Commentary on Sections Part 5: Firearms Section 38: Air weapons: age limits
98.This section makes a number of amendments to sections 22, 23 and 24 of the Firearms Act 1968 in order to change the age at which a young person may own an air weapon and to tighten up on when it may be used unsupervised. The present limit is raised from fourteen to seventeen and it will also be an offence for anybody to give an air weapon to a person under seventeen. This means that no-one under 17 will be able to have an air weapon in their possession at any time unless supervised by someone who is aged at least 21 or as part of an approved target shooting club or shooting gallery. However, 14 to 16 year olds (inclusive) will be permitted to have air weapons unsupervised when on private land, provided they have the consent of the occupier. It will be an offence for them to shoot beyond the boundaries of that land.