Author Topic: Can Anyone Buy a BB Gun? Navigating the Legalities  (Read 576 times)

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Offline Elderberry

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Can Anyone Buy a BB Gun? Navigating the Legalities
« on: August 23, 2021, 01:31:29 am »
Field & Stream By T. Logan Metesh | Updated Aug 18, 2021

A BB gun may have been your first gun as a kid, but sometimes the laws governing them look more like they’re geared toward firearms than the toys we used to know.

hances are pretty good that if you live in the United States, you’ve never thought twice about legal issues and BB guns. You probably never expected the words “legal issues” and “BB guns” to have been found in the same sentence. And never considered there are laws governing who can buy a BB gun.

Our friends across the pond in the UK are all too familiar with the fact that gun laws extend all the way to air guns. But for those of us in the United States, you’ve probably never wondered, “Can anyone buy a BB gun?” or “Are there laws that govern BB guns?” Most of us have spent our entire lives with BB guns readily available to us. More often than not, they are off-the-rack items you can grab and go with little to no issues or questions asked.

Believe it or not, though, there are actually laws written around and about BB guns. These laws determine who can purchase, own, and use BB or other air guns—but probably not in the capacity that you might expect.

Federal Law

The Consumer Product Safety Commission, not the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms regulates air guns at a federal level. cpsc.gov/

We’re all aware of the National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934, the Gun Control Act (GCA) of 1968, and the Hughes Amendment of 1986. These are all pieces of federal legislation that apply throughout the entirety of the United States. The NFA sets the ground rules for suppressors, short barreled rifles, sawed-off shotguns, etc. The GCA required serial numbers on all new firearms, banned mail-order firearm sales, and prohibited interstate handgun sales. The Hughes Amendment made it illegal for civilians to own any machine guns made after May 19, 1986.

You’ll notice that nowhere in any of that legislation is there a single mention of BB guns or any other kind of air guns. That’s because there are no federal laws regulating the transfer, possession, or use of BB guns. They are, however, regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). This means that they are subject to general statutory limitations involving “substantial product hazard” and articles that create “a substantial risk of injury to children.” While the CPSC has not adopted specific regulations, the BB gun industry itself has adopted voluntary standards of its own.

Federal law prevents states from prohibiting the sale of traditional BB, pellet, or other air guns. But it does allow individual states to prohibit the sale of BB guns to minors. Courts have ruled this to be legal so long as the regulations fall short of an actual prohibition on their sale. Federal law provides no guidance on a minimum age of BB gun sales. That, too, is left up to the states.

State Laws

There are many laws that dictate who can buy a BB gun. A total of 23 states and the District of Columbia have enacted regulations when it comes to the purchase, transfer, and use of BB guns. The degree of restriction among these locations, however, varies widely.

New Jersey and Rhode Island treat BB guns as if they were firearms in the federal sense of the definition. This means that felons, other federally prohibited persons, and unsupervised minors may not be in possession of any kind of BB gun.

More: https://www.fieldandstream.com/outdoor-gear/can-anyone-buy-a-bb-gun/