A CALL TO ARMS: COME FLY WITH ME!

“HELLO SIRS, ARE YOU MR MORTIMER AND MR OU?” “IS THIS ABOUT THE GUNS IN OUR LUGGAGE?”

“PLEASE COME THIS WAY SIRS…”

THIS SOMEWHAT COMEDIC AND UNUSUAL INTERACTION WAS JUST ONE OF THE MYRIAD EXCHANGES THAT STEWBACCA AND HIS TEAMMATES HAD TO DEAL WITH ON THE WAY OUT AND BACK FROM THE RECENT ACTION AIR WORLD SHOOT II 2025 IN ILOILO, THE PHILIPPINES. BUT WHAT WERE EVERYONE’S VARIOUS EXPERIENCES TRAVELLING WITH ‘GUNS’, FOR ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES, FROM AND THROUGH DIFFERENT COUNTRIES? HE BRINGS US A COLLATION OF NECESSARY PREPARATIONS AND COMMENTS FROM VARIOUS SHOOTERS HE TALKED TO IN PART I OF HIS EVENT COVERAGE...

Although many of the AA Crew have travelled with their RIFs internationally in the past with little drama (such as Bill flying back and forth to the USA in his heyday, stories for another day, but hilarious ones!), travelling with a (replica) firearm was definitely a new experience for me on the way to and from Iloilo to take part in the AAWS II of July/August 2025.

This was just the tail end of months of preparations for doing so, as well as the beginning of woes for some of us involved. The majority of Team SPPT have already been to competitions or cross training in Hong Kong with our various friends and teams based over there in past years and even on the run up to the AAWS; however, I personally can’t risk HK/Macau/The mainland anymore for various reasons and my last experience over there just before COVID and down the road from where it was kicking off in 2019 covering the China WarGame Tournament, so I hadn’t had any personal experience of such travelling myself.

The legal landscape also seems to be constantly shifting not only in Taiwan, but various countries in the surroundings or on the way to or from ‘the West’ and it seems that the IPSC governing body at the top and local levels could do with keeping better tabs on these things where possible to better inform shooters especially those travelling from different regions.

As things were, at the tail end of last year our own domestic organisers seemed unaware of the changes in Taiwan’s laws which we covered back in Issue 163 regarding the outcomes of the consultative meetings between Taiwan’s airsoft manufacturers, player groups, retailers and other such stakeholders, along with police, legislative and customs officials regarding changes to gun control measures. As a result, the Hong Kong shooting competitors got tripped up when trying to enter Taiwan with their own airsoft pistols for the domestic level III match down in the outskirts of Kaohsiung as is typical each year.

As a result many of the competitors either had to drop out, treating it as just a tourism trip, or source guns locally, many of which were borrowed from friends in-country, some of whom literally travelled the length of Taiwan and back a few times in a day to help them prepare substitutes on short notice. This usually involved sharing guns within squads just to try and get the vast number of foreign shooters through, and obviously crippled their performances somewhat due to a lack of familiarity with the equipment and thereby understandably enfranchised a lot of ire and consternation from them as a result.

Thankfully, it seems the lesson has been learnt; while I’m not sure if there will be many international competitors joining us in Taiwan this November (having already just had a massive top level international match among others leading up to it) even some of our own team members are not bothering having either in the wake of a pretty healthy serving of shooting and wanting to rest and recoup in the tail end of the year. At least the international shooters have been informed of the procedures for temporarily importing and then re-exporting their airsoft replicas coming through Taiwan’s customs.

There And Back Again

We all also had to do so for the World Shoot because of course we would leave Taiwan with our guns and then re-enter on the return trip; this requires each individual shooter to create a personal account on the NPA (National Police Authority) online portal to enter all your personal details and then apply for individual licenses for each replica firearm to be transported.

This was a fairly involved procedure of taking photos of each gun from different angles, in different levels of disassembly, pointing out the feeding mechanism to clarify that live rounds cannot be chambered and that the magazines are incapable of carrying them as well, all of which is then submitted with a chronograph reading for legal power limit compliance before the specialist investigating firearms officer assesses and replies with your appropriate paperwork for dealing with Taiwan customs and border control both directions.

Similarly, the Philippines also had a PNP (Philippines National Police) PTT (Permit To Transport) document, the main difference being that this is a much more established and integrated system that the police and airport staff are very well versed in because the Philippines is a firearms permissive country.

Just as with the USA, many people have to travel domestically and internationally for shooting related hobbies, training or even professions, so airsoft guns are just filtered into the same system under a ‘6mm calibre, air pistol’ designation and everything in country operated extremely smoothly once we had all been issued our PTTs.

In the case of Taiwan shooters they just issued two general documents with everyone’s names on lists rather than individual documentation per shooter, along with an officially letter-headed invitation document from the PPSA (Philippines Practical Shooting Association) regarding the details of the competition and timings. The PTT is assigned for a certain window of usage allowing the individuals to enter the country with whatever guns they require, specifically for the intended purposes only, and must be removed with them upon exit before the expiration of said time window.

