Alot of what is being dictated about Airsoft here in Australia, is that Airsoft guns are banned firearms. The following, albiet taken from Wikipedia, is the definition of a firearm:
A firearm is a portable gun (a barreled ranged weapon) that inflicts damage on targets by launching one or more projectiles driven by rapidly expanding high-pressure gas produced chemically by exothermic combustion (deflagration) of propellant within an ammunition cartridge.[1][2][3] If gas pressurization is achieved through mechanical gas compression rather than through chemical propellant combustion, then the gun is technically an air gun, not a firearm.[4]
Here at Airsoft Sydney, we believe that Airsoft Guns should be classified as Air Guns and should be treated as such. This would put them in a Category A classification, and even then we disagree that Australians should have to apply for a firearm license just to have one.
As for the Home Affairs stance on Airsoft importation, they dont even address why airsoft are banned, they just say no. For citation reasons, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to save the following page through way page machine to preserve it’s current state:
https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/trav/ente/brin/can-i-bring-it-back/can-i-bring-it-back-firearms/can-i-bring-soft-air-firearms-back
(also fire your web developer while you’re at it – What a URL… What a website…)
Japan has some of the strictest gun legislation and even they don’t ban Airsoft Weapons.
Air rifles / guns, replica’s, call them what you will. At the end of the day Airsoft Weapons are a recreation toy, not designed to inflict pain, but to experience combat without harm. As children, we play cops and robbers with sticks, or engage in all out warfare with water balloons and nerf guns. Paintball is the only thing that is a similar comparison but is far more costly due to the ammunition and mess it leaves behind.
Airsoft in Australia could be a huge industry and see us competing against other countires in war games, but until such time as the government reclassifies these weapons, we’re stuck.