New York Paintball Ban?

[Rooster]

"The fact is that bright anno jobs & flashy jeresys are two very important elements that will help grow our sport in the future. The less we look like soldiers and the less our markers look like real guns, the brighter the future will be for all of us. Its simply a matter of perceptions. "

This is a pure load of you know what. Paintball owes everything it has now to those guys in camos shooting black guns. The limitation to paintball as a ligitimate sport isn't people scared of woods ball players. Why is trap shooting and archery an olympic sport? Why isn't skateboarding? Its all about whos playing the game. Until paintball does some house cleaning, gets rid of the distractions, and gets rid of cheating teams permently, paintball will never be a mainstream sport. If you want to blame someone for paintballs status as a game, and not as a ligitimate sport, you need to look to the pro teams first, the tourny teams second, and rec ballers last. Blaming military guns for paintballs lack of status is a joke, and so is anyone who beleives this is why paintball is still just a game.

[Danz]

[Rooster]

I was playing back when the six pack was an amazing thing, and I'm still playing that game today. As I said before, there is a reason trap shooting and archery is an olympic sport and skateboarding and supercross isn't. It all has to do with who is playing the game. The type of gun has zero to do with any part of that.

[raehl]

Or maybe...

It has something to do with trap shooting and archery being sports back in the early 1900's when the olympics were first (re)started? Sports with hundreds of years of tradition?


- Chris

[cledford]

Originally posted by Danz [/B]

[raehl]

You're argument is ridiculous.

You're complaining that the sport is changing too much, and then say it's because people are making rules against the manufacture of equipment that didn't even exist in the sport until 5 years ago?

Either you want the sport to remain the same, in which case we should all be playing pump in the woods, or you want it to evolve, in which case some agreed-upon restrictions are necessary to prevent the wholesale outlawing of the sport in general.


Oh, and paintball has not moved FROM the woods. The vast majority of paintball is still played in the woods, and a LOT more paintball is played in the woods now than was 10 years ago or 20 years ago or 22 years ago, when it was 12 buddies with nelspots.

Just because there are MORE ways to play paintball doesn't mean the sport is losing the old ways. It's just becoming a broader phenomenon.


- Chris

[ogre55]

On the other hand, with mainsteam acceptance we move away from such incidents as have happened here, in my home town. Some moron with too much time on her hands decided that it would be good politics to make a stand againt warmongering paintballers, so without any legal backing this idiot decides to raid sports authority.

Many other sports that are accepted as mainsteam are much more dangerous than paintball. Football and boxing are the most obvious examples, but better one is baseball. Pitchers throw that ball at 70, 80, even 90 mph, at guys whering nothing more than a helmet and cup for protection. Now baseballs don't break when they hit a bat, a glove, or some batter's back/leg/arm/head/face. Valid comparison, no? And yet baseball is "America's Pastime" , while we are maligned and ridiculed in public.

As for do-gooders, overregulating the sport, I haven't seen a baseball player walk out to the plate in full body armor and facemask yet, and frankly, I don't think I will be seeing it any time soon.

Ogre

[cledford]

Originally posted by ogre55

As for do-gooders, overregulating the sport, I haven't seen a baseball player walk out to the plate in full body armor and facemask yet, and frankly, I don't think I will be seeing it any time soon.
Ogre

[Danz]

[ogre55]

Cledford:

You are correct. The stigma attached to paintball is as great as the stigma attached to deer hunting, or any number of other shooting sports. I have made the same argument both on and offline. It is exactly for that reason that I say mainstreaming the sport is the best way to go.
Get rid of the stigma by making people more aware of just what it is we really do.

The only difference between you and me is that, while you believe that we need to stay out of the public radar for fear of attracting too much attention, I think that we need to get as big as possible, making sure the whole time that the sport and those that play it are portrayed in the best light possible.

And as for your "divide and conquer" argument you were right when you qouted Frankin (in another thread). "We all hang together, or we all hang seperately".

Ogre

[Vendetta]

Stigma on hunting?

Is there a stigma on hunting? How many hunting show do you see on TV? Also doesn't the same Sports Authority that got raided also carry tons more hunting equipment? I for one don't approve a killing animals, but I find no problem in shooting non-toxic paintball at well protected people doing the same to me.

[madmatt151]

NYC Paintball.

Well, I have read allt hese posts and I think the guys who live in NYC like myself know the problems. THe fields are am hour away minimum, and there is a stigma associated with paintball. In NYC there is a stigma associated with anything involving shooting. People who live in NYC and hunt aren't very prolific. Also, they are looked at funny. I am not a person who hunts, but I won't judge anyone who does, but that isn't the case with most people living in NYC. The laws are understandable in NYC about not carrying paiontball markers etc., but the problems we are having with getting markers shipped to us and such is getting overzealous. If a person is having a marker shipped to them, its not the same as going into a Modell's or Sports Authority and buying a "weapon". I don't like the current laws in that I have to worry about carrying my paintball gear and fear of getting pulled over for a traffic ticket and getting in trouble for having my stuff with me. As far as the stigma, we run around shooting at other people, its that simple. No matter what kind of marker you use, or how you dress, that will not change the way people look at us. I have been playing for over 10 years, and the perception of the sport has changed a little, mainly due to exposure. More people are coming out to the fields and playing on weekends, you have companies sponsoring games for thier employees as teambuilding exercises and it is slowly becoming a mainstream type sport. Will it be like baseball or football antime soon, probably not, but we shouldn't hide either. I am a teacher and I know that peoples viewpoints only change through exposure and education. If someone knows nothing about a particular subjects, then they will not react to it in a rational manner.

Just my longwinded $.02

[SlartyBartFast]

Thiking more about Shartley's well balanced post and all the other points in this and other "Paintball Banned" threads made me think of the following.

The absolutely first thing we have to do as a community is to stop blkitzing into a knee-jerk reaction of "PAINTBALL IS BEING BANNED!!!" every time there is a paintball bylaw proposed somewhere.

Secondly, we must NEVER divide anybody into US vs. THEM. I think one of the best lines I've heard yet from the show West Wing was last night.

Very few issues are black and white, and most of those involve body counts.

Many of the paintball bans that have been decried do indeed go over the line and past reasonable controls. The error of the person proposing it of making the issue black and white. Paintballers jumping in without looking at the complexities of the issue just confirm to the people pushing for the law and those that must decide that the issue IS black and white. Unfortunately, any gray issue that argued black OR white will invariably be classified as Black and be sanctioned. Why? If the choice is Pro-paintball or Anti-paintball and you want to stop kids shooting in local parks or at cyclists etc, then the choice is clearly anti-paintball.

To stop overregulation or banning of paintball altogether, there should be acceptable limits and circumstances agreed apon by the paintball community.

Such as:
1- Only transporting markers in carry bags or cases.
2- Fines penalties for discharging a paintball marker on/over city/public spaces without permission.

The two above should be no-brainers. If there was a list and criteria developed, we could come to a friendly compromise with each comunity that has a problem with paintball.

PS: Great point Raehl. Edited my post to agree with you...

[raehl]

Not quite...

#2 should read "Fines for discharging markers on/over city/public places WITHOUT PERMISSION."

Big difference. There's plenty of quite legitimate paintball played on city/public places. I'd hate to never be able to play at Soldier Field because it's owned by Chicago.


- Chris

[Danz]

Just an Idea.

Just an Idea.

I wonder if it could be made mandatory for a manufacturer to sell a marker with some sort of bag or case for transport. I realize that this wont stop players who insist on not using them, but at least its a start. Maybe get younger players used to the practice of safe transport from the beginning.

Danz