It's a fair point, and whilst I agree that some of us (including me, I know) do sometimes chip in with a lot of legal stuff, quite often opening ourselves up to accusations of being barrack room lawyers, I think in this instance it was not without some justification, since there were two legal issues arising, the legality of selling a RIF and the legality of selling something which technically is not yours to sell. I suspect the girl was never going to get into GI Jane mode herself, so it was unlikely to put her off going to a skirmish, but it might conceivably kept her out of court. Taking advice is not compulsory, nor is trying to ensure that someone doesn't fall foul of the law when they ask for help, but I think it was the responsible thing to do in these circumstances.
I agree with Ian (and doubtless many others) as far as the VCR Act is concerned. It's a clumsy law, open to much interpretation and in many cases nigh on impossible to enforce effectively. And like many laws, it invariably ends up just being a pain in the ass for law abiding citizens, but not for criminals, who simply ignore it. But it is the devil we know (or at least the one we are stuck with), so if we wish to be regarded as responsible people, it's probably not a bad idea to be seen to be like that, particularly on a forum which anyone can read. I daresay there are plenty of young turk politicians, who would like nothing better than an excuse to get their face on TV with a crusade to ban airsofting. Not because they really have a desire to do see it gone, but rather because it is an easy popularist target which can trade easily on the ignorance of those not into it, who might imagine that we could somehow perpetrate a massacre with our toy guns. So the more I can do to not provide them with an excuse legislate our entirely harmless enjoyment out of existence, the better.
