to anyone under 18. It says nothing about their ownership of it though. The recipient commits no offence. In any case, we should argue strenuously against "air weapon" covering airsoft guns, since
Section 1 (3) (b) defines an "air weapon" as a subset of "firearm", not as a separate category.
If we continue with "air weapon" offences,
Section 24Z prohibits minors from "having with them" an air weapon. In that case, they just need to be supervised by someone over 21, as per
Section 23. Still nothing about ownership though.
Supply of imitation firearms (realistic or otherwise) to minors is entirely relevant. That's covered by Firearms Act
Section 24A which talks only about sale and purchase,
not loans, gifts or ownership.
And as we should all be familiar with by now,
VCRA 2006 S36 covers manufacture, modification, importation and sale, not purchase, possession or ownership.
Your only deviation is for military personnel, where they can purchase and own a RIF under 18 years of age.
Purchase is covered by
Firearms Act S24A which provides no such defence for
purchase by minors. However, again, being gifted or loaned or owning one is not an offence.
The VCRA S36 offence has an
S37 defence of "the purposes of functions that a person has in his capacity as a person in the service of Her Majesty". But that applies only to the S36 offences of manufacture, modification, importation and sale,
not purchase or ownership, and is
not a defence to the Firearms Act S24A offence of minors purchasing (but not owning) an imitation firearm (realistic or otherwise).
I will go as far as to say that if you gift it, to ensure he is not going to use it without supervision, to buy a trigger lock, so even if he finds the batteries, he can't fire it, its obvious it can't be fired with a trigger lock on it so no issues if he took it out the front door and someone then calls police as they will likely turn up, see its locked and give a stern word to him and your collar feeling for letting it out of its box.
I agree that it's a responsible thing to do, but whether it can shoot or not is immaterial to the Firearms Act 1968 S19 offence (ibid) of possession of an imitation firearm in a public place, realistic or otherwise, functional or otherwise.
See
this case, of a bright orange springer. The Sheriff's rather curious comment was that children would have a reasonable excuse for being in possession of an IF (but not necessarily a RIF) for the purposes of (I quote) "playing cowboys and Indians". But that's entirely about the
appearance, not the functionality.
Because you are legally responsible for what your son does with that RIF, just like an air rifle or real steel.
Only if it's classed as an air weapon (and I'd argue that it's not), then Firearms Act S24Z applies. But I can find no such responsibility applying to imitation firearm offences.
For this reason, my son is not allowed to have any RIF, Airgun or gun at home, even in the gun safe... Why? Because his mum has no concept of what is legal or not. She would allow him to take it to the park, for example, I made it clear that until he is 18, I keep them and control use of them and is 100% supervised.
Despite everything I'm writing here, I do completely agree with this principle. The practical consequences of an ARV turning up are quite distinct from the legal ones.
gifting it does not remove your responsibility or liability and ownership can not be taken until he is 18 years old.
I can find no offences being committed.
If they exist, they're
likely to be in the Firearms Act 1968, Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006, or Policing and Crime Act 2017, although firearm legislation is a right old mess, and I'm always happy to be surprised by other sources.
Can we find any relevant offences here?
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1968/27/contents
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/38/contents
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2017/3/contents
