Good deals with these members
Brexit, therefore I couldn't give a shite........but illegal or not it's common knowledge that air guns from the 'Hun' come with low ft lb springs and settings, please bore me to death with a disscussion of european law......and airguns ARE exempt from firearms legislation, although they may be regarded as specially dangerous....but they don't cause the same level of harm as your 'Desert Eagle' gag.......Morning.
So you have two points of law in your question - Are there any restrictions on Rifled barrel Revolver type air weapons. The answer to that is no, they are legal in the UK. ( Sig Sauer MCX/MPX are an example of this ).
The second part is - Can a Pistol be converted to a Rifle and the power increased from a limit of 6 fpe. The answer to that is.. yes, very probably.
very probably because there is no definition in law of what an air pistol actually is, so would come down to a decision by a judge as to whether it was a pistol or a rifle. So long as you make it look like a rifle and nothing like a pistol, then you'd have a good argument in court that it was in fact a rifle.
There's no requirement to have a barrel longer than 12" (for an Air Weapon), but it might help when converting a pistol to a rifle that it looks like a rifle and isn't easily concealed like a pistol. If you just bolt a rear stock onto the pistol grip of a pistol - you might be on shaky ground, but again it would come down to a decision by a judge at the end of the day.
Last edited by Brian.Samson; 26-04-2017 at 09:20 AM.
Air weapons are exempt from conditions imposed on firearms, but have their own 'airgun' conditions....just because these confitions are explained in firearms law doesn't make them a firearm. No gunsafe, no license....no conditions other than those relating to airguns.
You get caught acting the tit you face firearms law, but that could apply to a can of cs gas.....which I'm sure nobody would argue is either a firearm rifle, pistol or shotgun.
So if a sub 12ft lb pump is illegal, so is a Steyr hunting 5 rifle. (Steyr calls it 'automatic' which is not a good start!)
With the Steyr, I guess the argument centres on the definition of 'loading'. (Ignoring the main issue of sub 12 rifles and sub 6 pistols being outside the scope of the firearms act). The mag indexes automatically, but the pellet isn't loaded into the breech. Of course there isn't a breech as such anyway. You could argue that the mag is actually 5 breeches in a row?
Anyway, a pump action pcp rifle would be really nice! So would an auto indexing one!
You're missing my point, why would anyone go out of their way to make a pistol 'look' like a rifle in order to dodge the law....just buy a rifle, weird.
And I wouldn't advise anyone to do so as in court your subversion would ensure your conviction.....being a smart arse is not a defence in law. Yes I do know ( before I get an hilarious ' you should know' gag)
And airguns are only subject to firearms law IF THEY FIT THE DESCRIPTION OF A FIREARM hence the OP original correspondence...otherwise they are airguns and are exempt. Apples are apples until you paint them orange...then is it an apple anymore? You may say 'of course' but it sure looks like an orange......
Last edited by Cocksure; 26-04-2017 at 09:32 AM.
Air Weapons are exempt from sections of the firearms act where it states that they are exempt, they are not exempt from the sections where it doesn't say they are exempt.
That's kind of the whole point of this thread actually. When they banned Self loading firearms, they remembered to make rimfires exempt, but forgot to make Air Weapons exempt.
So as an example...
Section 16 of the Firearms act says this :
It is an offence for a person to have in his possession any firearm or ammunition with intent by means thereof to endanger life or cause serious injury to property, or to enable another person by means thereof to endanger life or cause serious injury to property, whether any injury to person or property has been caused or not.
That section of the act most definitely includes air guns - because a) they are defined as firearms and b) there is no exemption in that section for Air Weapons.
Dessert Eagle