Yet another ignorant article about paintball....

[Kaiser Bob]

This is an article from the UMASS-Amherst school newspaper. The writer has a very biased and unfounded view towards paintball, just wanted to get you thoughts. If youre so inclined, write some feedback! I tried to inform her a bit, my post is the Anthony Jones post.

the link: http://www.dailycollegian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2002/02/26/3c7afa1bbb820

[cphilip]

Well there you go! Another group of unsupervised little perverts ruining the name of the sport. And now you have a person totally closed minded about it and writing an article generalizing things because she doesn't know anything other than what she saw.

And this one statement I realy agree with her on: "Stand vigilantly and help to eradicate paintball abusers..."

By golly all of us better help her do that! You have to educate her and the others out there that we are against these hoodlums too. For our own selfish good as well as the Wildlife.

Write a patient sympathetic response to her. And condem these kids and disassociate yourselves from them. They are by no means "Paintball players". They are vandals wether they use a Paintball Marker or a Baseball Bat to do it.

[DJSOLID]

I replied. Her post is legitimate - her anger is justified. It's the idiots that were shooting animals with their markers that ought to be punished. If people keep this up, paintball is gonna be banned in every state. Mark my words - the paintball industry dosen't have the kind of powerful lobby dollars that the NRA does and all it takes is one pissed legislator to convince a few more and then the whole thing snowballs.

[Kaiser Bob]

I dont think unfounded generalizations like calling paintball the 'king of white trash sports' belong in a newspaper article. Her anger is certainly justified and vandalism is a real problem we have in the sport of paintball, but her comments were out of line. In my opinion it was bad journalism.

[DJSOLID]

It wasn't journalism, it was editorial comment. She expressed her feelings, and how can that be done incorrectly? The unfortunate part about this is that others may be feeling the same way in other places around the country.

[cphilip]

Originally posted by Kaiser Bob
I dont think unfounded generalizations like calling paintball the 'king of white trash sports' belong in a newspaper article.

Well then educate her gently on it.

But...I know for a fact Competitive Beer drinking and Jaleapeneo Pepper eating are the true king of redneck sports. :D

[Cliffio]

arent paintball oil based?

if they were water based then they would dry quickly
but ive shot things and the paint wont dry for weeks



holla
Cliff

[Hemlock86]

Bah!!

She a loser for putting down paintball and not knowing what its about! Its called IGNORANCE!

For the punk kids. Yes it was wrong for them to do that, but boys will be boys. If its not a harmless paintball gun, then next would be a pellet gun or a sling shoot. When i was in 6th grade, I took my Splatmaster and shot at birds and stuff....not like I ever hit one with that thing! hehe. But know that Im older, I wouldnt shoot an animal for no reason. Im not defending the kids, cause it doesnt help paintball. But Id rather see the swan shot with a marker then with a .22

peace

[LaW]

they used to be oil based a long time ago and would stain etc... now they are water based I'm pretty sure.

[dio91]

this chick seems to have somethin big stuck up her butt. she gotta chill out and look at this thing in its whole perspective. the sports great, everyone plays all the time without getting "severly" injured, just like in any other sport. and whats up with this white trash statement?

[LaW]

hey man you might have felt the same way in her situation. I mean thats a horrible thing that happend and if i was attached to the animals like that i'd have "a big stick up my butt" too....

[Cliffio]

she might be a little unreasonable

thats kinda like saying, well my grandma got hit buy a car so lets ban all cars

[LaW]

yeah but if someone gets killed by a car and it was an older person driving you could say "old people shouldn't be allowed to drive" I for one have uttered those words...

[Kaiser Bob]

Granted, it was an editorial and the statements were a matter of opinion, I still thought she was out of line. I mean she is poo-pooing on something that people make their living on, at least she could take 30 minutes to get a better understanding about it first.

And paint is water based.

[natedogg]

its becuase of articles like that that soccer moms and men who drive minivans dont allow their child to have their first little stingray or talon or tippman

[HoppysMag]

"via the king of white trash "sports", paintballing."


UHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! ya white trash......can white trash aford a freakin EMAG? huh, some inbred country hick cant afford a EMAG....

