I'm a regular at G&A's website. As most of you know, I am an avid shooter and varmint hunter. When the Administrator of the site (he's also an editor on the magazine), asked the members if an article on paintball would be OK in the Mag.
This is where it gets funny..odd..weird..peculiar......and aggravating! Most of the responders are easily seen to be dyed-in-the-wool shooters and hunters, and only know enough about paintball to say the usual "militia training" comments we've all come to endure. A total of 3 of 40+ responses were positive, the rest were adamentely against the notion of a GUN magazine having PAINTBALL in it: (actual response)"It's GUNS and Ammo, not guns and paintball and ammo. If G&A publishes an article like that, I'm cancelling my subscription!"
Of course, this was a challenge I had to accept. I tried to tell our side of the facts, and I thought I did a good job of it too, only to be shot down right away! I did manage to change one mind (1 of 3), who stated that he wouldn't mind seeing a technical article. But alas, it was all for naught. The website posted a poll asking the same question; it's running 85-10 against it. It was running 85-9 until a little while ago
Anyway, here are the posts I put up, with edits of the responses for brevity:
...and my first letter
Ouch. That's hypocritically scathing, blaming Paintball for the crime. Isn't that the same thing Sarah Brady says about YOUR guns? Shame on you for the comparison.
As a Moderator of the WWW's largest single issue paintball site ( www.automags.org ), and a hard-core player, I am fully qualified to report that Paintball does NOT promote violence, criminal activity, indigestion, speeding, bad taste in clothes, or teen pregnancy.
It does, however, promote teamwork, safe play, comaraderie, family fun, and safe handling of weapons. "How safe can it be? you shoot each other!" See, I knew you were going to say that! Paintball, despite being the #4 Extreme sport in the world, played by more that 7,000,000 people last year in the USA alone (according to people who make those lists), it is safer and less injurious to play than golf, tennis, badminton, and even bowling.
Go ahead and ask why..."Why?"..Glad you asked! Paintball can be played any number of ways. The original, 1981, concept was to stalk and eliminate your opponants and "capture the flag" in a wooded environment. This slowly evolved into massive games called scenarios, in which hundreds and even thousands of players act out a scripted story. The game can be of a fantasy nature, to sci-fi, to re-enactments of historical battles, D-Day being the most popular. Points are scored by finding or capturing objects or finding items needed to complete your teams part of the script. The whole time is also spent trying to eliminate from the game, as many of the other team as possible. These big games are usually 24-48 hours long, and have been sponsored by military posts (Ft. Campbell, Ft. Hood and others) including West Point (who, incidently, has their own tournament Paintball team, the Black Nights).
The other game normally played, especially at Novice, Amateur, and Professional levels, is called Speedball. This is a roughly 1/2 acre "court", that is set up with barriers, called bunkers, that are arranged to be a mirror image of either side. Bunkers can be giant corrugated plastic pipe, plywood, concrete, or inflateable geometric shapes. A time limit is placed on the game, usually 5-10 minutes, to force the teams to play fast and hard to "out" the other team, grab the flag in the middle, and take it to the opponants starting point. Honesty and fair play is tantamount in this game, as the referees may not always see a paint splatter on a player.
"So answer the safety question already, Dave!" At no time, ever, for any reason, during a regulated game, are you allowed to remove your face-mask. 99.9% of all commercial fields will ask you to leave the property if you do. The rest will escort you quickly, and covered, to the safe/ready area, where you will be scolded for doing so. In the last 10 years, there have been less than 50 reported occular injuries on commercial fields in the USA. In this day of instant lawsuits, that's pretty damn impressive! Of course, no-one and nothing but proper parental upbringing can regulate what you do with your friends in the backyard or private field. We call that "outlaw play", even though there is nothing illegal about it!
Yes, I know the NRA does not endorse paintball, I think, that's because they already have their hands full enough. But do not ignorantly spew that paintball promotes violence or criminal activity, lest we all admit that firearms are the root of crime too.
As for G&A publishing an article on paintball...wellllll...maybe just one on how the technology has advanced from the first US Forest Service single shot, underpowered, innacurate markers, to todays processor controlled, high rate, precision paint flingers. Otherwise, let's leave the real gun magazines to the real guns.
