Sourcing air guns and truncheons from China

2% duty, with licensing controls

Read from the UK Trade Tariff on 27 September 2026, heading 9304 covers other arms, such as spring, air or gas guns and pistols and truncheons, excluding the swords and bayonets of heading 9307. It is a single line at 2% on goods from China, with no anti-dumping measure and no tariff suspension.

Parts and accessories are heading 9305: parts of revolvers or pistols, shotgun barrels and other parts of shotguns or rifles, and other parts, are 2%, and parts of military weapons are 0%. Confirm which subheading your parts fall under with the commodity code process before ordering.

The tariff attaches the firearms and ammunition import licensing control (measure 351) to 9304 and 9305. The declaration must show a firearms import licence from the Department for Business and Trade, or an exemption such as code 9020 for goods that are not firearms. The GOV.UK import controls page lists the notices to importers.

Air weapons: power limits and prohibited types

Under the Firearms Act 1968 an air weapon is outside the firearm certificate system unless it is declared specially dangerous. The Firearms (Dangerous Air Weapons) Rules 1969 declare an air pistol with muzzle energy above 6 ft lb, or any other air weapon above 12 ft lb, to be specially dangerous, so it needs a firearm certificate in England and Wales. Weapons designed only for use under water are excluded.

Section 5(1)(af) of the 1968 Act makes any air rifle, air gun or air pistol that uses, or is designed or adapted for, a self-contained gas cartridge system a prohibited weapon. Bulk CO2 capsule pistols are a different design, so ask the factory exactly which system the gun uses.

Selling air weapons by way of trade or business is limited to registered firearms dealers (section 3 of the 1968 Act, as amended by section 31 of the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006), and sales to individuals must be completed face to face (section 32). In Scotland, the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015 requires an air weapon certificate to use, possess, purchase or acquire an air weapon.

Truncheons and imitation firearms

Section 141 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 prohibits importing the weapons listed in the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) Order 1988. The list includes the telescopic truncheon that extends automatically by pressure on a button, spring or other device in the handle.

Batons or truncheons of metal or other material with a shaft carrying metal spikes are prohibited under retained Regulation (EU) 2019/125 on goods that could be used for torture, and the tariff shows this as an import prohibition on 9304.

Section 36 of the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 makes it an offence to bring a realistic imitation firearm into Great Britain. Under the 2007 regulations an imitation is treated as unrealistic if it is smaller than 38 mm high and 70 mm long, made of transparent material, or principally bright red, orange, yellow, green, pink, purple or blue. Defences cover supply for insured skirmishing or display at permitted events, so check the buyer's use before ordering replica designs.

Specifying air guns

Specify the power system (spring, gas ram, pre-charged pneumatic or CO2 capsule), calibre, target muzzle energy with a tolerance below the legal limit, barrel length, sights and scope rails, safety catch type, trigger pull weight, stock material, finish and colour, markings, and packaging with the user manual in English.

For truncheons and batons, specify material, length, weight, grip and whether the design is fixed or extendable, and exclude automatic telescopic mechanisms and spikes at the drawing stage.

Worked duty example

Suppose, purely for illustration, you import 300 spring-powered air rifles below the 12 ft lb limit under 9304 00 00 00. At £18,000 free on board and £1,500 to ship and insure, the customs value is £19,500. Air rifles at 2% pay £390 of duty; VAT is then worked out on value plus duty, £19,890, giving £3,978. Of the £4,368 paid at import, only the £390 of duty stays a cost for a VAT-registered business. The duty is the smaller question: the declaration must also carry a firearms import licence or a valid exemption code, or the rifles will not be released. The method is set out in how UK import duty and VAT work.

Inspection checklist

Muzzle energy: fire a string of pellets through a chronograph for each sampled gun, record pellet mass, and calculate energy as half mass times velocity squared. 12 ft lb is about 16.3 joules and 6 ft lb about 8.1 joules; reject any gun above the limit agreed for its type.

Function and safety: check the safety catch blocks the trigger, the cocking and loading cycle, anti-bear-trap devices on break-barrels where fitted, seal leaks on pre-charged guns over a hold period, and trigger pull against the specification.

Legal features: confirm the gas system is not a self-contained cartridge design, that imitation designs meet the agreed colour or size, and that no batons have automatic telescopic mechanisms or spikes.

What goes wrong

Air gun orders fail on power, legality and paperwork. Guns built for other markets exceed 12 ft lb, a design turns out to use a self-contained gas cartridge, replica pistols arrive in realistic black when two-tone was agreed, and consignments are held because the declaration carries no licence or exemption code.

Agree the legal limits in the contract, test energy on every lot, and settle the licence or exemption before shipping. See our quality inspection guide.

Cambridge China Bridge sources air weapons, accessories and batons for registered UK firearms dealers, checking the factory's product range and test records first. See factory verification.