"The swans are pretty to look at, and certainly they don't want to be stained with paint that might be poisonous to their pretty feathers and delicate swan digestive systems."
poisonous ???? Hello.....if it was Poisonous why would they be called ECOFriendly..... Waterdisolvable and so on and so forth..



"But I'd like to think that the children of Amherst, who are taught by their liberal parental units to buy locally grown produce and save the whales, have some respect for our animal friends."
.......I HATE HIPPIES!!!!!!!!!...........




"And paintball! I'm sorry if you enjoy paintball, but honestly what kind of a hobby is it? Laser tag - I'm all for it - nothing's actually shot at, nothing gets stained, and you can tag to the stylings of Slayer and Motley Crue the whole time. Even the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing games that transpire in the Campus Center basement are excusable. But shooting balls of paint? Get a freakin' life."


UHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! Aperently i have more of a life than you......And isnt UMass big on paintball???





Edit It is wrong that these kids did this, but she has no right to attack our beloved sport. Especialy since she has never played it before...........

[RoadDawg]

She has a very valid point. It is wrong that she blames the whole community for a couple kids acts. I do have to agree on the fact that a paintball gun is better then a real gun, or sling shot. I know for a fact that a sling shot pellet hurts worse then a paintball ever could. The fact is though what these kids did was still wrong and should be punished. It is acts like these that give us a bad name to the general public. For example some kids shot at my Bro and Sis and laws house cause they had a University of Utah flag hanging outside. This was during the U of U vs. BYU football game. My bros house was not the only one in the neighborhood. Stuff like that makes me sick. Thing is you can't keep all people from doing it. I mean people still shoot people with real guns (killing them of course) even though we have laws against it. I agree with the editorial on the fact that it was wrong to shoot the geese. Then again it was wrong for her to judge the whole community for their actions.

[sbikeclix]

to clarify: paintballs havent been oil based for over 10 years now i think. they used to be, but now they are non-toxic, water based, and i think the coloration is a simple sugar or corn syrup gased goo (wich doesnt make it taste ANY better. paintballs will stay for weeks, but only if they are almost totally untouched with water

[meanelvis]

I posted my reply, which while harsh, was an educated critique of her editorial. I'm really pleasantly surprised at the number of civil replies/explanations to this editorial from the paintball community. I've never been ashamed of being a part of this community (albeit I'm a newer member) and you guys keep proving why time and again. Congrats and keep those comments coming!

[Hysperion]

they should be punished the same as you should get a speed limit for driving 3 over or j-walking with no cars around....don't pretend like you've never chased geese or had some fun with animals when you were younger.....if you didn't bro- go try it- you missed out it's kinda fun :)....my shining moments are catching sucker fish and putting an m-80 in their mouth then lighting it (the m-80's are waterproof) and watching them go under the water.....*BOOM*...messing with swans isn't cool though....

[Bob_Cock]

Where i come from, there aren't alot of White Trash Duck Hunts. I was rather annoyed with her editorial. If she was a little more educated and open minded, she might have realised nearly all paintball is used in a fun and safe manner.
Sure, there's the odd nutcase using it to molest animals or scare the crap outta folks (saw some kids doing drive-bys on COPS once) but isn't everything abused by idiots sooner or later?
And of course they should be punished. There are laws against cruelty against animals. They should have reported it while it was happening. The kids woulda lost their guns. No more swan hunting for them.

The sad thing is most people feel the way she does. Some psychos trying to vent anger or practice for their post office storming. Pity really.
At least the people a run into.

[gmag]

I replied, but I don't think the moderators let it stand. I guess it might have been a little harsh...

[meanelvis]

my reply was a little harsh, but was aimed correctly, was educated, and wasn't hateful or anything.. it took like 3 hours for the mods to post it, might just be a time issue.

<= dave w.

[Thordic]

More people should be writing replies to this...

Try to keep them well-mannered, and based in facts.

[meanelvis]

Folks, if you are going to write a reply please SPELL CHECK it, otherwise the writer's "white trash" comment, which partly implies that paintballers are uneducated, has proof in the pudding, so to speak.

Keep 'em coming!

[gmag]

Ok, its up now! Cool. Great responses guys, keep 'em coming!

