Two Tone questions

[Ian_Gere]

Similarly, if you go to an airsoft site regularly, the staff there will know you, so if they have a shop at their site, they would likely sell you a RIF regardless of whether you had applied for a UKARA number or not, because they would be able to prove that you are an airsofter simply by virtue of you having attended their site numerous times, and would have a record of you having done so.

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I'm pretty sure that part of the UKARA Charter is that those who belong to it will not sell to airsofters unless they have a number (of the beast lol), but many sites who also sell guns are not actually members of UKARA as retailers, just as sites... There are quite a few hoops to jump through in order to become a UKARA registered retailer*, for instance you must have retail premises and they do not count even well established site shops, with permanent storage facilities, as "retail premises". So we have the likes of JBBG on the UKARA board, making money hand over fist selling orange tat to unsuspecting noobs, while committed airsofters running sites and trying to make guns available to their members at low prices (for the UK) can't get a look in...

*Which is no bad thing on the face of it, as preventing any old Tom, Dick, or Real Dick from setting up in business selling RIF's at car boot sales to kids and disappearing before the dust settles is part of the purpose of the VCRA. But UKARA has gone far beyond that and, like every trade organisation which has ever existed, is doing its best to act as close to a cartel as they can get away with, minimising competition from anyone else.

Still, thankfully there are importers, middle men, who will sell to non-UKARA retailers such as site shops, so you may find that your local site will sell to you without a UKARA number, but what I mostly hear is that sites are allowing people to pay for a gun and use it at the site but not actually take possession of it and take it home until their UKARA player's registration comes through.

UKARA is not a licence, is not a part of the UK's legislation on firearms, is not compulsory for airsofters, is not even mentioned anywhere in the VCR Act - since it came into being after the VCR Act - and is absolutely not a requirement for anyone who owns or wants to own a replica/realistic looking imitation firearm. If it was, you would be applying for it at a Police Station and not at some airsoft site or airsoft shop. It probably is worth getting a UKARA registration if you are an airsofter simply for the convenience of confirming your legitimacy to a retailer, especially if you want to buy from abroad, but that is merely a convenience and is in no way mandatory.

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Well said.