Baltimore PB Ban

[HoppysMag]

Rifleman .....does it fall under the second amendment?

[ShinyGuy]

Getting the NRA involved will hurt more than help. First the NRA has no interest in paintball. Paintball markers will not help defend us from criminals/foreign invaders/government tyrany (not that the NRA is doing anything about current governmant tyrany). Paintball markers are not useful weapons and thus not valuable to the NRA.

Secondly, having the NRA support paintball would only reinforce the idea that paintball markers are guns. The NRA's support could help keep paintball markers legal but not keep the sport legal. The NRA wants us to be able to own guns but they do not encourage us to use them on each other.

The people trying to ban paintball are not the liberals as a group. They are a small minority of grossly missinformed people. If the NRA were to take up the cause of paintball the majority of the pro-gun lobby would not flock to our aid but we would loose anyt support we have now in the liberal quarter.

[raehl]

Aye.

We don't want the NRA involved. Although I didn't do a headcount, since Baltimore is a city and urban, most people on the city council are likely to be democratic. The NRA showing up will just hurt the cause.

I've started a new non-profit organization to deal with things like this. It is meant o grow into a consumers group, similar to the Air Travelers Association, or one of the numerous sporting associations that also influence legislation. (Snow mobilers have them, off roaders have them, we should have one too.) It's a little rushed since I hadn't planned on doing it until this summer, but with this law it seemed prudent to get tbe ball rolling earlier. Please swing by www.paintball-players.org. I'll keep everyone up to date on this (and other pending legislation) there, and it should allow everyone who is interested to coordinate in a central location instead of on 20 different web forums.

https://www.paintball-players.org

Thanks,
Chris

[thei3ug]

NRA isn't just about guns, folks. And saying "don't involve the NRA is refusing a LOT of lobby power.

That being said... unenforceable.

[Top Secret]

Originally posted by thei3ug
NRA isn't just about guns, folks. And saying "don't involve the NRA is refusing a LOT of lobby power.

That being said... unenforceable.

Ditto. The "gun-lobby" is growing in power nowadays. If you refuse their support, who are you going to get it from other than the small amount of pro-paintball groups? HCI? I'm sure they would be glad to support a game where we run around shooting each other with GUNS.

Nothing stops anti-paintball legislation faster than when there is a rifle backing up paintball. Paintballers-7 million, Gun owners-70 million. You do the math.

MOLON LABE!

https://www.gunsnet.net

[raehl]

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

[DJSOLID]

I've never heard it said or implied that the National Rifle Association does not approve of paintball. I'm a life member and frequently read their publications. I don't believe that they have a problem with it - they just aren't focusing on it because they've got to remain dedicated to firearms safety and education - that's enough of a challenge. However, I believe that paintball players need to hire lobbyists and build membership groups similar to the way the NRA does. Wouldn't you pay forty or fifty dollars a year to see that your freedoms aren't taken away by liberal knit-wits? Paintball is going to need some advocacy groups and soon if it is going to survive for the long haul. The ball needs to get rolling by manufacturers and needs to be supported financially by educating players of this need. Right now paintball manufacturers are trying so desperately to gain market share in this industry, they have no vision for the future of the sport other than what the next latest and greatest marker is gonna be.

[raehl]

It's already happening.... just needs help.

Manufacturers:

Paintball Product Manufacturers Association (PPMA)

https://www.paintballassociation.org

Players/Consumers:

American Paintball Players Association (APPA)

https://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

[Thordic]

The NRA would not support paintball. I had brought this up on a previous occasion for a similar issue.

The fact came up that the NRA will have nothing to do with paintball because it has to do with aiming and discharging a "weapon" at a person.

So don't bother with the NRA.

[than205]

Guys,
We need to read what reahl is writing. I have to agree with that and other peoples postings here.
The NRA is trying to protect a constitutional principal/right.
We however are trying to preserve our option/ability to play a sport.
While we or anyone else can find rather distant parallels, that is all they are, minor simularities.
The NRA's fights and concerns will be eternal. Where as our struggles are due to education of players and civic leaders and proper use by consumers.
Everyone, I can not stress this enough. If you see or even hear of someone doing stupid things with markers do something to stop it. These are the people who are in the end ruining the future of paintball. Allways promote responsability with the newbies and players you meet. Lots of things seem harmless at the time.
What really needs to be done is to understand what the concerns are of the citizenry (or person) that started the legislation in Baltimore. Then work needs to be done to address those concerns to ultimately avoid any legislation. Or at the very least have reasonable legislation.

