AO the Paintball Industry Needs Your Help With the Attack in LA

[Wackomin]

The very sad thing about this is that I live less than a minute away from where this happened. It's right next to UCI and a very rich neighborhood. I'm sorry to say this, but i know some rich little brats did this. I'll do my best to keep my eyes and ears open. There are only a few shops that these kids go to in the area. If you do set up a donation. I'll be there to contribute.

[Rooster]

Re: This is bad

Originally posted by soilent green
well another bad step backwards for the paintball community I really like the fundraiser Idea I have to say this is another reason we need to have licenses for paint guns I don't like it but we need to stop these idiots from going to wallmart and spending $70 on a stingray and paintballs to go shoot old ladys for a lafgh we need awarness courses and safty instruction to get the license and we need to make it so all ages can get the license for a reasonable fee its all well and good but of course it would never work to our advantage. This also reinforces the restriction of paintball markers on public property which is a bad thing.

First of all let me say that what happened to this guy is horrible, and if the guy does die, those kids should be charged with murder.

However, licencing is a bad idea. Registration only hurts law abiding citizens. People who are going to do illegal things like shoot people on rollerblades, could easily make the jump to buying unlicenced paintguns. They were already going to break the law once, why not break it twice. So instead of curbing crime, you've just given every local government in this country that wants to ban paintball the names and adresses of every person in their area that has a paintball gun. Next thing you know, the local police are at your door to confiscate your paintball gun. Now I know there is a great movement to distance paintball from the NRA, and from the idea that paintball markers are not guns. This is poor strategy. There is no amendment protecting paintball players. If your city wants to take away your marker becuase they feel its dangerous, they can. How much easier is that going to be when they have a list with every gun you have on it? How are you going to make trades with people if there is a waiting period for registration. How bad is the government going to gouge us to pay for this registration?

The natural progression from registration is removal, its been proven historically.

[FordPrefect]

If there is a fund raiser, I will try and contribute. It is amazing what some people do for "fun".

[Scooter/Cootie]

The post below is Shartley's from another thread. http://www.automags.org/forums/showt...threadid=30407

I believe that he makes a lot of good points so I wanted to post it here for everyone to read.

Hope that's ok with you Shartley.

Originally posted by shartley (Note: If you do not agree with me, fine. I have no problem with that. But please do not take what I write out of context or warp it into meanings I clearly did not intend.)

[tanstaafl]

This is truly sad. Think if he was your father or
grandfather and some snot nosed kids put him in the
same condition that this poor fellow is in.

I think anybody that knows these guys should come
down hard on them. And if I had my way, the guy
would pull out of it and they would have to nurse
him back to health and work off all of his bills!

But that's just my two cents.

[Mr. Grumble]

Just to let everybody know, the attack and fall did not cause the coma directly.
The man suffered a blow to the head when he fell. He has been through two surgeries for this head injury (most likely to relieve pressure from internal bleeding & swelling).
The 'coma' is a drug induced state of unconsiousness. The doctors have maintained this medicated state, since the operation, to better manage his care and will stop the sedatives when he is more stable. At that time he will attempt to regain consiousness, until then, he is not being allowed to wake-up.

Mr. Grumble

[RoadDawg]

I'm sick in my stomach now from hearing this news. I'm ashamed to hear that a couple youths thought it would be funny to attack an innocent old man. I'll do my part in keeping my eyes and ears open.

[BgGrizzly]

I think that it would be good for the paintball comunity image if we could play a key role in bringing these hoodlums to justice so i for one will keep my eyes and ears open for any info that might pop up. I think anyone who does find out who they are should not say anything to them but go straight to the police.

[Smoken]

I got to thinking about this, and, thwere has to be more to this than some kids just going out and shooting this old man for no reason other than,"It will be fun." My guess is that this old man, from a wealthy neighborhood and obviously trying to be "cool" (roller blades and no helmet), had called the cops on these kids before for playing renegade paintball. For some reason old rich people have a problem when teenagers have fun and make the slightest amount of noise. (Sadly, even my own grandfather has this problem though I continually urge him not to call the cops about stuff.) Unfortunately for teenagers and paintballers as a whole, this situation does nothing but support the stereotypes of us that many have gotten into their heads somehow. While I deffinatly do not condone the actions of these children, I find it hard to believe that their target was entirely random. I feel that these idiots should never touch a paintball gun again, because their selfish actions may cost some of us the sport we love. I guess this hits me particularly hard because of where I live, but how can someone be so thoughless as to sully the name of our already threatened sport? Please, if you have any information that can bring these "low-mileage minds" to justice, inform the authorities. We cannot afford to have people like these using paintball equipment for unlawful purposes.

[Croix71]

I'm inclined to think it was a random act. There've been incidents in SoCal where kids throwing heavy rocks over freeway overcrossings. This is another one of those things stupid things people do that pisses me off. I just wish those kids get caught.

[Puddleglum]

Well if these little ankle biters are regular paintballers they will have to fill a tank or something. And if they are like any high school or middle school kids they will brag about it to someone. My advice would be to post this on PBnation or PaintBallCity or some really big site. Some person will be like, "Yeah I did that, I'm so cool............." and they will go to his house and convict him. Or they could just go to some local schools and grill some kids. I'm sure they would find something. But we really are gonna have to stick up for our sport after this. Even if this guy doen't die it is going to really give us a bad name.

[magmonkey]

if sombody is going to put a fund togther count me and my team in

this is one more reason on top of several thouand other reasons why I hate most people

[BTAutoMag]

ANd i wonder why some parents dont want their kids playing paintball

[ShinyGuy]

On another point; the news article I read said they were investigating this as assault with a deadly weapon. This could set a dangerous precident. If anyone is in a position to contact the LA DA's office it would be far better to charge these kids with agravated assault when they're caught.

[spawnboy]

Stupid people

There's no tellin' what this guy will do when he awakes too. That is if he pulls out of it. He might be pissed, and make it a mission to tarnish the sport. That would suck huh? Not good, not a good situation at all.

Spawner