"Also, there's no age limit on the defence for modification. A 13 year old can be gifted an IF and modify it into a RIF for airsoft use."
Er, no thats manufacturing a RIF Illegal, you need a defence to do it. 13 or 31 doesn't matter, it is illegal.
I didn't say that it wasn't. I said that there's no age limit
on the defence, which there isn't.
OP has a defence for modification (not manufacture,
"he modifies an imitation firearm so that it becomes a realistic imitation firearm"): he would be doing it for airsoft use.
13 or 31 doesn't matter, the defence applies, if it applies.
Bun fight on that below.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
Looks like he's already got IFs or RIFs, he just wants more. I'm sure we can understand that.
4. Talk to site shop see if they will sell you one, but they store it at the site for you.
This has always puzzled me, as the offence is committed at the point of sale. Possession is neither here nor there, and there's no defence for selling to anyone under 18.
Pragmatically, it makes sense, and you could phrase it as a rental scheme with a full deposit up front. But strictly speaking once "sold" it's no longer the site's concern what happens to it as their defence would be based on their adducible knowledge and belief only at the point of sale.
They are the immediate options In the longer term you get a two tone
I reckon he already has one, if not a RIF.
At this point as a skirmisher you have a defence
The defence is "
for the purpose only of making the imitation firearm in question available for the organisation and holding of permitted activities for which public liability insurance is held in relation to liabilities to third parties arising from or in connection with the organisation and holding of those activities", where
"permitted activities" means "airsoft skirmishing", and site membership is
one of the
suggested ways to adduce a defence.
Site membership is
not, however, part of either the 2006 Act or the 2007 amending Regulations.
If OP has played at least 3 times over at least 8 weeks, then he's already demonstrated his behaviour and likely future intent to exactly the same degree as any other airsofter, membership or not.
And even that's only suggestive. Membership is likely to be sufficient (but not necessarily so), but it may not be strictly necessary.
I'd note that the "for the purposes of" speaks to future intent, not past behaviour. And I'd argue that having further days boked shows more intent than (for example) playing three times, getting membership, then not playing for 11 1/2 months, and buying an armoury without any further bookings just as your membership is about to expire.
Final interesting point eve with a defence it is still illegal to Sell, Import or Manufacture RIF's. We are all braing the law. we simply have been granted a defence from prosecution. Two facts about this are scary. it has never been tried ncourt so until it is, who knows what could actually happen. Second worry is the Home Seretary can at any point without giving a reason or an act of parliment revoke that defence. That is why we all have to be very carefull what we do. On major incident like boyo on the roof or the lads n the field and airsoft could be gone.
Agreed, and I'd say that it's even worse. The Home Secretary never put his name to the airsoft "permitted activity" by writing it into the Regulations proper. All we've got is a Home Office circular by one "Sam Hardy" a low level drone from Sector 7-G.
And the bit that really bothers me is that while Border Farce / Customs choose to consider a defence as though it were a licence to import, it's not one. Since pretty much every airsoft toy is imported, some minor apparatchik could pull the plug on the whole thing tomorrow without even requiring Ministerial involvement, let alone primary legislation.
Which is why for all that I'm arguing that OP
could probably adduce a defence for modification, or maybe find a wizard wheeze to be sold a RIF, I'm
not encouraging it.
The reality is that we can't stop kids getting their hands on bbGunz4Less orange horrors plus a can of Poundland black paint.
I'd just really rather that they
not put temptation in their closets.
