What is "UKARA"?

The UKARA is a database of players who all have a legitimate reason to purchase a Realistic Imitation Firearm (RIF) from a retailer and who participate in regular matches at various gaming sites across the UK. Each player is registered with the gaming site where they play regularly. The owners of the gaming sites keep a record of all players who attend each game and note the dates of the games they attend at their gaming site.

WHAT UKARA IS FOR:

It is a criminal offence to sell a realistic imitation firearm (RIF) to anyone and therefore all retailers (and even individual sellers) potentially risk hefty fines or even prison sentences if they sell realistic imitation firearms (RIFs) to someone who does not have a reasonable defence or who does not meet the legal criteria to purchase one, so the UKARA system was created by retailers to help them identify who meets the legal criteria to purchase and who does not and has contributed greatly to keeping our sport safe and above board.

HOW TO OBTAIN UKARA ACTIVE STATUS

Once a player over the age of 18 completes 3 games within a minimum period of 2 months at the same gaming site the player may apply to be registered as an active player in the UKARA database.

This active status allows the player to purchase Realistic Imitation Firearms (RIF) by providing the retailer with the UKARA number; the retailer checks the number against the database and, if active, may sell the RIF. There is no licence or card to show us, we only number the number and being active or inactive in the database.

USEFUL LINKS

Official UKARA website

https://ukara.org.uk

Sale of RIFS (see section 37)

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/38/part/2/crossheading/imitation-firearms

Transport of RIFS

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2007/2606/regulation/3/made