Toys or terrifying? Pressure on Queensland to ban replica ‘gel blasters’

Gun control advocates urge Queensland to follow the rest of Australia and ban gel blasters instead of labelling them toys.

Gel Blaster Association of Australia president Peter Clark in Yatala, Queensland, at one of his stores. Picture: Glenn Hunt

Gun control advocates are urging Queensland to fall into line with the rest of Australia and ban gel blasters instead of labelling them toys, as the replica guns are used in a rash of crimes and the amateur sport surges in popularity.

The Queensland government this month announced it would soon be illegal to sell gel blasters to under-18s, but every other Australian jurisdiction has heavily restricted their use, either banning them outright or ordering users to get a firearms licence.

Costing between $20 and $2000, the devices are lifelike replicas of sniper rifles, Glock pistols, submachine guns, double-barrel shotguns and military weapons, shoot small balls filled with gel, and can be used in skirmish or paintball-style games.

The industry is now worth tens of millions of dollars in Australia despite the legal hurdles, and gel blaster sellers say the sport is fun, safe and causes much fewer injuries than football.

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Pressure on state to ban replica ‘gel blasters’

Gun control advocates urge Queensland to follow the rest of Australia and ban gel blasters instead of labelling them toys.

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Queensland’s acting assistant police commissioner Paul Hart, commander of the state’s youth crime taskforce, says they look so real that police could shoot someone using them illegally in public.

“For me, it’s about thinking about my colleagues on the road. When they’re confronted with a person who’s got an article like that, that looks exactly like a firearm, they do what they’re trained to do, and that is to neutralise that threat,” Mr Hart said.

Gel blasters have been used in armed hold-ups, drive-by shootings and robberies, to shoot at a cat in a neighbourhood dispute in the exclusive Brisbane suburb of Ascot, in a hoax threat about a school shooting in Adelaide, and in sieges with police.

In NSW in 2020, an ice dealer found with an “arguably plastic-looking semi-automatic appearing gel blaster” and a crossbow was sentenced to 14 months in jail for drug and weapons offences.

A Brisbane man was charged with attempted murder in January last year after shooting an 18-year-old in the leg with a modified gel blaster.

In Perth in August last year, a stripper in a “sexy SWAT officer” costume and holding a gel blaster that looked like an AR-15 assault rifle was charged by police.

Western Australia had banned all gel blasters in 2021.

Gel Blaster Association of Australia president Peter Clark, who owns the Tactical Edge gel blaster shops in Queensland and has fought legal battles against the bans in that state, WA and South Australia, said “99.99 per cent of people who own the product is 100 per cent law-abiding”.

Asked about cases where gel blasters were used in robberies, Mr Clark said: “I can use a kitchen knife to do that, I can use a syringe full of blood, I could use a baseball bat, I could use my fists.

“It’s one of those things where it’s an easy target, it’s low-hanging fruit. It’s easy to go ‘You could do this potentially with it, so we should ban it’,” he said.

The WA case involved a young man from an Aboriginal community who was charged with weapons offences for possessing two gel blasters.

Mr Clark, who is fundraising for a further appeal in the WA ­Supreme Court, said the matter had the potential to go all the way to the High Court.

“The police and the politicians should come (here to the gel blaster shooting range) and see the kids have fun, because they love it,” he said. “Everybody who comes in here, they grab the gun, shoot it down the range, and their eyes light up. In my eyes, it’s not a scary product. It’s just a product.

“You can’t get hurt in here unless you’re twisting an ankle.”

Gun Control Australia president Tim Quinn said Queensland needed to meet Australian standards. “Not to be the fun police but they do look like real guns, you can hold up a shop with a gel blaster,” Mr Quinn said.

“The rest of the jurisdictions don’t believe you should have gel blasters … Queensland should ­really come into line and ban them.

“I know it’s not a real gun but there are people who will take that too far.”

Queensland Police Minister Mark Ryan said the government would shortly start consulting with industry to “develop further enhancements to the safety framework” around gel blasters.