Legality of Gel Blasters

Today we are discussing the The Legality of Gel Blasters in Australia. But first a little back story.

Gel Blasters were first introduced in China as an airsoft substitute (as airsoft has been effectively banned in the Mainland since 2008) and as a better alternative to foam dart guns, gel blasters have become increasingly popular in regions with airsoft-unfriendly laws such as Malaysia, Vietnam, and particularly Australia, where they quickly gained a massive enthusiast following in states like Queensland and South Australia. 

As the gel beads (which are commonly sold in gardening and household hardware stores) are not legally regarded as ammunitions, gel blasters are classified as toys by the ACCC ASN/NZ 8124 in Australia and used to be legal for sale, but some toy importers/merchants, such as Brad Towner from Armored Heaven in New South Wales and Peter Clarke from Tactical Edge in Queensland, have been subjected to shipment seizures by the Australian Border Force and prosecuted for “firearm offences” but had the lawsuits ruled in their favor. 

There were also incidents of NSW Police border patrol arresting people who drove interstate to purchase gel blasters from Queensland.

Gel blasters have been involved in several criminal incidents. In May 2020 a man was arrested for allegedly perpetrating drive-by attacks on pedestrians with gel blasters. There have been numerous reports in QLD and SA of persons being charged and arrested for misuse of gel blasters.

Similarly, DJI’s popular remote controlled toy ground drone, the RoboMaster S1, which was introduced into the international market in mid-2019, was almost banned from import into Australia because it had a blaster gun for competitive tag matches, and as of November 2020 is still not available for sale in Victoria and New South Wales in order to “comply with local laws and regulations”.

On October 8, 2020, the South Australia Police (SAPOL) announced that gel blasters would be officially declared as a regulated imitation firearm, and subjected to the same sale and possession licensing as paintball markers under the Firearms Act 2015 and Firearms Regulations 2017. 

People owning gel blasters are required to obtain a Category A firearm licence and registration within a six-month amnesty period (from October 8, 2020 to April 7, 2021), or hand any unauthorised items into a police station or a participating firearms dealer.

Calls to compensate businesses crippled by the new regulations have been rejected by the State Government. On October 14, SAPOL made the first gel blaster-related arrest of a 26-year-old man. The new regulation has been met with protests from enthusiasts, but South Australia’s paintball community has applauded the crackdown.

This crackdown leaves Queensland as the only state in Australia where gel blasters are able to be possessed without a licence, though laws were passed in July 2020 categorising gel blasters as restricted items which means they must be stored in a locked container and cannot be possessed without a reasonable excuse.

In Late 2020, a court case was filed against SAPOL seeking to challenge the ban on gel blasters. Chris Sinclair, spokesman for the Gel Blaster Association of Australia was quoted as saying he was confident these Court proceedings would be successful. Exact details and the outcome of the Court case is at this point unknown however a GoFundMe campaign raised over $22,870 towards fees for a ‘class action against SAPOL.’

From July 3 2021, the Western Australian Government banned gel blasters citing similarity to real weapons and legitimate safety concerns.After July 3 2021, anyone found with a Gel Blaster in Western Australia could face jail time and up to a $36,000 fine.

One of the precipitating events for the ban was a 4 hour siege at a pharmacy in Applecross, a suburb of Perth, where the man at the centre of the siege was armed with a gel blaster. After the formal ban of Gel Blasters in Western Australia, Queensland remains the last state where Gel Blasters are legal in Australia.

In Mainland China, there were moral panics by the media similar to those involving airsoft, triggering a joint meeting from the Chinese authority in 2018 to “crackdown and regulate illegal activities/crimes involving guns and explosive items”. 

In September 2020, the Deputy Minister of Public Security, Lin Rui, announced on a video conference of “nationwide special action on crackdown and regulation of online-purchased criminal/illegal imitation guns” (全国打击整治网售仿真枪违法犯罪专项行动) that the Ministry of Public Security, Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs, General Administration of Customs, State Administration for Market Regulation, State Post Bureau and other local authorities will be jointly working to inspect and confiscate any toy guns, gel blasters and other replica/imitation guns that violate the regulation standards, clamping down on the manufacturing, sale and trafficking, and encouraging the public to report in offenders.Although more details are yet to come out, many in China have seen this as the official banning of gel blasters.

Are gel blasters legal in Tasmania?
Tasmania Police Assistant Commissioner Adrian Bodnar said any imitation firearm that could reasonably be mistaken for a real firearm was prohibited under the Firearms Act 1996. “This means any gel blaster that looks like a firearm is illegal to possess,” Assistant Commissioner Bodnar said

Ok and that ends today’s blog, if you have any questions please feel free to write them down below in the comments section.

Also check out our other blog here explaining what Gel Blasters are in more depth.

Note: This information is subject to change or may not be 100% accurate! Some of this information was altered as it contained spelling mistakes and/or grammar mistakes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gel_Blasters