Just to give you the latest on the Police enforcement of the VCRA:
Dorset Police have launched an amnesty on imitation firearms. Chief Inspector Wesley Trickey is quoted as saying ‘We will not be seeking to prosecute anyone handing one in, should the possession of it have been an offence’.
Dorset Police are now actively visiting retailers selling RIFs to ensure they are complying with the Violent Crime Reduction Act (VCRA), and have carried out test purchases at retail premises suspected of selling RIFs to people without exemption status.
It goes without saying that retailers are already aware of this, but this seemed an important point to raise.
West Midlands police have actually been taking action against retailers, with a store in Coventry, who they found to be selling cheap springers, having its stock seized after it was found they were selling them without purchase. In this case the store appears to have been a general sports shop which they were visiting to remind of the law in relation to the sales of knives, rather than an specialist airsoft shop.
I know that our members are committed to behaving in a lawful manner, and that all of us planning on purchasing airsoft replicas have evidence of our exemption status in place (be it UKARA membership if buying from a UKARA-registered shop, or site membership / a skirmish diary if buying from a non UKARA-retailer / importing from overseas), but it’s worth being aware that the police force do not consider the VCRA to be an ’empty threat’ as some had feared.
Cheers. :)