As you can see, I ageed that G&A is for firearms, not paintballing. Next, I tried to show how much the guns have changed
To add to my opinion: An article about paintball would not be very welcome in a firearms periodical. However, the technology of the markers has surpassed that of firearms by leaps and bounds!
This is the first commercially successful paint ball gun, the Splatmaster. It used 12gram Co2 powerlets and held but 10 shots in the top tube magazine. You had to cock it for every shot by pulling back on the rear knob.[Followed by a picture of a Splatmaster]
Now, here is one of my Paintball guns, the Airgun Designs E-mag ("E" for electronic, mag is short for Automag). Processor controlled, up to 20 shots per second, 200 balls in the hopper, force-fed into the breech, running on 3000psi of nitrogen.[Followed by a fine picture of the Red Baron]
As you can see, it's a whole new ball game!
My final response...
Hmmm...Peterson Publishing owns many of the great automotive magazines, yet G&A has truck articles. We all get the Cabelas catalog (don't we?), yet G&A runs articles on the latest gear for the outdoors. Doesn't Petersons publish an outdoor magazine too...?
I'll betcha that if Petersons had a personal opinion magazine, G&A would still have the good Colonel on the back page!
I see a lot of "paintball doesn't belong in a GUN magazine", I also see a wee bit of hypocrisy
The last few letters simply agreed with the others, that such an article still didn't belong in a GUN magazine, so I gave up trying to push that rope up the hill. It wasn't all for naught though, as the poll came out over a week later. I think they are still trying to gauge reaction to an article on Paintball. I am going to solicit the Webmaster/editor for exactly what he wants in such a story. Keep your fingers crossed! Army
This is where it gets funny..odd..weird..peculiar......and aggravating! Most of the responders are easily seen to be dyed-in-the-wool shooters and hunters, and only know enough about paintball to say the usual "militia training" comments we've all come to endure. A total of 3 of 40+ responses were positive, the rest were adamentely against the notion of a GUN magazine having PAINTBALL in it: (actual response)"It's GUNS and Ammo, not guns and paintball and ammo. If G&A publishes an article like that, I'm cancelling my subscription!"
Of course, this was a challenge I had to accept. I tried to tell our side of the facts, and I thought I did a good job of it too, only to be shot down right away! I did manage to change one mind (1 of 3), who stated that he wouldn't mind seeing a technical article. But alas, it was all for naught. The website posted a poll asking the same question; it's running 85-10 against it. It was running 85-9 until a little while ago
Anyway, here are the posts I put up, with edits of the responses for brevity:
The original post from the editor:The folks at G&A have been considering publishing an article or two on paintballing. Not a lot as I understand it, maybe just something in the buyer's guide. They are paintball "guns" after all. Anyway, your opinions are solicited. Good idea? Bad idea? Let us know.
Dan Johnson
Dan Johnson
If you put a paintball article in G&A, then I'd have to cancel my subscription.
Dan, I personally don't like paint balling...kinda like violence on TV without the real thing. Last winter there were 4 teenagers charged with felony assault after a rampage in downtown Anchorage shooting frozen paintballs at people, mostly natives....bad bad deal, some were injured. I just don't think it's a wholesome hobby. I say take someone to the range and let him/her shoot the real thing and encourage and teach them safe weapons handling and responsibility. Just my .02 cents worth.
Mark
Mark
...and my first letter
Ouch. That's hypocritically scathing, blaming Paintball for the crime. Isn't that the same thing Sarah Brady says about YOUR guns? Shame on you for the comparison.
As a Moderator of the WWW's largest single issue paintball site ( www.automags.org ), and a hard-core player, I am fully qualified to report that Paintball does NOT promote violence, criminal activity, indigestion, speeding, bad taste in clothes, or teen pregnancy.
It does, however, promote teamwork, safe play, comaraderie, family fun, and safe handling of weapons. "How safe can it be? you shoot each other!" See, I knew you were going to say that! Paintball, despite being the #4 Extreme sport in the world, played by more that 7,000,000 people last year in the USA alone (according to people who make those lists), it is safer and less injurious to play than golf, tennis, badminton, and even bowling.
