Kanuck wrote:
romans1423 wrote:The extra step required deters some, and for that I suppose it is worth it.
Really, though, it just tends to deter the responsible ones. The irresponsible ones will get around your rule, and you'll put that airsoft gun or pack of smokes into the kid's hand regardless of how it happens. But the responsible 17 year old kid who plays paintball once a month with his friends is suddenly out of luck, because his parents don't approve to the point that they'd come along and buy the stuff for him.
Age restrictions can cause some issues for the honest and good, but the bigger problem is the bad people. After some thought, I think the bigger issue is getting the popular opinion on paintball to change. In the begining (*i sound like Moses) paintball was thought of as a violent, dangerous activity. And only army freaks played it. Well as time goes and the industry strived to change that opinion. Calling guns markers, providing paintball uniforms, and desperatly trying to get it lagitamized as a sport. Well they've done it. Paintball is a sport played from age 8- 50+, but now we've got a whole generation of players coming onto the feild who think it's just a game. I don't know how many times I've seen someone point a loaded gun at someones unprotected head and then say "whoops". If someone pointed a loaded firearm at me I'd kick thier teeth in, why must it be different for paintball and airsoft guns. You may not kill me with it, but my sensitive body parts may have something to say about it. Heck, I've got multiple scars on my stomach from letting a friend shoot me with an airsoft gun bare skinned a year ago. Sounded fun at the time but now it looks like I have chicken pocks. This crap is dangerous. People get seriously injured all the time. I just think its time the industry and the public started addressing that fact and doing something about it.
sorry for the run on sentances and formatting...I started getting upset. (dang hoodlems always ruin everything)
