Border force.

[Garvin]

As I understand it the sale of airguns by mail order is not allowed.

By who if the seller is overseas?

[Jerry Cornelius]

Probably because he either bottled out of the court action or went to court and lost.

As I understand it the sale of airguns by mail order is not allowed. Sure the overseas seller cannot be prosecuted since UK laws do not apply to him, but this will not prevent the BF from declining to be party to an offence.

It’s not an offence. Uk law doesn’t apply in the Netherlands. And uk law doesn’t criminalise buying an air rifle mail order, only selling one in the course of a business

[Turnup]

It’s not an offence. Uk law doesn’t apply in the Netherlands. And uk law doesn’t criminalise buying an air rifle mail order, only selling one in the course of a business

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.

[Jerry Cornelius]

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.

It doesn’t work like that because you can’t have a crime without a criminal who committed it, although it’s perfectly possible border force are thinking just the way you describe

[Jimny4x4]

Never saw an update.

You mean that they have kept you hanging around with threat of court since mid- April ?
No communications since this ?

[evert]

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.

I'm not meaning to laugh at the situation, but it really is fascinating how situations like this can arise!

[Jerry Cornelius]

I'm not meaning to laugh at the situation, but it really is fascinating how situations like this can arise!

Yes, well, we can’t talk about that.

[Geezer]

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?

[Farsight]

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..