~Brett

[ylun]

I wonder what if she saw the kids hitting the ducks with a baseball bet, or thorw basketball to the ducks will she write the samething about it??? Calling baseball and basketball a "whitetrash sport"???? I think people had to think before they write!:D

[Fred]

It must have been the lack of spelling errors, use of big words in the proper context, and the fact that I used logic and reasoning with my arguments rather than blatant emotional ranting...
oh well, many others have said the same stuff I did...

[meanelvis]

Good point, fred. I fear that the editors are having a field day with some of these comments and are trying to prove the writer's point about "white trash" by posting the error-full responses.

Remember though, it took a few hours to get mine posted, and a few of these people sounded like it took longer (12 hours?). You might see yours up there tomorrow- they will send an e-mail when it gets posted.

I'm surprised that they allow the "anonymous" signed posts. That alone tells me that this isn't the most professionally done publication...

[HoppysMag]

LOL MEANELVIS......


I'm surprised that they allow the "anonymous" signed posts. That alone tells me that this isn't the most professionally done publication...

The mere fact that they let a person who has never even played paintball, post an article attacking, it shows they are not A pro publication. they didnt post my reply for like a day. I can tell the intelligence of the author is that of rice pudding............Wait thats an insult to the pudding.....

[meanelvis]

lol! point made. :D

[HoppysMag]

I got it.......im gunna complain to the editor, hopefully he/she will never let this person write again, or atleast untill she writes an apology. And ofcourse take a cross country trip to let each and every one of use kick her where god split her.......I would apritiate your help in getting the Ignorant, egotistic, (insert bad name here.....I suggest the"Female Dog."word) banned from publicating her work.......Mods if you think "Female Dog." is too much edit all you want......

[meanelvis]

Ich, dont go on the offensive.. the girl is obviously misinformed and wrote a bad article. Beyond alerting her to her misguided words/methods (as I feel we have done, misspellings aside), we should try to remain dignified by letting bygones be bygones. Hopefully she'll think twice before writing another piece like that again.

This isn't an "us vs her" confrontation, it is an "us vs the Paintball Stereotype" situation, and for those of us who value responsible journalism, mix in a case of "us vs bad editorial journalism." Add some cognac, add a little more, then bake till golden brown.

[HoppysMag]

ya but...... Still, it pisses me off that she could judge us, label us, and attack us with out knowing us.........
If we can silence ( please dont take this the wrong way, i only mean keep her from doing more articles, i dont mean kill her ) these types of people, then the general public can decide on there own about us.....rather than be told what to think.
Rember a person believes what they were told growing up. if more people start to say bad things about our sport, the younger generations will believe it....even if it is 100% lies....

[cphilip]

Actualy... one of the main things an Editor looks for in a good editorial is a good response. Positive or Negative. In this case she is getting one. But they will be pleased to see their readership increased either way. It's a darned if you do and darned if you don't situation. But you gotta do it realy. But let's keep it clean. Most of you have. So keep that up. But please don't go on there and get ugly. You make her points for her if you do. And if you must do something rash do not drag AO into it. Be a private Paintball playing citizen. PLEASE!

[HoppysMag]

ok..............i didnt want to drag AO into this...But AHHHH just fills me with anger :mad: Im done on this subject.... anyone want to question or discuss it PM me......Sooooo much anger...O well i get to go and light up some losers tommorow.....:D

[meanelvis]

lol... your anger is understandable man, the question is how to best express it.

As for playing tomorrow, i'm supposed to start my first day of reffing at my local field ( http://www.operationpaintball.com ) and we're supposed to get 12 inches of snow between now and then here in chicagoland. Fun times.

[HoppysMag]

LOL...... i ref at my local field. www.agawampaintball.com

Its so fun......WOW u guys sell paint by 10 and 100 but not 200.....LOL 10! the lowest we go is 200. O well u guys must have a lot stock games......What guns do you rent..

[Hysperion]

grrr don't ever insult rice puddin' again hoppysmag!

[HoppysMag]

LOL:D ..... Rice pudding is good. almost as good as PIE!

[scope_1]

well, all i say is that if u ever see punks shooting at animals hit them with rocks or with paintbals omg i think that totally suxors i hate animal abusers and they think they are cool hitting animals with there BRASS EAGLES and they prob think they are true painntballers... well i say dont give a paintball gun to a person who would do such a harmfull thing....