Reminder: If you are unsure about the legality of gel blasters in your country, be sure to check your local toy laws. "Challenges on social media sites where they tell these people to do these things, but they don`t really realize what the outcome is," said Sgt. Jim Koch of the Clovis Police Department. Since the Gelblaster is considered much safer than its counterparts such as paintball and airsoft. So, are gel blasters legal or not? Especially in the United States? Yes, gel blasters are 100% legal in the United States. This is largely due to the type of projectiles that use gel blasters, which are superabsorbent water beads that have little or no risk of injury. Safety concerns have been raised regarding the use of gel blowers by children. Between December 2018 and May 2019, eight children (aged four to 14) presented to the emergency department at Queensland Children`s Hospital with eye injuries from gelling guns. [4] In 2019, a 14-year-old boy presented to hospital with vision loss, pain and vomiting after being hit in the eye by a gel pellet 10 meters away. [5] Originally, early gel-blaster designs used paintball-style top-mounted funnels (often disguised as fake optical sights) that relied on gravity when shooting to load gel balls, as water beads were usually too fragile to withstand even the pressure of a follower. However, in late 2016, bottom-mounted magazines with built-in motors were introduced, pulling power from the main batteries (via contact points at the top) to drive a gear that gently pushes the beads into a feeding tube.
This gave much more realism than before and triggered a huge increase in the popularity and market of yellow blasters. The recent proliferation of more robust gel beads on the market has also introduced magazines with the traditional spring pendant. A freeze blaster with automatic fire can only have a maximum muzzle energy of 1.3 joules, about 375 FPS with a standard 0.2 gram yellow ball, for it to be legal. A gel blaster that has only one fire is allowed to have up to 2.5 joules of energy, about 520 FPS with an average gel ball of 0.2 grams. A gel gun or Orbeez pistol is a battery-powered toy blaster designed to shoot Orbeez. Orbeez are water-based gel granules that are non-toxic, harmless and clutter-free. Similar to some types of airsoft blasters, the gel gun uses a gearbox to feed ammunition with gel bullets. And like paintball, gel-ball blasters fire projectiles that burst on impact. Biu Blaster is not responsible for the consequences of improper use of gel blasters. With all that out of the way, it`s time to join the party.
The only restrictions are that you must carry your hidden blaster gel and you will need permission from a parent or guardian to purchase one if you are under 18 in Finland. If you want to know more about Gel-Blaster, visit our previous blog: What are Gel-Blasters? Since gel beads (commonly sold in garden and hardware stores) are not legally considered ammunition, gel blast machines are classified as toys by the ACCC ASN/NZ 8124 in Australia and were legal for sale, but some toy importers/retailers, such as Brad Towner of Armored Heaven in New South Wales and Peter Clarke of Tactical Edge in Queensland, were seized by the Australian Border Police and prosecuted for "firearms offences"[12],[13] but the charges were decided in their favour. [14] There have also been incidents where the New South Wales Border Patrol has stopped people who were driving on the highway to buy Queensland gel blasters. [15] At the end of 2020, a lawsuit was filed against SAPOL to challenge the ban on gel blasters. Chris Sinclair, spokesman for the Gel Blaster Association of Australia, reportedly said he was confident the court case would be successful. [27] The exact details and outcome of the trial are unknown at this time, but a GoFundMe campaign raised more than $22,870 in costs for a "SAPOL class action lawsuit." Although the guns are not illegal throughout the state, they are not allowed in some areas because they can be called air guns. On 8 October 2020, the South Australia Police Service (SAPOL) announced that Gel-Blaster was officially declared a regulated fake firearm and was subject to the same licence to sell and possess paintball markers under the Firearms Act 2015 and the Firearms Regulations 2017.