To expand on the minutes from the last club meeting regarding the changes to accepting underage players to club events, below are the club reasons for making these policy changes:
Underage players and the risks associated with them have been a topic of discussion within the club and also with the local arms officer for quite some time. At the club meeting, the issue was raised for discussion again, and voted on to be implemented immediately. Tauranga Airsoft Club will only allow players on the field who are either 16 with their firearms license, or over 18.
The reason for this is based on increasing onus placed on clubs and people running club events being responsible for incidents that may occur on the field. It is noted within the firearms act that any underage players must be under “immediate supervision” while playing with an Airsoft rifle. “Immediate supervision” is considered to be someone beside the underage player at all times, unarmed, who is able to take the airsoft gun off the underage player if an incident occurs. As I am sure we can all appreciate, this is simply not realistically practical to enforce at TAC events.
We appreciate the enthusiasm of our younger club players, and it saddens us to need to make this change in policy, however we must be aware of club risks and responsibilities running events and act accordingly.
For any underage players, TAC is offering a full refund of membership fees, so please contact us if this applies to you.