ACT Why are NERF guns not considered firearms?

[werecatz]

I've been looking into the issues around gel blasters and can see where they might fall into trouble as imitation weapons. But I don't see why, if they looked like nerf blasters, they should be considered firearms.
Under the firearms act 1996 an airgun (being spring powered) requires a licence. Now a NERF gun is spring powered and fires a projectile, so how does a NERF gun have an exemption from this law?
For that matter, Bows, slingshots etc. fire projectiles from springs but they aren't airguns either.

The root of the question then is this: If I make a gel blaster that does not look anything like a gun, and is manufactured for the purposes of being a toy, would it be legal?

 

[PeterClark1]

There appears to be no dispute that the item in dispute is a cap-gun originally sold or distributed as a child's toy. It has not been altered or adapted. A toy may contain a mechanism that imitates the loading or firing mechanism but that does not make a children's toy a firearm or regulated imitation firearm.