Airsoft toys are not machine guns.
Even though the replicas often strive to be as realistic as possible, most people intuitively grasp that a toy gun made to fire plastic BBs measured in tenths of grams is not remotely a lethal threat.
Unfortunately for Brad and Ben Martin of Airsoft Outlet Northwest, a contingent of surly U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers have focused an inordinate amount of time and taxpayer dollars to repeatedly raid and hold their imported shipments of Airsoft toys and accessories, apparently without legal justification for doing so.
The 16 WE TTI (WE Tech) M4A1 and 14 WE TTI (WE Tech) M4 CQBR gas blowback Airsoft rifles currently being called “machine guns” and facing destruction aren’t the only Airsoft rifles that Customs is withholding from their rightful owners. In addition to the toys at the center of this controversy, Customs has 10 M1911-style pistols, 15 SCAR rifles, 4 revolvers, and 20 bolt-action rifles belonging to Airsoft Outlet Northwest. This is a total of roughly $20,000 in merchandise, $12,000 of which is slated to be destroyed. In addition to the Airsoft guns, Customs officers nabbed a shipment of 500 Airsoft magazines and held them for two months without providing Airsoft Outlet NW with any sort of explanation or legal justification for the seizure.
All of these Airsoft toys and accessories are carried by other Airsoft dealers throughout the United States and overseas, without any known importation issues.
Ben Martin describes a long train of inconsistency and abuse by Customs and Border Protection at the Airsoft Outlet NW website. Martin claims that a CBP agent in Portland forcefully removed the plastic tips required on Airsoft guns in order to claim the shipment was illegal. Agents within the same office in Tacoma even made contradictory claims about the now infamous shipment of WE Tech M4s that arrived without orange tips, with one agent claiming that Airsoft Outlet NW’s business practice of not selling their replicas to those under 18 without parental consent meant that the Airsoft guns would then be classified as BB guns, and therefore did not legally require orange tips.
And the CBP website seems to confirm that Airsoft guns do not have to have orange tips:
Air soft, paintball, bb guns, and other guns that use a gas or air pellet or mechanical spring action to fire a projectile are not subject to Department of Commerce regulations for toy or imitation firearms that require bright orange plugs or other markers to be affixed to the end of the barrel (15 CFR 1150).
15 CFR 1150.1 specifically exempts “traditional B-B, paint-ball, or pellet-firing air guns that expel a projectile through the force of compressed air, compressed gas or mechanical spring action, or any combination thereof,” which would seem to mean the justification for Customs seizure of this shipment is based upon ignorance of the very regulations they are meant to enforce.
Of course, the laziness, ignorance, and inconsistency of the CBP is only part of the problem.
Equal protection under and due process of law… I thought those were Constitutional civil rights in this county? Seizing stuff just because authorities feel like it doesn’t violate those, does it? Rule of law? Bah, liberals know better!
America, this is not going to end well is it?
Airsoft Outlet NW should have just paid the bribe and none of this would have happened.
As a former Marine Corps armorer and weapons instructor, in addition to being a private firearms instructor and gunsmith, I have had many interactions with with various departmental entities, Federal State and local, “on the firing line” as classmates and/or students over the years.
I can tell you that “cops”, in general, do not understand two things.
1) Guns
2) The law
They “shoot themselves in the foot” literally and figuratively, in general administration, and, if issued live rounds, with ordnance.
Scan the local papers on police shootings and see the alarming number of incidents where 20, 30, or 50 rounds are fired…then see “perps” struck maybe 3 or 4 times. Innocent bystanders beware, government employees at work.
If they can be expected to miss what they “aim” at 60-80% of the time, why should you expect them to read and understand the law any better?
This whole affair is remarkably similar to the Secret Service raid on Steve Jackson Games in 1990.
http://sjgames.com/SS/
In both cases, ignorant, incompentent, and arrogant federal agents forcibly seized the property of private businesses on the basis of ridiculous claims and no evidence whatsoever. In the SJG case, Secret Service agents claimed that a book of rules for a science fiction roleplaying game was “a manual for computer crime.” In the current case, CBP and ATF agents don’t know the difference between a toy gun and a real weapon.
Steve Jackson Games sued the Secret Service and won. I hope that Airsoft Outlet NW is planning to do likewise.
Maybe they are recruiting from the TSA?
I own a few Airsoft guns myself and I have to admit this story troubles me. It’s bad enough that law enforcment and law makers have trouble with my real firearms but they want to mess up my fakes as well? WTH?!
Damn, there is no way that the authorities cannot be retarded on this one!
