Vintage Airguns Gallery
..Above link posted with permission from Gareth W-B
In British slang an anorak is a person who has a very strong interest in niche subjects.
I suspect that the reasoning is thusly:
It is not an offence in the Netherlands - UK law does not apply there so the seller is fireproof.
It is not an offence to place the order from the UK either so the byuer is not acting illegally.
It is a fact that the supply of an airgun for commercial purposes by mail order is illegal. The fact that none of the parties involved can be prosecuted does not mean that no crime is committed.
The BF cannot release the rifle since in doing so they would be an accessory to a crime.
True freedom includes the freedom to make mistakes or do foolish things and bear the consequences.
TANSTAAFL
BF seem confused on the difference between a RIF and an airgun. A guy on another forum in a similar situation eventually got a kind of apology from BF (and his local cops) who backed down over a replica BB firer air pistol. Eventually.
We can debate endlessly where BF etc are on the spectrum from:
(a) decent public servants doing their best and correctly enforcing the law post-Brexit in order to stop the flow of illegal guns into the U.K., including non-RIF airguns and so stemming their supply to crims, kids, etc;
to:
(b) jumped-up little Hitlers enjoying their new powers to muck about with legitimate and legal imports from the Continent to law-abiding adults while bulking up the stats on how many “deadly weapons” they have seized.
But it doesn’t really matter. Importing from abroad to a private address rather than an RFD does now feel like a significant risk of everything from minor hassle to full-blown court case and possible conviction if the judge is in a bad mood, and probably not worth the bother IMHO.
I appreciate that’s a pain for people used to getting bargains from Schneider or Krale, but tough. If you found a really nice Walther 53 FST or Diana 58 on GerGun, routing it via an RFD surely wouldn’t be too big of a deal?
This is not something new, it's been going on for years and is the simple result of having officious functionaries who have been invested with the "it's more than my job's worth" , " there's no comeback if I'm wrong and I get paid just the same -right or wrong" and " I'm just a simple officer of the law - I don't know about guns -it's up to you to prove to me it's legal ,not for me to act on what is manifestly obvious."
Also, having the airgun sent to an RFD might seem to be covering all your bases ; it very well may not, as I can testify. All the officer needs is to spot some vaguely gunlike thing being imported, and if he can take it out of circulation and generate a load of paperwork and trouble, then he's shown his superiors he's doing his job. You have to be prepared to be scrupulously polite and diligent in providing documentary evidence. Not everyone is up to this, so I'd bet a lot of perfectly legal, harmless even, stuff is confiscated and destroyed..