@cumos55 wrote:
The final conclusion.....
Do not sell on eBay..... Now I can see whey they should not be sold on eBay Canada.... and also why they are described as a "toy" when listed on eBay.
The fact that they look like more dangerous firearms ... a replica ... can also be a reason for not being sold on eBay.
Not really. A replica would be a different classification of product if you follow the RCMP's guidelines. Ebay US allows the sales of the items on .com but in Canada the law is of a somewhat convoluted nature. Specifically, the criteria the RCMP has set forth to classify airsoft, bb, and pellet guns and their "legal" status as it relates to the firearms act and criminal code. Their criteria is an interpretation of existing law and that is where it gets confusing as it is an interpretation rather than law itself. Added to that the CBSA is making determinations which the RCMP then presents as law, when it isn't law. It is particularly problematic as this gets into technical measurements of the products and concerns products which look visually identical and resemble actual firearms but are treated very different legally speaking, from the RCMP's point of view at least.
The criminal code definition of a firearm speaks less about the appearance of the item (other than it has a barrel and shoots thing forth), but rather describes a barreled weapon which is capable of causing serious bodily injury or death. To determine what can cause a serious bodily injury, there are standards established by the RCMP for both FPS and kinetic energy meant to represent the point at which a projectile is likely to puncture a human eye.
Depending on the FPS, pellet/bb guns either get classified as firearms (over 500 FPS or 5.7J) or as exempt firearms. Firearms require a PAL to purchase and would be sold via your traditional retailers selling firearms. Exempt firearms are not treated as firearms unless used in certain criminal offences, which covers the perceived as a dangerous weapon aspect.
Airsoft guns have a different FPS standard. Any airsoft weapon that fires below 366FPS is deemed not capable of causing serious bodily injury and gets treated as a prohibited outright as a replica. If they shoot between 366-500 FPS and below 5.7J the airsoft item is treated as an exempt firearm because it can cause bodily injury, but not too much. Exempt firearms are the typical bb/pellet guns you see for sale at your department/chain stores. For the airsoft-like products sold at those same retailers, there are also exceptions for items that are out of scale, use clear plastics, etc that distinguish themselves as toy products rather than a replica of near precision.
The TLDR version is that the RCMP has made non-legally binding interpretations of a technical nature that allow a range of products to be classified as firearms or exempt firearms. For a marketplace to know whether a given item constitutes a firearm or exempt firearm would requires specialist knowledge of the subject matter, particularly because there are internal upgrades or downgrades which would allow two otherwise identically appearing items to be classified differently. The mere fact the RCMP refers to them as exempt "firearms" is problematic given the connotations the public associates with calling a product a firearm. Given that situation It is easier for a marketplace in Canada to simply ban the entire category of products rather than trying to determine what is what. As with many other cases there are products that are legal to sell in Canada that eBay prohibits. If you have an exempt firearm you can sell it as you please, just not where you please.
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