European paintball

[MX48]

I was at my home field in SE Georgia Saturday. Played a couple games and saw some new faces kind of off by themselves so as I enjoy meeting new people I went over to talk to them. They spoke good English but it was obvious they had an accent. So I gave them the standard Southern response "Y'all ain't from 'round heeah (here)".
It was a father and son and they said no, they were from Germany vacationing in Savannah. I think the son went to school there but I'm not sure about that.
We of course started talking about paintball and apparently in Germany:
1. You must be 18 years old to play.
2. Gun FPS is 220 max.
3. They didn't play there (in Germany). When they played they went to Austria or Switzerland where there weren't so strict rules.

So today a young lady from Italy is trying to find a Tac One to buy in Europe. I give her the AGD website link, tell her they have been on vacation, etc. According to one of her posts it is illegal to play at all in Italy!

My point is I worry about situations like the Mother in Connecticut who is trying to ban paintball guns (there is a thread on it at MCB). I wouldn't want any state to ban them because it could become a domino effect. We have the same problem in Motocross when a child gets seriously injured riding MX. The parents try to get it banned or get an age limit set. At least MX has some power from the large Japanese motorcycle companies. Does paintball have anyone lobbying for them or any such thing?
I did a quick search on sports injuries and of course I found football to be the worst by almost double in high school and college and snowboarding was number one in outdoor recreational sports, followed by sledding and hiking. Heaven forbid someone try to put any such limitations on football. They would be burned at the stack as heretics.

Sorry for the rant
MX48

[Eatem Alive]

I don't think it's the injuries as much as the over all property damage that the few idiots with markers cause. Such as shooting street signs, houses, cars, people on the street, etc. There is also the overall image that some people have about paintball players that we are a bunch of war-mongers.

[Toll]

When you say paintball anyone not immediately assosciated thinks you are a sociopath with a rifle that shoots paint.

[ThePixelGuru]

I don't think paintball will be completely banned. There are more emergency room visits from golf than paintball, and more people misuse baseball equipment than paintball equipment. Do you have to be 18 to buy golf balls or baseball bats? No. Can your hurt someone with them? Sure. What's the lesson here? Watch your damn kids. Responsibility is the key, but no one wants to take it.

But yes, we do have people lobbying on behalf of paintball. You can bet big companies like Smart Parts have a bit of clout, and we have allies in the fireworks industry, for instance. I guess they worry about a domino effect breaking into their industry. The idea of banning paintball is nothing new to state and federal legislatures, but they haven't seen a reason to do it yet.

The real question is: should we self-regulate before we get federally regulated? And the follow-up is: will we? There's no question kids do irresponsible things with their markers, but where are the parents?

[FiXeL]

I'm shocked to hear paintball is illegal in italy. As far as i know most of the european countries allow the possesion and use of paintball markers. But there are differences between coutries ofcourse, some more idiotic than others.

In the UK paintball pistols (or any other kind of handgun) are forbidden. Fields now only fill at 3000 psi max. due to those incidents with stako tanks.

In the netherlands there is a limitation when it comes to looks, it's illegal if it looks too much like a firearm. (airsoft is forbidden here for that reason too) Also recently there is alot of media attention when it comes to underage players. Many fields allowed it, but legally speaking its from 18 years and up to play.

Germany has the F stamp for airguns. Basicly it means its a "free gun" without permit (hence the F) from 18 years and older, but it has strikt limitations. Semi only, maximum muzzle energy of 7,5 joules, (214 FPS) and all free guns must have F stamp, dealer stamp and caliber stamp. If a paintball marker does not have these, it is considered a firearm.

This is for sure not legal to own in the netherlands, but can be bought here. Oddly enough it's perfectly legal in germany because it has all the stamps. (bought this one in a german online store and it was shipped here without problem)

France and Belgium have less strict laws, and they allow more when it comes to mil-sim markers and minimum age. I've heard about 7 yr old speedball teams in belgium....

[VVulfe]

I was also under the impression that paintball was legal in Italy, if for no other reason than that Airsoft is (or, at least, was the last I checked.)

Odd

[questionful]

Some italian dude came on the SpecOps forums asking about tac ones. He said it was illegal in italy, but that they still played a bunch of woodsball.

[coelric]

Yes in Europe we have some ****ty rules. In france Arms are categorized in 8 classe, Paintball are in the 7th.

but the law is changing now we are in trouble because of new rules ...

But if your gun is over 260fps it must be declared to the police by the shop and you must provide a shooting licence (the french federation of shooting don't recocgnise paintball guns as arms...) or a medical certificate of hability or a hunting licence...

under 260 fps the only limitation is be to over 18.

BUT if your paintball gun look like a real firearm (like A5custom, X7, BT's, Tiberius) it join the condition to be in the 4 category. And to obtain the right to own 4category you have to be a licenced shooter and have a detention right given by the police. This right is only granted if you have more than 1year of shooting, fire 3 time a year in a stand, and have a coffre-fort to range your stuff.

Sorry if my english is a bit bad...

Paintball in europe is not simple as in USA... You're lucky !!!

[d-paint]

here in italy paintball is illigal for the paintballs..we cant shoot anything that can contain liquid materials...like paintballs...because our dumb law says that we could put weird germs in it or stuf like anthrax or stuff like that...but..we can go aruond with compound bows that can kill 3 ppl in a row.....thats real dumb
you guys in the u.s are really lucky..really..