Airsoft gun business owner takes aim at Bill C-21

A new gun control bill from the federal government could spell the end of the Airsoft gun industry.

Bill C-21, which has not yet passed, would ban “mid-velocity replica firearms.”

The text of the bill reads:

• “Update the Criminal Code to ensure that any device, including an unregulated airgun that looks exactly like a conventional regulated firearm (i.e., shoots over 500 feet per second), is prohibited for the purposes of import, export, sale and transfer.
• Current owners may keep their ‘replicas’ but cannot transfer them to anyone else.
• No further ‘replica’ firearms could be imported into, or sold/transferred in Canada.
• This amendment does not affect other types of airguns that do not exactly replicate a conventional regulated firearm.”

That wording has Aaron Strauss, the owner of Cache Tactical Supply in Regina, worried about the future of his business.

Strauss joined Gormley last week to explain what Airsoft is, and how he believes the new legislation would do major harm to the industry.

“Airsoft is a game, effectively, of tag. It uses replica firearms. Instead of tagging with your hand, you’re tagging somebody with a biodegradable corn starch pellet … It is specifically designed not to cause injury or harm,” he said.

Many of the guns used in the game can look similar, or nearly identical, to real guns.

Because of that, Strauss argues they would be affected by Bill C-21.

“If it looks like a gun that shoots a real bullet, it will now be banned,” he said. “It has nothing to do (with) function, it’s completely on appearance.

“What they’re doing is they’re effectively killing an entire sport. There are hundreds of companies across the country that cater to the Airsoft sport. There are leagues, there are thousands of players and millions of dollars in economic activity that they’re just writing off in the stroke of a pen.”

He addressed the argument that Airsoft guns can be used in real crimes, to deceive people into thinking they’re being attacked or held up with a real gun. That’s a point that Strauss doesn’t think is valid.

“When it comes down to it, (if there is) somebody who is willing to commit a crime … another piece of paper saying that, ‘Hey, this Airsoft gun is now illegal,’ is that going to stop them? No,” he said.

Strauss is supporting a petition to the House of Commons to change the bill’s wording. As of Monday morning, more than 29,000 people had signed.