I choose to use the term marker. Just like I choose to use a baseball bat to play baseball. They are the tools of a sport. While both can be used to protect my home, I would choose neither to protect my country.
Paintball is a sport.

[frgood]

I beg to differ regarding the NRA. I suppose it is a regional variances within the organization. It so happens about two years ago. In Shelton CT. The state office of the NRA was very effective in stopping a local ordinance from being established. As I recall, their arguement had really nothing to do with the popularity of the sport or anything along the sport itself. This was a purely legal debate. The ordinances do fall into their area as broad legislation affects BB guns and any air powered gun.
I would recommend finding someone from the state office to help. I'll do a deja news search to finf the discussion. The owners of the local PB store in Shelton CT put a strong effort. Also, the appearance of local news (even a single small newspaper) is effective. As many locals --parents, vendors and kids should show up at the hearings. Find out the hearing date. These were all very effective measures.

[frgood]

Here's the link to the thread

I don't know if the dejan news - shelton pb Ban thread

I hope the link show up correctly.
Several stores got involved.
-Paintball Unlimited
273 Canal ST
Shelton, CT 06484
Phone: 203-922-8011
email: [email protected]
website: www.paintballunlimied.com

-Scott Potter
President, Eastern Paintball Supplies
223 East Main Street
Branford, CT 06405
[email protected]
203-488-5721
203-488-5793 (fax)

I did not check the contacts to see if they are still active. But give it a try.

I'd contact them to see what measures may be effective. This is serious and sets a bad precedent.

[rifleman]

I hope you all understand that paintball would have NEVER of taken off if it weren't for the NRA--I'm not saying that the NRA had anything directly related to do with it, but with firearms banned (which definatly would happen if it weren't for the NRA) how far do you think a game where you simulated "killing" people with guns would have gone?



www.nra.org - Join today and protect your rights.






Adam

[Hasty8]

Rifleman - regardless of the the existence of the NRA or not there has never been any legislation to ban gun ownership in America. Ever. And to say that it is due to the existence of the NRA is a base assumption at best. I agree with you that the NRA is an important lobby group for the gun community but I think that paintball, in its current infancy, wuold not benefit from the attention of such a "sin industry" group. It would definately cast a negative light upon us.

As for this bill there is one bit of information that is very interesting. It doesn't say that paintball is banned just the bill was introduced.

Actually, I just got off the phone with the City Council Secretary ( a VERY nice and friendly woman) who informed me of the bills current status.

The bill was merely announced last night and was assigned to a committee for review. The next step is to announce a hearing on the topic, the date of which should be published on their site later today.

For some reason when I clicked on the Legislative Activity (la.htm) link it didn't work for me but just entering the URL up to the .com worked fine.

I would recommend that people do not contact the council members lambasting them for banning paintball as it is not currently banned and will only make us look like a bunch of dorks.

Since Balitimore is relatively close to me I'm going to watch this closely and will try to get out there for any hearings that I can to make sure that my voice is heard in this matter.

I would also like to formally extend an invitation to Tom to join us if he so chooses. I'll be contacting other industry heads during the remainder of this week to see if we can also get their voices involved.

Third, I am about to send a letter to the writer of that article, letting him know that his was a severe case of terrible reporting. I just think that they could of gone a bit farther to let people know that this is just legislation being introduced and not yet passed into law.

My final next step is to contact just the originators of this bill and open a dialogue with them as to their impetus for this bill and to see if there is not some way around the total ban of these items.

Wish me luck.

[hardr0ck68]

i dont care if they ban paintball everywhere, i will never stop playing. i wont give up my gear, and as long as i can find paint somewhere (dont care if i have to drive to Canada) then im gonna keep goin. useless goverment, its become to big, to cluttered, and to useless for the people....this country needs a good old revolution (hope when it happens i will be young enough to help storm the white house...) :)