The new chief of the Pasig City Police Office has warned owners of airsoft guns of arrest if caught with these at checkpoints as part of the nationwide gun ban ordered by the Commission on Elections or (Comelec).

Senior Supt. Jessie Lorenzo Cardona, newly appointed head of the Pasig City Police Office, issued the warning after two airsoft owners were arrested at a police checkpoint.

He said Pasig police checkpoints also arrested a person caught with a replica of .45 caliber pistol and bladed weapons.

Cardona said that under Comelec Resolution 8714 on a nationwide gun ban, carrying airsoft guns, gun replicas and other weapons is strictly prohibited.

He added that ignorance of the law also excuses no one after those who were arrested told police that they did not know that airsoft guns were covered by the Comelec gun ban.

Airsoft guns are often highly detailed firearm replicas manufactured for recreational purposes. It propels non-metallic 6mm pellets at muzzle velocities ranging from 30 to 180 meters per second by way of compressed gas or a spring-driven piston.

Depending on the mechanism driving the pellet, an airsoft gun can be operated manually or cycled by compressed gas such as Green Gas (propane), or CO2, a spring, or an electric motor. All plastic BBs are ultimately fired from a piston compressing a pocket of air from behind the plastic BB.