Sport News

Frank Bothamley from Firesupport is taking part in a mega bike ride from Lands End to John O Groats in aid of charity, good luck Frank!:

In September I undertake a mammoth challenge of riding 980 miles over 9 days with 52000 feet of climbs for Charity.

I have been in training for 10 months and ridden 4000 plus miles as part of my training
Am hoping to raise money for a local Homeless charity called Hope into Action.
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Frank-Bothamley

Regards
Frank Bothamley

(Firesupport)

UKAPU have teamed up with the Western Australia Airsoft Club:

WESTERN AUSTRALIA AIRSOFT CLUB & UK AIRSOFT PLAYERS UNION AFFILIATE

Australian and British players team up to fight for airsoft

UK Airsoft Players Union and Western Australia Airsoft Club officially ‘tied the knot’ this month! The two organisations elected to officially affiliate, in recognition of their shared aims and values and in a show of international solidarity amongst airsoft players. Australia operates under common law which comes from in the UK, yet, in stark contrast to the UK, Airsoft is banned. WAAC has it’s work cut out for it in trying to get the ban lifted in a single state of Australia, with the hope that the other states will follow. The UKAPU committee was very impressed by the competence and commitment of the WAAC team and have confidence in their ability to lead the fledgling Australian airsoft community toward accomplishing this mammoth task.

“I am happy to announce that UKAPU is affiliated with Western Australia Airsoft Club, Inc.

The organisation is run by a few passionate individuals who are committed to getting Airsoft legalised within the state of Western Australia – and eventually propagating it throughout the rest of the country.

We’ve been supporting them for some time now. Their campaign is picking up momentum and good progress has already been made in their endeavour.”
David Weston, UKAPU Chairman

WAAC have already made some significant headway.

• They met with the Shadow Minister for Police, who stated that he was “embarrassed with the legislative regime” regarding the provisions of the Firearms Act being applied to the sport of Airsoft.
• Successfully ran a ‘Nerf gun amnesty’ campaign which caused a stir in local media regarding nonsensical firearms legislation in WA.
• This week they will be meeting with the State Minister for Police, the first ever airsoft group to be granted an audience.

For more information on the WAAC campaign please visit http://airsoftwa.com.au and like their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/AirsoftWA/ and ask your Aussie mates to do so too, they really need the support of locals who may want to play airsoft in the future!

About UKAPU: UKAPU is an unincorporated non-profit association formed by a dedicated group of Airsoft skirmishers to help protect and strengthen our hobby. By providing a united and official organisation that represents players, we can far more effectively engage in discussion with the government, other organisations, and the press when skirmishing comes under threat.

(UKAPU)

UKAPU have announced their new chairman:

To follow on from the news of the resignation of our former chairman Matt Furey-King – it has been decided by the committee that the new chairman of UKAPU will be the previous vice-chairman, David Weston.

Additionally UKAPU can gladly announce that there has been a small reshuffle, with the South West representative (Tim Haines) simultaneously becoming vice-chairman – as well as an introduction of a new person into the fold, Robbie Hutchison acting as our new Scotland rep.

David has been with UKAPU since February 2016, and since that time has been heavily involved with the running of the union, as well as campaigning against attacks against the Airsoft amendment that eventually landed with the enactment of the Policing and Crime Act 2017.

We would like to thank all of our members for having in faith in us. As the new chairman, I hope to build on this and continue the good work that Matt and the rest of the committee have been doing tirelessly for Airsoft in the UK.

David Weston

Chairman of the United Kingdom Airsoft Players Union

(UKAPU)

Some news from the UKARA:

Some News about the UKARA player check system and UKARA work on Police and Crime Bill 2017

First of all, we are extremely sorry for the problems with the UKARA player database.

There is (and has been since the problems started) a temporary system in place that all UKARA retailers are using to do look ups of players.

To counter any rumours the database is still available and being used.

UKARA had a sustained and continuous denial of service attack take place over several months which caused the server admin people to turn off the server.

To prevent a repeat of the problem we had to find, employ and design a new more modern hacker proof system.

None of the data on the system was compromised

UKAPU & UKARA have an update on the Policing and Crime Bill changes:

Huge UK Airsoft Law News

UKAPU and UKARA bring about positive changes to Policing and Crime Bill

We finally are able to tell you some good news about the draft UK law affecting airsoft.

At the start of the year the government released the Policing and Crime Bill (PCB), which included a clause to set the lethal threshold at 1 Joule of muzzle energy. This would mean that a barrelled device would be essentially regarded as an air gun if it had muzzle energy of over 1J. In 2015 the law commission suggested (based on input from UKARA and UKAPU) that airsoft replicas should be allowed an exemption from the 1J lethal threshold, as 1J would be far too low for our needs. The government accepted this and wrote it into the PCB.

The first draft of the airsoft exemption was not that great. 8mm airsoft would not count and, arguably no airsoft device would have been able to use the proposed exemption because they are capable of firing non plastic BBs. The airsoft associations were invited to discuss the exemption with the Home Office firearms department in March, and the results of that meeting, plus 8 months of lobbying behind the scenes, have finally paid off.

Trying to get exemption through at all was a feat. Though the government supported the exemption it came under attack from a Labour MP and then later from a Conservative Lord. The anti-gun groups and even part of the gun lobby objected to it.

