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British Police Arrest Cosplayer

I think it's been illegal for like 20 years to even sell or import a 'realistic' looking imitation gun like that (without meeting one of the exemptions), let alone walk around with one.
 
It's terrifying to think that somewhere nearby a man may have been glancing at a woman without her permission and that just went unnoticed because of this.
Think of all of the Facebook posters who didn't get arrested yet due to this, they could possibly post ANOTHER upsetting post before being caught.
 
I think it's been illegal for like 20 years to even sell or import a 'realistic' looking imitation gun like that (without meeting one of the exemptions), let alone walk around with one.

It has an orange tip on the end. That's the only requirement.

Now, it could be imitated quite easily on a real weapon, but the police (even non firearms officers) should have been able to clock that it was a toy well before the smushing of his face into the pavement.

They should have told him off, given him a lift/escort to the convention, and then had a good laugh about it and some advice to take most of the costume off when he leaves.
 
When my oldest was in middle school a teacher bought in a flintlock musket as part of a history lesson.
Someone saw him walking it into the school and called the cops, prompting a full swat response and complete lockdown.
That was a fun day.
 
I think it's been illegal for like 20 years to even sell or import a 'realistic' looking imitation gun like that (without meeting one of the exemptions), let alone walk around with one.

lol... that's wild. even with an orange tip?

I once accidentally shot a cop with an Airsoft MP5 Replica when I was a teen. the only thing that happened was that he brought me home and told my mom.

no orange tip btw., you can just buy them looking 100% real essentially in Germany lol.
also, we call them Softair here for some reason. I wonder how that happened, just randomly swapped the first and second part of the word around.

the shit has gotten expensive since I was a kid tho, like damn, pistols like this HK P30 were like 20€ back in 2004. I think not even the MP5 I had was more than 40€, now you pay that much for a P30, and that's one of the chraper pistols they have 😵‍💫.

I'm lucky that I never lost an eye when we played with these in the woods back in the day. half the time we didn't wear any safety goggles 😬. and even tho we only got our hands on 0.5 joule ones (anything above that is 18+), some of them felt like they were clearly stronger... like that MP5 I had did lead to some prople bleeding when hit directly on skin.

not sure it you could get away with doing that nowadays, just going next to the football fields with 20 people and shooting eachother with softair guns all day while people walk by 🤣
 
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Unless they have changed it since the law came in, an orange tip was not considered enough to make it 'unrealistic'. It had to be principally a bright colour.

I mean, apparently I could buy this TOTALLY NOT GLOCK 19, absolutely totally differently looking pistol, that absolutely wouldn't result in a copyright lawsuit if Glock saw this... from a UK retailer...
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but you need to be a registered member of some Airsoft club it seems to order a realistic looking one.


this makes me wonder now tho... does Glock have a copyright on that design? 🤔 can you copyright a weapon design? 🤔🤔🤔 or is this "Raven EU7 GBB" allowed to just rip off the design?
 
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I mean, apparently I could buy this TOTALLY NOT GLOCK 19, absolutely totally differently looking pistol, that absolutely wouldn't result in a copyright lawsuit if Glock saw this... from a UK retailer...
Does that link ask if you have a valid defence? For me it does, and if I select 'No' I have to get it in two-tone, which would make it count as unrealistic, which would let them legally sell it to me.

A 'valid defence' would be something like being able to prove you are part of a re-enactment group, or a registered airsofter, or in the movie industry or some such.

If it doesn't ask you, it could be due to your location.

I think trademarks are normally the only problem, rather than ripping off the appearance of the gun.
 
Does that link ask if you have a valid defence? For me it does, and if I select 'No' I have to get it in two-tone, which would make it count as unrealistic, which would let them legally sell it to me.

A 'valid defence' would be something like being able to prove you are part of a re-enactment group, or a registered airsofter, or in the movie industry or some such.

If it doesn't ask you, it could be due to your location.

I think trademarks are normally the only problem, rather than ripping off the appearance of the gun.

how hard is it to get into an Airsoft club as a registered member? doesn't sound hard to do.

but it definitely seems like an orange tip isn't enough if you don't have a "defence"
 
I'm lucky that I never lost an eye when we played with these in the woods back in the day. half the time we didn't wear any safety goggles 😬. and even tho we only got our hands on 0.5 joule ones (anything above that is 18+), some of them felt like they were clearly stronger... like that MP5 I had did lead to some prople bleeding when hit directly on skin.
Growing up a mate had a gas powered pellet gun, but alongside the little mushroom shaped ones he had pointed tips, the fucking thing would chip paving slabs. Fortunately he was smart enough to never shoot at anyone because it would have injured bone.
 
how hard is it to get into an Airsoft club as a registered member? doesn't sound hard to do.
I don't think it's too difficult to join the airsofter scheme, but the principle of having to do so was why I noped out of airsoft back then when the law came in.
 
I'd say that the timing for wearing something like this whilst looking like a soldier isn't the best.

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Operation raise the umbrella 🏖️

On a side note the thick as fuck London police probably thought this was indeed a guy wearing spec ops, with a gun and an England flag. Probably thought he was a racist wanting to intimate ethnics.
 
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Police receive reports of someone in military gear carrying a firearm, it's not like they'll respond with "oh he's probably dressing up as a character from a video game, we won't bother attending".
 
I know we all love to shit on the UK on here but this is 100% on that idiot cosplayer. To walk around the streets of London dressed like that is asking for trouble at the best of times. But to do it right in the midst of football crowds gathering? Absolute fucking dolt of a man.
 
How fucking retarded do you have to be to walk around in any city in the world like that and not expect to get your ass kicked by cops?!

Fuck me, the amount of morons in this world staggers me.
 
Bleugh. I remember visiting my grandparents in Romania as a kid and they had some blood sausage prepared, could barely stomach a single bite lol, vile stuff.

I came to enjoy a black pud later on in life. It's just tasing like salt and pepper to me. I only ever have it with a full English though.
 
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