lp1

[Guest]

Wondering abour the markings on a Steyr LP1... on the left side there is a polygon shield with a letter F in it? any ideas? thanks

[Mark Briggs]

Dear Guest,

The letter F within a pentagon is the symbol denoting the pistol produces less than 7.5 joules of muzzle energy. Many countries within Europe use this as the defacto method of separating firearms from non-firearms (less than 7.5 joules = non-firearm). Would that more nations around the world would accept this standard, rather than inventing their own, based on total ingnorance of target firearms design or use!

[cdf]

Canada being a prime case on point . It would even be an improvement if they would go for the British 6/12 footpound guideline .

Chris

[Rapid2]

Is anyone actually still using pounds and/or feet ?????

;-)

Bob

[Mark Briggs]

Chris - please don't even talk about the 6 & 12 British standard. NO manufacturer marks the external surface of their airguns with a symbol indicating that it produces less than 6 or 12 foot pounds of energy - and this energy level is so far above our current 5.7joule limit that any gov't attempting to adopt this standard would be seen as taking a political risk. The British standard is as much a turkey as the current Canadian standard. At least with the Pentagon F standard the vast majority of competition airguns are currently marked in that fashion, meaning we could actually classify our airguns based on a visual inspection.

At the moment one of the biggest hurdles is the method by which we achieve airgun classification. The CFC, Justice ministry and RCMP tell us to just blindly send them our airguns for testing, after which testing they'll tell us whether it's a firearm or not. Of course, in this atmosphere of cooperation and transparency (NOT!) it comes as not surprise that neither the RCMP office responsible nor the Justice ministry will reveal either their testing process used nor their exact test criteria. You can rest assured under those circumstances that if you send them an airgun for classification it WILL be classified as a firearm. No, I'm not paranoid, just extremely frustrated after spending a good long time trying to get straight answers out of these people. And like the Liberal chief who ruled them for far too long a time, they too speak out of both sides of their mouths. I even volunteered to take my airgun to their facility here in Ottawa and witness the testing and provide them assistance and guidance. That was when I was told their test facility had been dismantled. So all the while they were telling me to send in my gun for testing they didn't even have a test facility in which to do it. Sorry, but this is one instance where skepticism and paranoia are not only warranted, but are also highly prudent traits to possess when dealing with a government bureaucracy which is being guided by a very strong and thinly-veiled anti-gun political agenda.

[cdf]

I hear ya Mr. Briggs , I too would like to see the European standard adopted . As you say , a simple visual inspection would establish complience .

Chris