But through a combined effort from UKARA and UKAPU we’ve managed to not only get the exemption for airsoft through, but also convince the government to make some small changes to it, which have just been submitted in the form of amendments (these are yet to be voted on at time of writing but should be integrated during the Lords report stage). When the Bill is enacted in early 2017 we’ll have clear power limits for airsoft and a better definition of what an airsoft gun is. Not only will those limits reflect the realistic power output of airsoft replicas, but they will also not interfere with the normal power limits that we use for gaming. So instead of being limited to 1J, we’ll be able to play on mostly as normal.

The lion’s share of the Home Office lobbying work was done by Frank, John and Adrian at UKARA. Without some shrewd tactics and persistent lobbying from them we’d never have got the amendment on the table. UKAPU spent a lot of time rallying airsofters and lobbying MPs without them there may have been more objections from MPs and Lords. Though we’ve not been able to talk about it till now, it’s taken a constant barrage of letters, calls and meetings throughout 2016 to get to where we are. The guys from UKARA also commissioned expensive laboratory testing of the penetrative properties of 8mm BBs, so we could ask the Home Office to extend the exemption to 8mm airsoft replicas as well as 6mm. UKARA have spent close to £10000 fighting for the airsoft industry.

The Home Office also deserve thanks. Some people imagine they are anti-airsoft, but in reality the civil servants have invited the airsoft associations to comment on the bill and have taken those comments on board even though this created more work. They have done their utmost to ensure that the airsoft game and industry isn’t compromised by the new law. Government Ministers such as Mike Penning MP have spoken in defence of our right to play airsoft and supported us throughout.

The elephant in the room is, still, fully automatic replicas over 1.3J. If it is capable of more than 1.3J then your replica may be regarded as a section 5 firearm. This could mean that GBB and HPA replicas are prohibited weapons, and it could mean you might land a 5 year prison sentence for importing an AEG which is more powerful than advertised. We also need to ensure that airsoft replicas aren’t regarded as ‘readily convertible’ to firearms, as they can all be converted to exceed the new thresholds. UKARA and UKAPU have been raising this issue with the government for the last year, and it seems they have now taken it on board. We are due to see them early next year to discuss a solution, separate to the PCB.

For your convenience the amended clause 111 is below.

The status quo has been more or less maintained but only through a mammoth effort behind the scenes. Please spread the word, people need to understand that airsoft needs constant protection, and the only way we’ve achieved this win is by working together under the umbrella of airsoft associations.

Matt Furey-King Chair UKAPU and Frank Bothamley Chair UKARA

Policing and Crime Bill- http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2015-16/policingandcrime.html

The UKAPU have some urgent news for all UK airsofters, find out more here http://www.ukapu.org.uk/saveairsoft/.

Edit: there is an update to this news here:

Save the Airsoft Exception

The Gun Trade Association is attacking our hard fought exception from 1J lethality

United Kingdom: The Policing and Crime Bill is now in the House of Lords. Part of the Bill will specify a 1 Joule threshold for barrelled weapon lethality. Through hard lobbying airsoft had secured an exemption, based on forensic lab testing, of 1.3J for full auto replicas and 2.5J for semi and single shot. The Law Commission and government recognised that this exception is essential for airsoft activities to continue. Shockingly, the head of the Gun Trade Association (a member of the House of Lords) has submitted an amendment to delete the airsoft exception.

Limiting airsoft to 1 Joule (330fps on a .20) will have many severe effects on the airsoft hobby including;

· An end to airsoft snipers- airsoft sniper rifles will be legally regarded as lethal air rifles

· Will become impossible for anyone to safely import AEGs- if found to be over 1J you could face 5 years imprisonment for possessing a section 5 firearm. It will not be legal to downgrade an AEG once it has become a section 5 firearm.

· Will become illegal to own fully auto GBB and HPA airsoft replicas- if they are tested they will be tested with maximum gas power and be found to exceed 1J. Again, they will be section 5 firearms.

Some registered firearms dealers (RFDs) aim to sell airsoft replicas as air rifles. Some have speculated that this is Lord Shrewsbury’s reason for submitting the amendment, to push airsoft sales to non-airsoft specialists that hold power in the GTA.

“There’s about 800 Lords and we’ve got till the 14th September to win over enough of them to defeat Lord Shrewsbury’s anti-airsoft amendment. Nothing else in UK airsoft matters right now compared to this.

Get the word out to absolutely everyone in the airsoft community. UKARA, ATB and UKAPU are doing all they can behind the scenes. However, if we lose this vote there is no coming back from the consequences, and we cannot win the vote without all of you writing in to a Lord. Together we beat the 2016 EU attack on airsoft, we beat the VCRA together in 2006, and we can win this too.

We are in the right and the evidence supports our position. We are up against people with vast wealth and power but if we can use the voice of every single one of the 60,000 UK airsoft players, we absolutely can win, so read the infographic, visit http://www.ukapu.org.uk/saveairsoft/ and get writing.

Matt Furey-King, Chair UK Airsoft Players Union”

About UKAPU: UKAPU is an unincorporated non-profit association formed by a dedicated group of Airsoft skirmishers to help protect and strengthen our hobby. By providing a united and official organisation that represents players, we can far more effectively engage in discussion with the government, other organisations, and the press when skirmishing comes under threat.

(UKAPU)