Illinois legislature could BAN PAINTBALL in Illinois!

[slasherdan]

highlight from Tyger's link:

HB2414 relates to firearms, and has no bearing on paintball. According to Illinois law, a paintball gun is NOT A FIREARM. (430 ILCS 65/1.1) states:

"Firearm" means any device, by whatever name known, which is designed to expel a projectile or projectiles by the action of an explosion, expansion of gas or escape of gas; excluding, however:

any pneumatic gun, spring gun, paint ball gun or B.B gun which ... expels ... breakable paint balls containing washable marking colors;

I guess this kills Tippmann with their C3 and any other propaine gas guns they might have.

The gun may be safe to use but it requires a "explosion" to fire the ball.

[JoshK]

And the only thing your republican vote will get you is a more wealthy .01% of the population.

Then again the only thing your Democratic vote will get you is a more lazy 50% of the population.

Greedy politicians...

LMAO...simply amazing.

[Jdogg]

I am confused????

It is great that people are calling!!! I have been calling reps all morning and i feel i made a little impact, but when i spoke with rep Edward J. Acevedo office i was told that people are wrong that it will not effect paintball and how he has kids and they are all supporters of paintball!!! Now i dont know how true this is but i would like to think it is, that Edward J. Acevedo is aware of this and that is highly possible that there will be a clause in th ebill that will state that this excludes paintball!!!! That it doesnt even effect paintball because it "shoots paint". Like i have said i dont know how true this is i would like to think everything will be ok, but it is a government offical so i dont know if it is a decoy and a lie or if it is really true?

One thing is sure dont stop calling, voice yourself!!!!! Lets be sure before we do nothing!!!!

[IronCore]

The key here is that the language of the bill is "bad", and needs to be changed to specifically exclude paintball / airsoft. The law has a basis in good intention, but we all know about the "road to hell".

Chris Rahel posted in the thread This link which says that a group called 'American Paintball Players Association' will be trying to lobby for this change. I don't like the idea of sitting back and doing nothing, so I already contacted my government representatives myself. A "drop in a bucket" is nothing, 10,000 drops adds up.

As the proposed law is written now, it could ban anything that MIGHT be a replica firearm. And as ambiguous as the language is, this could be anything with a barrel, a body and a grip. Even the "space guns" could be considered replicas, if a judge has a mean streak in them. So this portion needs to either be reworded or removed. It's also a problem for the mil-sim players and the scenario players, as the proposed law as worded could put a ban on Camo colored nerf football launchers among other things.

Don't just be angry, be active.

-Tyger

...he da man, they changed the wording as of 2/1/06

[chewy]

I see people still posting phone numbers, so let me draw a little more attention to this.

http://paintball-players.org/

Go there, it states that as of 1 February 2006 the bill was amended to exclude paintball. Huzzah!

[warbeak2099]

Opa! *Drinks some ouzo*

Ok ok, I'm not Greek. Mediterranean, but not Greek.

This is a great victory for the paintball community. Today, our voice was heard. Yeeeeeeehhaaaaaaaaaaaw! That was just to balance out your huzzah chewy. If you're gonna huzzah, then you have to have the rebel yell too lol...

[Scott Hudnall]

Does anyone recall a thing called the "first amendment?"

This is exactly what the voters in the "BLUE" states deserve. screwed up legislation.

Actually...no one deserves this, whether paintballer or firearms enthusiast, gun collector, or an ordinary citizen who wants his constitutional rights preserved.

I would bet this whole issue is NOT under the NRA's radar.

[warbeak2099]

What do you expect. Most of the actions made by state and federal legislators right now are unconstitutional. The entire legislative body of this country is screwed up. We really need to clean house. Especially of these damned bickering idiots who think the point of the party system to have two armed camps ready to attack each other. They don't understand compromise, free expression of ideas, or maturity. The ideals that this country was built on have been abandoned as far as I'm concerned. We're headed in a pretty bad direction if we don't get more moderate politicians into power. The radical conservatives and radical liberals are dismantling our government peice by peice. We need objective thinkers running this country, not biased, argumentative fools.

[SlartyBartFast]

We need objective thinkers running this country, not biased, argumentative fools.

QFT!

Thankfully here in Canda the continued influence of the NDP and Bloc Quebecois has at least tempered the Liberals and Conservatives from devolving into the bickering of Republican vs. Democrat.

But, the same rot is infecting both our systems.

[SlartyBartFast]

In fact, I'm surprised they're not already on it.

wait, wait..... how is that LEGAL?? there is the second amendment! it would be unconstitutonal for them to pass this law!

Does anyone recall a thing called the "first amendment?"

Freedom of religion, press, and expression?!? lol


But now that it has been reworded, I guess the issue is moot. Despite the anti-liberal and anti-government hysteria to the contrary, democracy can work.

[warbeak2099]

QFT!

Thankfully here in Canda the continued influence of the NDP and Bloc Quebecois has at least tempered the Liberals and Conservatives from devolving into the bickering of Republican vs. Democrat.

But, the same rot is infecting both our systems.

Cool, someone agrees with me!

You're right, gun laws that restrict what kind of people are able to own firearms are constitutional and should be enforced. However, a law simply banning anything resembling a gun is ludicrous. There is no reasonable basis for this action. Paintball and airsoft guns should be considered sports equipment. BB guns, air guns, pellet guns, etc should be restricted lightly. But banning these items all together is pointless and unnecesary.

[WARPED1]

Paintball was never mention in the law or were guns. And one kids state rep said he thinks it would include paintball guns. His opinion is hardly a legal interpretation. I think a lot of people were making fools out of themselves by over reacting!

[warbeak2099]

No, the American legislatures ARE really out of control. Not just because of this. And actually, it might have included paintball markers. All it would take is for one radical judge to make that call.

[chewy]

I was talking about why they hadn't been opposing the whole law, as it pertains to firearms also, but I was informed earlier that they are indeed lobbying against it.

[eaglejmb]

Come on guys you are retarted if you think that paintball guns are included in military replicas, other than the military sim designed guns, paintball guns dont resemble any sort of manufactured gun, airsoft definatly does, but a ego , dm6, is nothing at all like a real rifle/pistol, and its insane to think that they would be able to ban all paintball guns. They are refering to exact replicas, toy guns, props etc, not your acid pink ule automag.