Quick question about manufacturing RIFs...

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Napoleon

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Is it true that a non-UKARA defence under 18 can manufacture a RIF by spray painting/paint removing a Two tone gun? Im sure i read this on one of this sites "Noobie Guides". Is this a loop-hole or grey area? Also if a two tone gun is purchased and it's paint completely wears off, would he/she be allowed to use it in skirmishes/events?

Thanks.

 
It's a criminal offense to paint one without a defense, however the law isn't really enforceable unless you were reported by some nosy dicker with an acute understanding of the VCRA.

I suppose you could use a very worn 2 tone weapon at a skirmish, technically a 2 tone airsoft gun with a little bit of paint flaked off it is not 51% painted so it isn't really the legal definition of a 2 tone any more though so it doesn't really matter.

^no one will really care anyway

 
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You're right that it is a sort of legal 'grey area,' in as much as nobody who wrote the rules really thought this bit through (sounds very familiar to most of the VCRA).

Essentially it is illegal to manufacture a RIF, for example by removing the paint from an IF ('two tone'). However, you can avail yourself of a defence against prosecution if you have done this for the purposes of playing airsoft at a site with third party liability insurance. There is no specific age restriction on this, so it doesn't matter whether you're 18 or not.

So, long story short, anyone who is going to use it for playing airsoft at a proper site can manufacture a RIF.

 
Cheers guys, in my particular case, i would be using it at a proper site, so it's all good, i guess.

 
To be on the safe side though, I'd play there a few times first, the burden of proof will be on you to prove that you're using it for airsoft if by some million to one shot the police come knocking. Not only that, some site owners get narky about 2-tones that have been sprayed etc because they don't fully understand the law.

 
Mr Cheesewright has a point, for the sake of ease, though bear in mind that there is no law against owning a RIF. If the police are speaking to you about your gun it shouldn't really matter whether it's an IF or a RIF - what really matters what you were doing before that in order for them to turn up!. The problem is that what the law actually says and what the police officer that is speaking to you thinks it says are not always going to be the same thing.

 
Just bear this in mind: the police have got far better things to be doing than chasing up someone who may have painted a toy gun 3 days before they had a definite defence against prosecution for having done so, which defence they gained by turning up to an airsoft site with said gun, especially since the intention to do so is the defence, in this aspect of the law, but also since the Association of Chief Police Officers have said the law is unenforcible (hence our hypothetical coppers would have a bit of explaining to do when their arrest record for the week was scrutinised). Plain and simply, nobody who understands the law can take it seriously and, by definition, anybody who attempts to give you grief about it doesn't understand the law so fuck 'em...

Just don't be a dick with your AEG, whatever colour it is, and you'll be fine. Naturally, should you decide to test the limits of what "being a dick" entails, it will not be contravening the VCRA for which you will be arrested, but any of a string of firearms and/or public order offences which existed before and will exist long after the VCRA has been quietly superceded.

 
^ the last paragraph here, if not the whole thing, should become a 'sticky' on all airsoft forums.

 
With regards to evidence of being a skirmisher, one of my 17 year old friends (who got questioned about his RIF- which was a painted IF- by the police) presented proof of being a skirmisher with photographs taken on site by the site photographer.The police saw this as a valid defense, and let him go with the RIF.

 
^^Where did that happen and under what circumstances?

 
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