Originally Posted by
secretagentmole
That is taken from the 2014 CPS guidelines sire, so I am reading it right. If it is sub 12 it can be smooth bore, it can be rifled and it can be semi automatic too!
Let us read it together.
Paintball guns are a type of air weapon. The Home Office regard self-loading or pump action rifled airguns (including paintball guns) as outside the scope of the Firearms Act (Now this bit states air rifles, with rifled barrels, self loading ie semi auto or pump action are outside the scope of the Firearms Act quite categorically), unless they are sufficiently powerful to fall within the category of a "specially dangerous" air weapon (that means it has to be sub 12, Specially Dangerous is any air rifle over 12 ft lb or any air pistol over 6 ft lb)(Archbold 24.8a). Paintball guns could be considered imitation firearms.
Now this is taken from the latest CPS guidelines and this is from before other guns are discussed! Have a link
http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/d_to_g/firearms/index.html
Now it is stated that sub 12 semi auto rifles are outside the scope of the legislation, the legislation does not apply! Quite simple, we tell you that they are outside of the legislation, so you don't need to worry when we tell you what guns are covered by the legislation later on. It is a step by step reading. If you read something that says it does not apply it is exempted. Quite simple. So whatever anybody says the sub 12 rifled semi auto is legal, as it is considered outside the scope of the Firearms act, so whatever is written in the act does not apply.
The issue is that you don't understand how the law works or how to read it.
Of course the intention of the act is not to ban paintball guns, the idea wasn't to ban 17 hmr semi autos either, the point is that the act as amended does so. 
The CPS guidelines are are guidlines on when to prosecute, not what is legal or illegal; that is what statue is for.
What the CPS is saying is that they will not prosecute for the mere possession of a semi automatic unless they are "specially dangerous".
If the law was not worded in a fsahion where clearly, to a proper reading, any semi automatic rifled gun that is not a .22 is illegal, the CPS would not have needed to issue such a policy.
Do you understand that the reason the CPS are compelled to make that statement is because by the letter of the law a SA air rifle is illegal or not?
"An infinite number of monkeys banging away at type writers for an infinite period of time will eventually reproduce Hamlet" Thanks to discussion forums we now know this to be untrue.