Waco, Ruby Ridge…. now toys. I hear that New York wants to go after aSALT weapons at the food joints next. Do you suppose atf will come in and pepper the place for a salty pretzel?
You can’t make this s*** up.
In the SJG case, Secret Service agents claimed that a book of rules for a science fiction roleplaying game was “a manual for computer crime.”
We all know that the government agents are afraid that, after suffering too much abuse, the citizens of this country will rise up, take their airsoft rifles in arm, and march on the establishment. Imagine it from the point of view of the government agents. With all of the airsoft-armed people out there, an agent could lose an eye before they manage to gun down the angry mob of subjects – I mean citizens.
I think it should be pointed out that these guns originate in Japan, a country with some of the most strict gun control laws in the world. It’s about as difficult to get a real gun in Japan as it is to get a fully automatic one here in the US. Yet these toy guns are easily available there to the general public.
What this points out is that the anti-gun movement is not about safety, it’s about hoplophobics fear of guns.
Next, they will go after my Laser Tag pistol. If you increase the power levels, it should be able to destroy buildings, just like in the cartoons these government agents are watching.
The government spent a large amount of time and money covering up the Steve Jackson case. The judge had to force them to do anything, even after his judgement against them.
I wonder if they would have these issues at another port of entry? I mean they are in the NW after all. Time to relocate to TX! LOL
this is classic §1983 lawsuit territory. the discovery alone should be massively embarassing for the CBP and ATF and entertaining for everyone else.
They told me that if I voted Republican, then I’d end up in a world where my only choices to explain government actions were incompetence, insanity, or outright malice. AND THEY WERE RIGHT!
I approached this story from the other end, by contacting AirSplat, the parent company of AirSoft. They assured me that real gun parts did not fit the WE M4 receiver in question, nor could be made to work. I posted that statement, and then had one reader say that he had heard it actually was possible. So back I went to AirSplat, and they honestly tried to make it work. It doesn’t. The toy receiver looks like the real gun’s receiver, but the dimensions are off just enough so that the real parts don’t fit in, or on, the toy gun’s receiver. And the toy parts won’t fit on the real guns either. They sent me a whole bunch of photos of the attempt, which I put up at http://www.barking-moonbat.com/index.php/weblog/airsoft_update_a_post_for_b3/
I would say the ball is squarely in the BATFE’s court on this one: not only prove that it can be done, by prove that it can be done “easily” as they claim. I don’t think it is possible, period. But let’s see what they respond with. But when you add in the facts that you aren’t getting a response, and that they haven’t demanded that the tens of thousands of these toy guns around the country be pulled off the market immediately, the conclusion is pretty obvious. Somebody in their department goofed, big time.
Will it take another “Waco” before this monster can be caged?
What did you expect from a regulatory agency that has no written testing standards or procedures for real firearms, much less toy look-a-likes? Read this and then tell me why the BATFE has any business telling anyone what that air soft rifle is or is not.
If a shoelace can be a machine gun, why can’t an airsoft be a gun? http://www.jpfo.org/images02/shoestring.jpg
Moby – the shoelace is a machine gun, like the Lightning Link. Both are considered that because there is no category for “parts necessary to convert weapon to fully automatic”. Which your linked document shows. Both fit on existing firearms. So that’s kind of an apples to oranges comparison, but I do agree that the rules are pretty muddy in some places.
Besides, if you learn how to bump fire, you don’t need these things anyway.
“reclassify any or all gas blowback (GBB) firearms”
You might want to rephrase: a gas-operated gun cannot be a “firearm,” by definition.
Aren’t these the same goobers (CPB) who gave Michael Yon a hard time a couple months back?
drew458, I chose a bad analogy. My point was that firearm laws are getting more and more ludicrous. Regulating shoelaces and lightning links, and confiscating airsofts will not reduce violent crime. Reducing violent crime is really all most people care about, but the ATF and BOF are not most people.
These government gangsters are probably practicing for the time the gangsta in chief,decides to rule by decree,and orders them to seize all firearms from their legal owners.They should be disarmed and sent to prison.
Bohemond:
No, you want to keep the wording the way it is.
The AR15 (M16/M4 in military form), M60 GPMG, M240 GPMG, M249 SAW, AK47, FAL, and hundreds of other real guns are “gas operated”. It’s the most common operating system for rifles and machineguns. As the bullet goes down the barrel, it passes a hole in the barrel, which diverts some of the propellant gas into the operating mechanism to cycle the gun. The bullet acts as a closed exhaust valve, keeping the gas pressure high enough for functioning, until milleseconds later when it leaves the barrel. Like a single piston internal combustion engine, only with ammo as the fuel.
