Law Unclear

[Witterings]

Hi,

I've been doing some research trying to find out if I / my boy can take one of the bright orange coloured AK 47's like this http://www.geniestuff.co.uk/ak47-airsoft-rifle-p1093.htm

into a public place or not.

I've looked through the stickies here and also looked up Airsoft law on Google / Wikipedia and I'm not really any the wiser.

The internet generally seems to say if it's under 1 joule in power producing less than approx 328 fps it's a toy and a toy can be taken in a public place ???

If anyone has any further input or clarification would be much appreciated, he'd like to be able to take it supervised at all times and only ever used in a responsible way ie shooting tree stumps / leaves on the ground etc when we go for a walk.

I don't remeber it being such a legal minefield when I was kid armed with my Sekiden Gun :-)

[lemon191]

in one word NO

 

while it may be brightly coloured and low powered its still an offence to wave an immitation firearm about in anywhere public other than insured sites or private land away from the general public. the police wont be able to tell if the rifle is a airsoft replica or a real one painted to look like a airsoft rifle from a distance so may treat it like any other weapon so i wouldnt risk it.

 

put a mask on and run around the garden while your kid shoots you he will have far more fun than shooting leaves/tree stumps

[Deva]

As above, no.

 

Power is irrelevant.

 

The benefit of the two-tone is that if a member of the public gets scared and calls the police, the armed response unit that turns up should recognise it is only an imitation firearm and not the real deal. Obviously only that can be determined upon firing of the firearm or close inspection (anyone could paint a real weapon bright colours), neither of which they would risk finding out if it was pointed towards them.

 

As much as most would recognise no harm is being done if your son was using the gun clearly supervised by yourself, it isn't a risk worth taking. Keep it in the garden (it might be advisable to explain to neighbours), private land, privately owned land with permission from the owner (with both being out of the view/access of the general public) or go to proper game sites.

[magicaldr]

If we talking kids and public places I would suggest buying a nerf gun. You can have a lot of fun and no risks of armed response units, they are also a lot safer than airsoft ones.

[Witterings]

Thanks for the replies everyone, must admit hadn't thought the reasoning through which is actually really quite simple and obvious.

A shame, I quite a few air guns from steel bb semi-auto's to good air rifles but a smallish garden in relative terms to what they're capable of.

If it had of been OK I really fancied the idea of getting myself a reasonable pistol to take out with the boy and his AK and being able to use it with much less restriction than I can the air guns.

A shame but I can totally understand why now, wish they'd make a reasonable quality Airsoft that could only be an Airsoft and nothing else and it be exempt but then you'd probably just get groups of people going out and shooting them irresponsibly which would creat a whole different problem.

Maybe a nerf gun "Tuned" to 400 fps with a dart point on the sucker will have to do instead

Once again thanks for the input !!

 

Am I right in thinking as well, apart from the obvious risk of being shot which I don't think the Mrs would be that impressed about that you could alternatively spend up to a year having your ring stretched at one the Queens hotels for having one in public ???????

 

Does it make any difference if they're see through like this as it would obvioulsy be hard to paint a "Real Gun" as see through !!! ????

http://www.justbbguns.co.uk/product/66/BB-...SIGMA-SW40F-Co2

[TPI]

still a no

[Witterings]

A shame, seems like my quest for the grail is about to be aborted

 

Maybe they should make the exception if they were pink as no real man with a real gun would ever want one in Bright Flourescent Pink, imagine a bank raid they'd just laugh at you

 

Imagine if you got nicked and went inside, "The Man With The Pink Gun" doesn't have much of a 007 ring to it does it.

 

Thanks again !!!!

[magicaldr]

Ironically you can buy plenty of 'real steel' pink guns in the US... Google pink sidearm and you will see quite a few.

 

Here in the UK the law is written wide on purpose (by look of it) to avoid people making things that are 'just' legal. Basically they dont want airsoft out there and its only thanks to some lobbying by the ARA that we have an exemption to own them at all. So if its 'gun like' you can get into trouble and if its airsoft you risk pulling whole exemption along with you or at least lots of bad publicity which can mean the same thing.

 

Edit: Spelling, you can plenty of pink GUNS in the US, not GUYS... doh...

[SheriffHD]

the man with a pink gun?

 

wont lie sounds like the nick name for a rapist lol.

 

as far as the law, shooting on public land is prohibited, be it bbgun, airgun or real gun for that matter.

 

it all has to be done on private land with permission from the land owner.

 

It sucks, but its the law. we should all be lucky we got to keep airsoft in general.

 

make friends with a farmer, or some one with a bit of land.

 

for me im lucky as my friend has 10 acres which we can piss arse about on