With all that being said, certain airlines, airports, countries or their staff and their varying familiarity with regulations throw additional problems into the mix. I know full well that NonoCat and Thunderspear had to argue with New Zealand border control when coming back from Taiwan and the G&G World Cup with a bunch of…battlefield pickups, and clearly knew the regulations better than the customs staff and went above their heads to resolve things and clarify their rights within the regulations. This is often the case with non-permissive environments, where guns or anything related are a rare occurrence for such staff, rather than the everyday banality of it in the USA, Philippines or some European or other countries and regions.

Taiwan was in itself an issue in that respect; despite having all our paperwork for both ends in order, airline staff were unfamiliar with their own rules and policy initially because again, a rarity for them to deal with, and they didn’t understand the difference between sporting firearms and airsoft toy guns, assuming we needed to declare them with a five day lead time ahead of the flight like real guns under their policies.

Likewise, Clarence had an absolute nightmare return trip for the same reason with staff in Manila not allowing him to board his flight! in all cases, making use of Philippine airlines is a much better idea as they are very capable with their policies and we had no issues caused by them at least, while our friends and teammates encountered some resistance or issues with China Airlines or Cebu Pacific.

Ou and I left earliest with his wife and had to explain the situation to a somewhat startled check in desk lady who immediately called her supervisor down who took a while to clarify things, but once she had she was a godsend and even prepared some additional paperwork for us after the police officers came over and inspected our paperwork and had us open our cases and inspect the guns… although they were kind of too casual I feel with doing so in front of all the ‘civilians’ queuing up for check in that I’d rather not have eyeing up the very contentious and expensive contents of our cases!

Nonetheless, we argued the case we didn’t need the five day lead-time as they aren’t real guns, and with the police officers happy we packed everything, finished check in, put our luggage on the belt and the officers told the X-Ray operator to not freak out about the two bags with guns coming through… In Clarence’s case it seems they even isolated the luggage with guns and personally delivered it to the planes, which is what happens in the Philippines as well and seems like a better idea.

Arriving in the Philippines everything went smoothly as all the airport staff and police were excellent and very professional and capable with us. We cleared immigration and waited for our luggage only for the ‘hot cases’ to be nowhere to be seen. A gentleman then approached us and identified us as per the exchange in the opening titles, and we were whisked away to begin the proceedings… Our luggage had blue Xs chalked on three faces to make it clear it was to be quarantined by staff for firearms check in procedures.

This all went smoothly despite taking a while and some money and paperwork, but local police and IPSC staff were on hand to make sure things went smoothly. Following this we packed our guns separately and went to the other terminal to check in for our domestic flight to Iloilo itself. In this case you deal with the internal system, and each airport has a PNP firearms checking desk with very friendly and helpful staff, many of whom are avid shooters themselves and love geeking out about your guns when they inspect them, so it feels a lot more like you are ‘among your people’ in that regard” They then personally take responsibility for them and get them on the plane in specialist Pelican crates that take everyone on each flight’s firearms and magazines in one luggage solution as such; this incurs a small fee each way to support all of the infrastructure required, but it’s a non-issue in the grander scheme of things.

NOT ALL SO SMOOTH…

All did not go so smoothly for some others however! As we arrived the Friday before the Tuesday opening ceremony and Wednesday kick off of stages, settling in days before many of the others arrived and briefing everyone on our experiences as the ‘forward intelligence team’ or ‘white rabbits’/’canaries’ or test cases you might say, we began seeing others from further afield struggle somewhat.

Mateusz (IG @cichyipsc) coming from Poland via Dubai had an absolute mare of a trip at the halfway point, and I was following his trials and tribulations online prior to his arrival and me meeting him in person finally having followed his Instagram for quite a while. What initially seemed to be an outright confiscation on the part of airport staff actually turned out to be a misunderstanding and another Cebu Pacific related issue.

Mateusz originally had to deal with similar issues using FlyDubai who also assumed he was carrying real guns and thereby spuriously incited their own ‘sporting firearms and ammunition’ policy meaning he had to play email ping pong for a while with them prior to his flight date, trying to deal with serial numbers (Ou & My Shadow 2 oranges have actual serial numbers on their barrels, which helps, but most airsoft guns do not, and some had to be created by the PPSA and stick on labels be created for everyone to use on entry).

