POSSIBLE RIF BAN

[TheFull9]

Well chaps, if the new law covers the point of sale then under most circumstances they won't be able to make those old sales illegal and ask for our stuff back. Cleverly avoiding Ex post facto law is a pillar of modern legal systems but is also the reason why you can still buy 'pre-ban' automatic firearms in the US (if you have the money). Having said that, they could easily make gun ownership illegal in some other way by simply banning their transportation or use etc.

If this comes into action and it covers the ownership (again, not the sale) then the UK (and the rest of Europe) would be looking at a huge amnesty that's bigger than anything that's ever been done before. We're talking far, far bigger than Australia or Britain's voluntary gun surrenders and that's going to cost an absolute sh*tload of money and oversight. They are going to need to be super committed to do this on such a scale.

It's far more likely that - if this were to pass at all - that it would cover the sale of goods and not ownership.

I guess what I'm saying is use all of your Christmas money to horde guns like an American hordes ammunition whenever someone shoots up a school.

I've been wondering a lot about this since the Paris attacks and following introduction of this pointless proposed legislation.

As you say, in the states when they change gun laws it's almost always a 'no more sales' rather than 'no more ownership' policy and every time they hint at banning anything it causes a monumental spike in sales of whatever they hint at banning. However people are generally, from my small amount of experience, far more politically active in the US and massively so when it comes to guns; combining this with the amount of pro-2A people there are it means their government is simply too afraid of even trying to implement amnesties or compulsory handing-in of certain weapons/accessories in most cases. Firearms and replicas thereof in the UK though... the pro are massively out-weighed by the anti, we've simply not the people-power to stop the powers that be doing whatever they like to our toys in the name of 'safety'.

I 100% agree that the administering of an amnesty on all IFs would be a seriously costly venture and one the police force can quite evidently not afford to be wasting their already stretched time on doing. But I'm just not 100% that that would stop the government implementing a ban on ownership (as opposed to sales) anyway. You could well be right and there's no way to say for certain either way, but if this law came in from Europe and if we implemented it here, personally I'm really not sure which way it would swing.

 

[Sacarathe]

On amnesties; Neither IFs or RIFs are required for the sport. It could be hugely damaging to airsoft to run around with airsoft internals in externals akin to a supersoaker or nerf gun, the sport could survive... Though the implementation costs would destroy the sport.

Incidentally, any idea how this legislation could affect toy guns which are actually produced for children? What i mean to say is, if it was worst case, could toy guns, such as water guns and nerf get sucked up by these amnesties.

At first you might think, "why would they", but it would not take long for nerf clones to pop up with factory installed airsoft parts - if nerf guns were exempt (example), basically, it has to be all (unlicensed) guns or nothing?

Im sure we've all seen that vid of the guy shooting police in london with a nerf gun - cant be certain its not real ammo. We all know that all you need for a real gun is the ammunition, anyone with appropriate skills can create a firing device (a gun). Going after imitation firearms is a cheap shot that serves no useful purpose, imo, and as most others have said.