Go ahead and ask why..."Why?"..Glad you asked! Paintball can be played any number of ways. The original, 1981, concept was to stalk and eliminate your opponants and "capture the flag" in a wooded environment. This slowly evolved into massive games called scenarios, in which hundreds and even thousands of players act out a scripted story. The game can be of a fantasy nature, to sci-fi, to re-enactments of historical battles, D-Day being the most popular. Points are scored by finding or capturing objects or finding items needed to complete your teams part of the script. The whole time is also spent trying to eliminate from the game, as many of the other team as possible. These big games are usually 24-48 hours long, and have been sponsored by military posts (Ft. Campbell, Ft. Hood and others) including West Point (who, incidently, has their own tournament Paintball team, the Black Nights).
The other game normally played, especially at Novice, Amateur, and Professional levels, is called Speedball. This is a roughly 1/2 acre "court", that is set up with barriers, called bunkers, that are arranged to be a mirror image of either side. Bunkers can be giant corrugated plastic pipe, plywood, concrete, or inflateable geometric shapes. A time limit is placed on the game, usually 5-10 minutes, to force the teams to play fast and hard to "out" the other team, grab the flag in the middle, and take it to the opponants starting point. Honesty and fair play is tantamount in this game, as the referees may not always see a paint splatter on a player.
"So answer the safety question already, Dave!" At no time, ever, for any reason, during a regulated game, are you allowed to remove your face-mask. 99.9% of all commercial fields will ask you to leave the property if you do. The rest will escort you quickly, and covered, to the safe/ready area, where you will be scolded for doing so. In the last 10 years, there have been less than 50 reported occular injuries on commercial fields in the USA. In this day of instant lawsuits, that's pretty damn impressive! Of course, no-one and nothing but proper parental upbringing can regulate what you do with your friends in the backyard or private field. We call that "outlaw play", even though there is nothing illegal about it!
Yes, I know the NRA does not endorse paintball, I think, that's because they already have their hands full enough. But do not ignorantly spew that paintball promotes violence or criminal activity, lest we all admit that firearms are the root of crime too.
As for G&A publishing an article on paintball...wellllll...maybe just one on how the technology has advanced from the first US Forest Service single shot, underpowered, innacurate markers, to todays processor controlled, high rate, precision paint flingers. Otherwise, let's leave the real gun magazines to the real guns.
As you can see, I ageed that G&A is for firearms, not paintballing. Next, I tried to show how much the guns have changed
To add to my opinion: An article about paintball would not be very welcome in a firearms periodical. However, the technology of the markers has surpassed that of firearms by leaps and bounds!
This is the first commercially successful paint ball gun, the Splatmaster. It used 12gram Co2 powerlets and held but 10 shots in the top tube magazine. You had to cock it for every shot by pulling back on the rear knob.[Followed by a picture of a Splatmaster]
Now, here is one of my Paintball guns, the Airgun Designs E-mag ("E" for electronic, mag is short for Automag). Processor controlled, up to 20 shots per second, 200 balls in the hopper, force-fed into the breech, running on 3000psi of nitrogen.[Followed by a fine picture of the Red Baron]
As you can see, it's a whole new ball game!
I can't say I have a major problem with paintballing but I do think there is better material to fill space with.
More on reloading/hunting or gun reviews on guns under $800. More info on different calibers would be great to.
More on reloading/hunting or gun reviews on guns under $800. More info on different calibers would be great to.
My final response...
Hmmm...Peterson Publishing owns many of the great automotive magazines, yet G&A has truck articles. We all get the Cabelas catalog (don't we?), yet G&A runs articles on the latest gear for the outdoors. Doesn't Petersons publish an outdoor magazine too...?
I'll betcha that if Petersons had a personal opinion magazine, G&A would still have the good Colonel on the back page!
I see a lot of "paintball doesn't belong in a GUN magazine", I also see a wee bit of hypocrisy
The last few letters simply agreed with the others, that such an article still didn't belong in a GUN magazine, so I gave up trying to push that rope up the hill. It wasn't all for naught though, as the poll came out over a week later. I think they are still trying to gauge reaction to an article on Paintball. I am going to solicit the Webmaster/editor for exactly what he wants in such a story. Keep your fingers crossed! Army
. In the end everyone has to decide for themselves, and when people already decided after not knowing ANYTHING about the sport, I wouldn't expect them to read your whole commentary, let alone be swayed by it.
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