Sorry, you guys are wrong.
I wish you had been to some of the hearings on paintball related laws recently. It is *NOT* a gun issue. These laws arn't being written by people who think of paintball markers as guns. These laws are being written from a safety issue - the legislators want to make sure paintball markers arn't used inappropriately, and sometimes they go overboard because they don't have the information necessary to draft legislation that's appropriate.
Trying to get a safety law changed by arguing that people have a right to bear arms won't work because you're just simply not adressing the issues at hand.
Paintball markers are SPORTING GOOD EQUIPMENT. Calling in the NRA to fight paintball legislation makes about as much sense as calling them in for ATV or snow mobiling legislation.
It is VERY EASY to approach legislators and say "Yes, we understand that you want to make sure paintball equipment is used responsibly. How about you write your legislation this way to accomplish that without unduely burdening paintball participants?" And that works. (It worked very well in WI.)
You need to understand that even if the NRA were to become involved, they'd involve us as a part of their greater legislative agenda. Paintball may not necessarily always benefit as part of another organization's agenda. We need to approach paintball legislation as paintball consumers, not gun owners, because the legislation is about paintball, not guns.
- Chris
It's already happening.... just needs help.
Manufacturers:
Paintball Product Manufacturers Association (PPMA)
www.paintballassociation.org
Players/Consumers:
American Paintball Players Association (APPA)
www.paintball-players.org
The second one is my effort - so many people saying we needed on figurred it was about time someone got off their butt and did it.
- Chris
You guys are missing the point....
For some reason all the NRA members seem to think the NRA is going to somehow step in and miracles are going to happen. Why? What is the NRA going to do?
If the Baltimore were trying to ban water balloon launchers, would you call the NRA? Of course not. If they were banning lawn darts, would you call the NRA? No. Baseball bats? No. The concerns this legislation is trying (not quite effectively) to adress have NOTHING to do with gun issues.
While it's great you all believe in the lobbying power of oyur organization, it has nothing to du with the issue at hand.
It is dangerous to get the NRA involved because the people we are dealing with don't like the NRA to begin with. Even if people were trying to get paintball banned because they pair it with guns, the LAST thing you want to do is bring in the gun lobby! It's also dangerous because you don't want to put yourself in the position where you are reliant on someone else for your welfare because the second your interests arn't their interested you're screwed.
Paintball needs its own lobbying organization with its own funding and its own goals and representation. Snow mobilers have them, off roaders have them, hunters have them, fishermen have them, pretty much any sport which is heavily impacted by legislation (like all those sports are) have lobbying groups to air their grievances and protect their interests.
When we went to the hearing in Wisconsin, we had to wait over two hours while they discussed the first issue: How soon a new elk herd would be open for hunting and how many licenses would be issued and who would get them. Small herd, licenses starting out at less than 10. There were HUNTING associations there to make sure that the interests of hunters were preserved. Do you know who was NOT there? The NRA. Why? Because even though these elk were going to be shot with guns, whether or not people got to shoot elk with guns had nothing to do with the NRA, and if the NRA had showed up, the most they would have gotten is a chuckle.
It's the same here - except there arn't even any guns involved.
Is the NRA a powerful lobbying organization? Sure. Does this have anything to do with them? No. IF you're going to make that kind of argument, you could make a MUCH stronger argument for getting the ACLU or some other civil liberties group involved - the kind of groups who routinely act in NUMEROUS ways to fight government intrusion on private lives. (not saying we should rely on them either, just saying that paintball isn't any more of an NRA/republican thing than it is an ACLU/democrat thing. It's PAINTBALL.)
If you want to have an affect on this legislation, you need to be able to demonstrate that the number of people adversely affected by the law and the way they are affected far outweighs any consideration for maybe perhaps preventing illegal activities in the future. (I.e., we need to show that permitting possession of paintball equipment has many more benefits than restricting it. A fairly easy case to make.) "We have the NRA, now surrender!" isn't going to work.
- Chris
Complete text of BOTH proposed Baltimore Bans