At June 5, 2022
We've collected a few airsoft facts that can help you in your conversations with your friends, family and especially, your Member of Parliament. This list will be updated as ASIC gathers more information and opinions, so don't be alarmed if some things change.
If you have a meeting with your Member of Parliament or an interview with media, and you'd like more details about anything that we've written you can reach out to contact@savingairsoft.ca
Bill C-21 will end airsoft in Canada
The 2022 version of Bill C-21 reuses the same wording as the 2021 proposed legislation for airsoft. No effort has been made to revise this harmful wording.
The legislation as is currently proposed would prohibit 99% of airsoft guns.
If passed, this legislation would end the sport in Canada overnight, leaving retailers and importers with millions of dollars of useless inventory, players in possession of prohibited devices, and venues without paying attendees.
The legislation creates significant legal ambiguity. The bill does not define its own terms “resemble with near precision” and it offers no clear definition of how manufacturers could comply or adapt to the legislation with certainty.
The legislation creates the requirement for an “authorization or licence” for airsoft guns, but currently no such authorization or licence regime exists.
The Government specifically said in its announcement of this new legislation that it intends to ban airsoft guns.
Other countries with even stricter firearms legislation than Canada, such as Japan and the UK, still allow airsoft to be purchased and used for sport.
There has been no consultation with the industry or business community to develop legislation which might address the Government's public safety concerns.
The airsoft community has reached out to the government repeatedly but has been ignored.
Banning airsoft is a waste of resources
Bill C-21 will not improve public safety
This bill will harm the diverse airsoft community
Airsoft businesses are already hurting, and this bill will kill them
Airsoft manufacturing is not able to adapt to the new legislation