Blowback is the most common operating system for submachineguns and low powered pistols. The pressure of the expanding propellant pushes back on the cartridge case (equal and opposite reaction). The only thing holding the bolt closed long enough for teh bullet to leave the barrel and the pressure to drop is inertia (even the spring tension on the bolt from the main spring is pretty much irrelevant at these pressures). Most .22 target pistols, most .32 ACP and .380 pocket pistols, the Uzi (all versions), the Thompson, etc. — these are all blowback operated guns. (More powerful pistols like the US Army’s old .45ACP M1911, have to have some sort of locking system, because the weight of teh bolt needed to keep them closed long enough to be safe is WAY heavier and clunkier than a locking system. A .45ACP blowback bolt has to weigh about a pound. . . )
GBB (Gas Blowback) is a term SPECIFIC to Airsoft guns, and doesn’t mean either one of these two Real World gun operating systems.
And if GBB is properly used in this manner, it prevents confusion between Airsoft operating systems and some of the more unusual Real World gun operating systems like Delayed Blowback (like teh HK MP5, G3, etc., use — they’re blowback, but have a mechanical disadvantage added in so teh bolt has to work harder to open than pure inertia would acount for so you don’t need a huge heavy bolt but they still aren’t “locked” at the moment of firing like most automatic or autoloading rifles are) and Gas Retarded Blowback (a blowback gun crossed with gas operated — except the gas is used to hold the bolt SHUT until pressure drops).
Bohemond said:
“reclassify any or all gas blowback (GBB) firearms”
You might want to rephrase: a gas-operated gun cannot be a “firearm,” by definition.
****************
Bohemond:
No, GBB (Gas Blowback) is NOT the same as “gas operated”.
One is the operating system of a toy, and the other means a real gun.
GBB is a purely Airsoft (well, you could design a GBB system to work ANY kind of air gun I suppose) operating system. if you say GBB, you mean an air gun of some sort, and ONLY an air gun.
“Gas operated” is what Real Steel guns like the AR15/M4, AK47, M60 GPMG, FAL, M249 SAW, M240 GPMG, Bren LMG, M1 Garand, M1 Carbine, etc. operate with. As the bullet travels down teh barrel, it passes a hole that taps off some of the propellant gas to work the system. The bullet acts like a closed exhaust valve (keeping pressure high enough to move the piston) until the bullet leaves the barrel, and the whole operating cycle is remarkeably like a single cylinder internal combustion engine that uses ammo as the fuel. With a REALLY brief operating time (you only have working pressure for teh time teh bullet moves the few inches between the gas port and teh muzzle — everything after that works on inertia of teh parts you’ve had gas shoving against.)
“Blowback” is ALSO a Real Steel gun operating system, used in low powered pistols and rifles (.22 rimfires and a lot of pocket pistols in .32 or .380) and most submachineguns. The pressure of teh propellant gas (gas pushes in all directions at once) forcing the empty case back out of teh chamber (and shoving the bolt with it). True blowback guns are completely unlocked — the only thing holding that bolt closed until teh pressure drops to safe levels is inertia (even the operating spring barely does anything to hold it shut, due to teh short timeframe).
Then there’s less common “hybrid” operating systems for Real Steel guns, like the Delayed Blowback favored by HK (it’s a blowback gun, but uses some kind of mechnical delay or disadvantage to delay opening teh bolt, so you can shoot higher powered rounds without massively huge bolts. . . still unlocked — the only thing holding an MP5 or G3 bolt closed on firing is inertia, and a pair of rollers that have to roll out of the way. It’s not postively locked like the AK47 or AR15 bolts, which have to rotate far enough that the steel lugs clear teh recesses that hold the bolt mechanically shut.) Or Gas Retarded Blowback (another German quirk), where it’s a blowback gun crossed with a gas operated one — only the gas system is used solely to push the gun CLOSED so that the gas pressure is helping the bolt “appear” more massive and stay closed longer.
My apologies — I thought the original (Anonymous) failed to post becuase I didn;t stick my name and email in, so I rewrote the post. If the management wishes to delete the anonymous comment, I think the named post is better anyway.
These government gangsters are probably practicing for the time the gangsta in chief,decides to rule by decree,and orders them to seize all firearms from their legal owners.They should be disarmed and sent to prison.
Do my comments show?
Just to point out this is the same agency that torched one of their own vans when trying to prove model rockets could shoot down an airplane.
http://www.space-rockets.com/arsanews.html
(site is kind of broken just search the site for Van)