YES, worst media attention EVER: "Paintball Terrorism Case"

[Ov3rmind]

Link (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,110900,00.html)

Discuss.

[ramenjames]

i dont know what i feel right now......its 1/2 anger and 1/2 --- man this is so bad for our sport
it seems that for every piece of good media we get (tournys where everything runs smooth or something like "local boy stops violent burgaler/rapest with paintball marker") we get about 433576345 pieces of neg media (and that can be as simple as a person not wareing proper safty gear or not folling basic rules for safe play on a sitcom...or vandalism...or this..)

man are we ever going to win?

[FallNAngel]

LOL

"Amolsch also disputed that the paintball games had any sinister nature, pointing out that his client was known for falling asleep during them"

apparently they suck at paintball though

[DWill]

I don't know if that is as bad as we think. The article, of course associates paintball with wargames, and terrorism. But, most people already know paintball has the potential for military training and are liable not to really think much about that.
The other assciation as already mentioned is that with terrorism. However, as I read the article I thought nothing of this, instead I was thinking about the case itself, and the arguments for and againist the people going to trail.
So all in all, I doubt most people, if any are gonna see this as bad media, and we should really be focusing on the bigger issues here, such as are these guys being targeted by the government, and being falsely accused of terrorism because or their ethnicity, or are they truly guilty, which makes the world a whole lot scarier either way.
Just my view, a more positive view of a really bumming thing going on in paintball, but also it has some bumming references to our daily lifes too.

[Tyger]

I took away from the article that the government equates paintball with terrorisim. I mean, the author even said that the paintball games weren't the main contention of the government's case. Just a portion of evidence.

I didn't see anyhting "Bad" for the game / sport.

-Tyger

[Jonesie]

I don't think this is so bad for the sport. If paintball wasn't around, they'd be using Airsoft, BB's or some other form of non-lethal guns...

Let it go. The government isn't out to ban paintball nation-wide. There's too much $$$ in it. Enough that the big companies could ban together to hire Johnny Cochran to argue that the ban is outrageous, horrenous, hideous, unspeakable, unplausable, and unacceptable! :D If the mask don't fit, you must acquit!

[Pacifist_Farmer]

old news if im not mistaken

but I dont think it will have any impact on paintball in the least,

the general public, while mostly stupid, wont equate paintball fields, something their own kids may enjoy with terror training camps,

its just an unfortunate headline

[thecavemankevin]

they were caught back in october i think it was not too far from here. One day on my way to a field in fredrickburg VA i saw a sign saying paintball. Now this was my first time going to TMX paintball, but i knew from their website they said that i would pass a rinky dink little field on my way to theirs.

so i saw the sing and figured what the heck i would pull in and check it out. All it was, was a clear cut field full of tree stumps and debris and a few ply boards. I laughed when i saw the little house trailer and a dog came running out of his house attatched to a chain and jumped up on an old rusted out camero barking at me.

I left and when i got to TMX my original destination they told me that is where the terrorist were caught.

[paint magnet]

Actually, one time this happened (paintball was referred to as a 'war' and 'terrorist training' game on Dateline and was officially known as the "Survival Game" at the time) NBC had thousands of people calling them the day after it aired wanting to find out where they could play the game! :D

As for what should be done with these terrorist wannabes, (or any other terrorist piece of crap), I think these quotes say it best:

"We've got too many gangsters doin' dirty deeds, too much corruption and crime in the streets / Take all the rope in Texas, find a tall oak tree...round up all of them bad boys and hang 'em high in the streets...for all the people to see "

- Toby Keith and Willie Nelson, "Beer for my Horses", Unleashed

"Liberty or death, what we so proudly hail
Once you provoke her, rattling of her tail
Never begins it, never, but once engaged...
Never surrenders, showing the fangs of rage

Don't tread on me

So be it
Threaten no more
To secure peace is to prepare for war
So be it
Settle the score
Touch me again for the words that you'll hear evermore...

Don't tread on me

Love it or live it, she with the deadly bite
Quick is the blue tongue, forked as lighting strike
Shining with brightness, always on surveillance
The eyes, they never close, emblem of vigilance "

-Metallica, "Don't Tread on Me", Black Album