LettuceHead wrote:Here lies the main difference, one that I keep bringing up but no ones seems to pay heed to... paintball markers are a Sporting Good and airsoft replicas are a Toy under the Harmonized Tariff Code for international trade purposes. They're cheaper to import that way, and its the biggest mistake airsoft has going for it legally.
Paintball positioned itself legally as a Sporting Good category a long time ago and it was the smartest move they ever did. They quickly learned that the best way to avoid or get out of anti-gun or anti-toy gun legislation is to have nothing to do with the toy gun or firearm industries!
Is it hypocritical? It can be construed as such... but it was also well thought out in advance.
This is not a viable option for Airsoft. Having "nothing to do" with the firearms industry does not bode well with an extremely realistic military simulation. If anything we should be part of the firearms industry. Hell, we're at Shot Show. Airsoft products are being used as training tools in different branches of the military and by law enforcement. We need to embrace that, and if it means Airsoft guns are more regulated like firearms then fine - we'll weed out a bunch of retards. The Big5 and tool's Sporting Goods Airsoft purchases are the problem here, not responsible players buying $400 full metal AEGs from Airsoft retailers.
I'm sure that retailers don't want to hear this, because that regulation probably means more cost increases for them, and in turn more cost increases to us. But seriously, marketing cheap AEGs to 12 year old kids and making your living that way is like polishing the brass on the Titanic. If they didn't see this coming, they are totally dense. The average cost of an AEG used to be $300. Getting started in Airsoft was a significant investment, and typically people didn't shazaam around.
Being an AEG owner should be more like being a gun owner. A gun purchase is generally more expensive and built to last (not like bleeding toys), and then you become a customer of the establishment who sold it to you. They make their money off repairs, upgrades, services, and accessories you buy for it.
Instead they keep pooping out cheap a$$ AEGs from China for 13 year old boys, and we wonder what the problem is. I would basically not mind completely cutting the balls off the low-end market all together. Because let's face it, if AEGs sales were banned in the US we would go right back to Redwolf and WGC to buy our Airsoft guns. Mainstream Airsoft in chain stores in the US isn't doing anything for us but getting bad press.