As it happens, FlyDubai also didn’t offer him direct luggage transfer for his onward flight, so when he arrived in Dubai he got a call from their security telling him his guns were illegal in their country and would be seized, so had to explain the situation that he was just transiting, but then encountered issues with Cebu Pacific not allowing him to board his flight with his guns travelling internationally, they only seem to want to deal with such things on a domestic basis which is again why Alex Cruz of the PPSA told

ALL WENT SMOOTHLY DESPITE TAKING A WHILE AND SOME MONEY AND PAPERWORK, BUT LOCAL POLICE AND IPSC STAFF WERE ON HAND TO MAKE SURE THINGS WENT SMOOTHLY. FOLLOWING THIS WE PACKED OUR GUNS SEPARATELY AND WENT TO THE OTHER TERMINAL TO CHECK IN FOR OUR DOMESTIC FLIGHT TO ILOILO ITSELF” us to just use Philippine Airlines; they are a little more expensive but a great deal less hassle, exactly as Ou and I found.

Mateusz had to deal with extremely rude and dismissive airline staff who were not concerned with his problems and in the end relied upon airport security to force the matter due to their better understanding of the situation at the risk of his guns being deported back to Poland and not being able to travel separately to them by sending them with another cooperative airline.

In the end he had travel separately from his girlfriend and re-book a flight for himself at great cost on such short notice using Philippine Airlines from Dubai to Manila the next day and stay overnight waiting to board, all of which messed up his return journey plan and exit procedure because then he had to rebook the return leg flight which left from a different terminal, while his entrance/exit permit and deposit documentation was stored in another one. He had an additional nightmare on the way out and was on the same internal flight as us and was dealing with everything at the same time as Ou and I until we went our separate ways to join our respective onward flights.

Arriving in Manila he also realised he hadn’t declared his gun on his e-visa form and was told it would be confiscated but managed to plead his case. However, with his flight being delayed somewhat and the additional issues encountered he also had to re-book another flight to Iloilo as a result of all the delays and admin work having to be undertaken making him miss his original one.

Similarly, his teammates had further problems where their luggage wasn’t directly transferred as intended so they had to wait for their arrival separately after they had already entered the country, and on the way back out trying to deal with Cebu’s staff they took so long to confirm that they would not in fact let him board his flight with the guns, that he once again had to book a replacement flight! Clearly an absolute expensive nightmare of a situation paying for so many additional flights as a result of airline staff not knowing their own regulations or jobs effectively, it seems almost like a racket.

One competitor who flew via Bahrain apparently had their guns unceremoniously seized and thrown in the bin right in front of them without any chance of recourse, so clearly they were nonplussed about the whole situation!

It certainly seems like the ground is shrinking under our feet, even when you do all the paperwork correctly and know your own rights and their regulations, they sometimes do not, and when challenged airline staff seem to become extremely rude or sanctimonious in the majority of cases, especially in the case of anything contentious like guns or peripheral considerations even more so if they don’t deal with such things often or don’t have national protocols.

Clarence also had to rebook a different flight on his return leg to Taipei due to China Airlines staff in the Philippines being exceptionally rude and uninformed, insisting that he had to deal with the five day lead time because, despite firearms experts from the PNP and Philippines customs agreeing that they were only toy guns, the lack of understanding or consideration on the part of the ill-informed airline staff, who even implored him to just leave his guns behind if he wanted to board the flight. This was a flagrant violation of his responsibility to remove the gun from the Philippines with him, and she said this right in front of the local PNP officer who was being a saint in his assistance throughout everything.

The Final Leg

When Ou and I re-entered Taiwan we had a minor kerfuffle with the customs people as well, because for some reason they put our luggage with guns on the common belt… despite the fact they were clearly marked with ‘WEAP’ tags denoting ‘weapons’, and could have potentially been lifted by any enterprising person who understood the connotation had we been held up at the immigration gates at all!

As it was we were immediately challenged as we attempted to leave and asked to have our bags inspected… Apparently we should have gone through the red customs declaration lane by default, but in previous instances like on the return from Hong Kong bags with guns had been actively quarantined by staff and signs put on the belt informing shooters to that effect.

We were stood right in front of the customs main desk waiting for our bags, with our backpacks covered in clearly shooting-related patches and identifiers, but they didn’t think to initiate the interaction themselves until we tried to leave. If you are the controlling authority to my mind it should be your job to know, understand, and properly execute procedures, not allow passengers to muddle through things and then blame them for not knowing your job.

Everything worked out fine for almost everyone I heard of in the end, and they even met Clarence off his flight to explain the procedure Ou and I hadn’t gotten right, but it certainly does feel like you’re Sisyphus and people who should know about your damned boulder better than you, are asking you questions about it!

As an additional note, having had interactions with airsoft gun components and trying to send things from Taiwan to the UK, or investigating sending things to New Zealand to help out NonoCat and Thunderspear, it also seems that even sending things by airmail which just transits some countries or territories in the middle east or Hong Kong (very likely routes for most flights) will result in seizure and destruction of your property, and Taiwan post told me they are also likely to get fined as the originating carrier for even trying to send such things.

Evidently, there is still a lot to be done educating people on our rights and their own regulations, but next time I will bring you a much more positive tale of the positive aspects of the World Shoot itself.

Until then, fellow shooters…

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