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Police do treat all air guns, including BB Guns and Airsoft as firearms and all fall under the regulations on firearms.
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They treat the people with RIF's and blank firing same.
To be pedantic - UK compliant airsoft guns no longer fall within the firearms act.
Airguns, low power air weapons, and paintball guns are all firearms under the act, with different elements of the act applying depending on specifics.
F28157AException for airsoft guns
(1)An “airsoft gun” is not to be regarded as a firearm for the purposes of this Act.
(2)An “airsoft gun” is a barrelled weapon of any description which—
(a)is designed to discharge only a small plastic missile (whether or not it is also capable of discharging any other kind of missile), and
(b)is not capable of discharging a missile (of any kind) with kinetic energy at the muzzle of the weapon that exceeds the permitted level.
(3)“Small plastic missile” means a missile that—
(a)is made wholly or partly from plastics,
(b)is spherical, and
(c)does not exceed 8 millimetres in diameter.
(4)The permitted kinetic energy level is—
(a)in the case of a weapon which is capable of discharging two or more missiles successively without repeated pressure on the trigger, 1.3 joules;
(b)in any other case, 2.5 joules.
]
In practice the response will be the same until the details are established
A very different outcome took place in 1999
Harry Stanley was shot dead by police following reports by the public for possession a table leg in a carrier bag and an accent.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Harry_Stanley
This can parallel with the VCRA definition that a RIF is a RIF if anyone thinks it is unless it is too small, clear or >50% designated bright colours.
A table leg in a carrier bag looked like a sawn off shotgun, and when accompanied by a scottish accent was reported as suspected IRA at the time of mainland UK bombing campaigns
