I would just like to know why...

[baratron]

... Richard has to meet his paintball friends at the airport, so he can run the risk of getting arrested for being a long-haired weirdo in possession of a firearm at an airport? An unlicensed firearm, at that [1]. I've just had to change the knife I'd put in for his cake, because the one I had before was too weapon-like. I hope there is no one paranoid awake in Heathrow bus terminal, or he's in trouble.

No one, especially not a wuzzie, should be leaping out of bed at 5am having had 3 1/2 hours sleep. It's not natural.

[1] Licenses for paintball guns don't exist in this country.

Comments

[jhaelan.livejournal.com]

If my experiences with an assagay (Zulu hunting spear) and Heathrow are anything to go by, he'll have no problems at all.

[pir.livejournal.com]

S'ok, paintball guns are not firearms.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

They are in UK law. They're classed as air rifles.

[pir.livejournal.com]

Air rifles arn't firearms, either.

Firearms are weapons where an explosive charge is used to force a projectile to move. Compressed gas used in air rifles and paintball guns (be it air compressed by a spring and plunger, pumping an internal gas chamber or a cylinder of pre-compressed gas) is not an explosive.

The term "firearm" refers specificly to actual guns, not air rifles, paintball guns, crossbows, etc.

[wuzzie.livejournal.com]

A firearm, under the UK Firearms Acts, is "a lethal barrelled weapon of any description, from which any shot, bullet or other missile can be discharged."^[1] Air weapons come under this definition, and as such are covered by various Firearms Acts from 1968 to the present, although obviously much of the Acts do not apply to air weapons (namely licensing issues.)

Paintball markers are classified as air weapons; indeed the wording of the Firearms Act was amended after discussions between the Home Office and the UKPSF^[2] to include CO2 as a permitted propellant for air weapons, specifically to cover paintball markers. This classification places certain limits on the operation paintball markers: namely, that they must not be capable of burst-fire or fully automatic firing modes, and that the muzzle velocity must not exceed approximately 330feet/sec (to comply with the 12ft/lbs limit on air rifles.) Any air weapon exceeding these limits is classed as a Section 1 firearm and is required to be held on a firearm certificate.

So while it is hard to describe a paintball marker as "a lethal barrelled weapon" it is a firearm under UK law by virtue of its classification as an air weapon. The Firearms Acts are yet to be tested in relation to paintball markers in this country, although everyone involved with the sport is anxious to avoid such a trial as the effects would certainly extend beyond any isolated case. For more information, I suggest you contact the UKPSF.

As a point of interest, the Firearms Act also covers harpoon guns, which are fired by compressed gas, but there are other specific exemptions in the Act for them.

[1] Useful reference no. 1: http://www.met.police.uk/firearms-enquiries/index.htm
[2] Useful reference no. 2: http://www.ukpsf.com/paintballandthelaw.htm

[pir.livejournal.com]

I know what the UK Firearms Acts says, I used to target shoot air weapons in the UK.

Just because the UK Firearms Act misuses a term doesn't make it the right term.

[wuzzie.livejournal.com]

*shrug*

Not my fault if the law is grade A bullplop - it's the final line on what does and doesn't count as a firearm, and it means that every time some nutcase goes postal, we're the ones doing a whole load of buttock clenching waiting for the obligatory kneejerk counter-legislation.

At least we're better off than half of Australia.

[pir.livejournal.com]

That was kinda my point. "The legal definition" != "The definition".

Air weapons are covered by the firearms act in the UK, but this doesn't mean they are firearms. It means a court will call them firearms but I can't say I really care about that.