Are Airsoft Guns Legal in the UK? Airsoft Law Explained

Are airsoft guns legal in the UK? Yes. You may own one, use it on private land or at a skirmish site (a venue for organised games) and buy one from the age of 18. The law steps in at three points: the sale of a realistic gun, the energy at which a gun becomes a firearm, and where you may have it with you.

There is no single airsoft Act. What players call the airsoft laws of the UK sits in three pieces of firearms legislation.

Can you buy airsoft guns in the UK? Yes, and which ones depends on how they look. A realistic imitation firearm (RIF) could be taken for a real gun; a two-tone gun is mainly a bright colour, which takes it out of that category.

Import falls under the same section: a RIF that comes into Great Britain where no defence applies is liable to forfeiture. An airsoft gun within the power limits needs no import licence (Notice to Importers 2944).

The Airsoft Bazaar webshop ships airsoft guns to the UK from the Netherlands. At the checkout you confirm that you have a defence, and we can ask for evidence; without one you choose a two-tone. The shop also holds guns above the British limits, so check the energy on the product page: what you order is your responsibility. Gas, CO2 and lithium batteries cannot be sent, and import VAT and duties are charged on delivery.

The Act does not say how a seller is to know what a buyer wants the gun for. UK retailers solved that with UKARA, a database of players who skirmish regularly. This is the "airsoft license" people search for: not a licence, but evidence of a reason. Neither the Act nor the Regulations mention it. A site in the scheme registers you after three games over at least two months; you must be over 18, live in the UK and show ID, and a registration usually runs for 12 months with your site membership.

Other evidence, such as membership of an insured site or a re-enactment group, can do the same job; each seller decides what it accepts. That includes the private seller of a used airsoft gun that counts as a RIF, who needs a defence exactly as a shop does.

How old do you have to be to buy an airsoft gun? Eighteen, two-tone or not. Playing is a different matter: each site sets its own minimum age. Whatever the age, eye protection comes first.

What is the airsoft FPS limit in the UK? The law does not speak in FPS, feet per second. It sets the muzzle energy in joules: the energy of the BB, the plastic ball the gun fires, as it leaves the barrel, at the highest figure the gun can reach with any BB. A site's FPS figures are that energy translated for a 0.20 g BB.

This is where most trouble starts. Nobody who sees a rifle on a station platform can tell that it fires plastic, and the police will respond as if it were real.

A garden is private land, so with the owner's permission the public place offence is not the issue. What matters is that nobody outside can see the gun and no BB leaves your boundary.

We found no storage rule for airsoft guns in the Firearms Act 1968 or the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006; keep one unloaded, cased and away from children. Trespassing with an imitation firearm is an offence of its own.

Are airsoft guns legal in Scotland, and across the Irish Sea? Yes, but not on identical terms, and a visiting player is bound by local rules. For a visitor who brings a RIF into Great Britain we found no official guidance: section 36 applies to anyone who brings one in and UKARA only registers UK residents, so ask your host site and Border Force what evidence to carry.