This is the response I have just received to my emailed letter of two weeks ago.
In my original letter, I did not make one mention of replicas, deacts or toys, I specifically asked about the proposals regarding Air Guns only.


Dear Sir,

Thank you for your letter regarding the Violent Crime Reduction Bill. I understand your concerns. The Liberal Democrats support the ban on the manufacture and sale of realistic replicas as long as the government can satisfy us that a legal distinction can be drawn between replicas and toy guns (this has been the problem whenever legal advice has been sought in the past).

The basis for the move is that crimes involving replicas have rocketed in recent years (66% increase in the last year) and the police are calling for restrictions on the grounds of public safety. There is clearly a need to do something in this area.

The Bill is framed so that existing collections of realistic replicas will not have to be handed in – but on the face of it collectors won’t be able to add to their collections unless they switch to less realistic items. This is still something we are questioning the government about but the minister did confirm that deactivated weapons will not be subject to the ban on manufacture, import or sale. We also managed to get the government to agree to the need to allow exemption for such things as TV, historical enactments, veteran’s exhibitions and theatres to continue to use realistic guns; but in theory this power might be able to be used to allow certain types of collectors to continue to acquire replicas.

We are still probing the governments’ intention on the question of airguns and paintball. We want people to be able to take part in their hobby. Yet, we did not support the Tory amendment to allow anything below 4 joules as this is still lethal.

My colleague Lynne Featherstone will continue to explore these issues in the remaining stages of this Bill to ensure that the new law will be a proportionate and effective response to the problem of the misuse of replicas.

Please do not hesitate to contact me on this or any other issue in the future.

Yours sincerely,

Mark Oaten MP