June 2009

Chris u’5 has posted on the forums with some rather worrying news and a request:

As you are aware I started a thread recently regarding the very real possibility of both airgunning and airsoft being banned in Scotland.

There is a lot going on in the Scottish airgun community currently to oppose this proposed change in law and BASC is also heavily involved.

Currently there are very mixed messages coming from the SNP government regarding their intentions regarding this matter, initially after discussion with BASC the SNP promised there would not be an outright ban on airguns in Scotland.

Recently however they have been suggesting otherwise and it appears they are aiming for a complete blanket ban. BASC have been in contact with the SNP over the past few days and they have again stated that a complete ban is not their intention and they have apparently said that airguns will be allowed for the use of vermin control or recognised sporting events.

Unfortunately the question of airsoft has not been made clear in this entire debacle.
As far as the SNP are concerned airsoft and airguns are all one thing, I am very worried that they will not recognise airsoft skirmishing as one of their "recognised sporting events" and I have the feeling when they say this they are referring to airgun sports such as Hunter Field Target.

Tonight a petition was posted at the No.10 website calling for Westminster to regain control of firearm law and not allow the Scottish Government to destroy our sport.
Naturally I am a cynic when it comes to politics but at this stage I feel we must do anything we can to prevent this potential change in law to occur.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/ScottishGunBan/

Obviously this is a potentially serious matter for our sport so I would be extremely grateful to you if you could assist in this campaign.

Kind regards and best wishes,
Chris

To find out more, visit the new Airsoft Ban in Scotland section of the forum here.