It's official and you can do some victory laps if you want. California SB798 has failed to pass approval and won't get another chance of hearing from the State Assembly this year. All airsoft players and businesses in California can now heave a collective sigh of relief this year and they can sleep well at night knowing that this bill won't bother them for the rest of the year.

The bill has failed to pass due to a technicality. Since it has been remanded back due to concerns about the substantial amendments to the bill, the California State Legislature ran out of time to conduct deliberations on the bill and other bills tabled for this year as the legislative year is over. Any bill to be passed should have been approved on or before September 9, before the the State Legislature goes into recess.

They will convened again on the January 4, 2012, which means that it will be the time for everyone to be concerned again. That is, if Senator De Leon will refile the bill again for consideration by the Legislature. However, 2012 is also an election year and those who will be up for election will have to score some major political points to be reelected in November 2012. Senator De Leon will be up for reelection too, and this may give an opportunity for the California Airsoft community. Either they can work for his non-reelection, or compromise with him to drop his bill and help in his reelection.

Even if the Committee on Public Safety failed to muster enough votes to approve SB 798 last September 6, the Airsoft Safety Foundation did not make a premature announcement that the bill is dead on the water and instead waited until the September 9 when the State Legislature goes into recess, giving no chance for SB798 to be heard again this year.

In short, it's not really that over folks. There has been no mention of negotiations between the Airsoft Safety Foundation and Senator De Leon to make the latter drop his bill for next year. There is then that specter that SB 798 will be reincarnated in another form next year. This means that the airsoft community will still need to work hard to dispel misconceptions about airsoft, especially in concerns of safety, law and order.

There are concerns of airsoft guns being misused such as to commit crimes, showing in public places, and lack of supervision of children who can easily access airsoft guns. The airsoft community should be vigilant as most of the news reported among journals and newspapers all over the US about airsoft are not always good news. Just a mere search of "airsoft" in Google news would give you a long list of airsoft guns being misused in the US, and it's not about children only, it's about adults committing crime with imitation firearms.

Airsoft is about honor, safety, and responsibility, we should always keep that in mind. It's also a matter of self-initiative on the part of the airsoft community to make sure that airsoft guns are used legally. It can be a matter of proposing their own legislation, which we can call a "preemptive" type of legislation, to give lawmakers an understanding of what airsoft is all about and how the airsoft community are taking steps for self-regulation that can be a good model  among airsoft communities.

The best model for now is the self-regulation done by the UK Airsoft Community, with the UKARA creating its player database to sell airsoft guns to people who have proven themselves to be responsible airsoft players.  This proposed self-regulation was the clincher that exempted the airsoft community from the Violent Crimes Reduction Act (VCRA). Four years after the VCRA took effect, airsoft in the UK has grown bigger, and crimes or public disturbances with imitation firearms have been minimized.

Sometimes lack of regulations, or ineffective regulations, can be subject to abuses. We sometimes hate government for regulations that hamper our enjoyment of our hobbies, such as airsoft. But when we cooperate fully to come up with a more effective mechanism to address concerns of the government and the general public, while not hindering our ability to play airsoft and access to airsoft guns locally and from overseas, then we can always come up with a win-win situation. And that is always a situation that everybody wants.