Should paintball be regulated like firearms?

[MrTorrance]

I keep reading a lot about paintball attacks and random shootings. Just a few weeks ago some @%*! went through my neighborhood shooting windows out on cars and homes.
I love paintball, and go any chance I get. But I'm starting to think that maybe there should be a little more regulation on the whole thing. Like required training classes, age restrictions, and stiffer laws regarding crimes...ECT.

Just curious what you folks think

[Techie-Micheal]

In a way, a paintball marker as the industry calls it is a firearm. It has a bullet, propellant, and a firing pin, as such. I think it should be monitored more closely than it is now, but not to the extent PA was (I think they changed some laws). I love paintball and play whenever I can as well, but idiots are ruining it for the rest of us. I agree with age restrictions and perhaps a similar competenancy test required of hunters. No pun intended. I know many states are working on or already have in place laws that state it can't have the propellant attached, can't be loaded, etc. while you are traveling in the vehicle.

[David Robinson]

I agree with tighter restrictions, but not an age restriction. If such a restriction were put in place what about all the kids that paintball now that fall under that age group? I guess if you set it at 10 you'd be okay, but I've been doing this since I was about 10, and I've never done anything dangerous.

[romans1423]

An age restriction at the point of sale I think helps; at least then, a (hopefully) responsible adult need be present. I know that isn't foolproof, but it does add an extra layer of protection. I'm not sure if there are laws for this, but Wal-mart does enforce age limits on paintball stuff. Not sure what those limits are, though.

[Drunky]

An age restriction at the point of sale I think helps; at least then, a (hopefully) responsible adult need be present. I know that isn't foolproof, but it does add an extra layer of protection. I'm not sure if there are laws for this, but Wal-mart does enforce age limits on paintball stuff. Not sure what those limits are, though.

Age restrictions don't always help though. When I was 15-16 and went to Wal-Mart I went to buy a rated R movie and they wouldn't sell it to me since I was "too young." So I went to my friend who was 18 and got him to buy it for me. The kids could just get older friends or older siblings to buy the stuff for them.

Anyway, I think that there should be age restrictions on paintball as far as sells. If there would be an age limit for playing then then it should be 8-10.

[romans1423]

Yeah, as I've said, it's not fool proof. We've (Wal-mart; I work there) retricted all kinds of things--glues, gas additives, paintballs, knives, spraypaint, and of course the legal things like alcohol, tobacco, and firearms...

And not everyone will want to take the time to go find someone older, though that is effective by and large. The extra step required deters some, and for that I suppose it is worth it.

[Kanuck]

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.

[MrTorrance]

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)

[Outofmymindyo]

Paintball should be regulated as much as any other sport, or even to say as any other firearm. I paintball responsibly, and even though it's only in someone's backyard, it was to the point of the land owner that we followed safety very closely. The only time we had a problem was when someone decided to shoot at some bug on the ground while we were standing around, and I ended up with (oddly enough) blood in both of my eyes a couple days later as found by my opthalmologist, while I was getting an eye exam.

[FF8Jake`]

Heck, I've got multiple scars on my stomach from letting a friend shoot me with an airsoft gun bare skinned a year ago.

Wow... Kinky.

[Darth Wong]

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.

You know, if we go by the "laws only affect law-abiding citizens anyway" logic, we might as well scrap all laws. I don't really think that this logic is a good rationale for opposing a law.

[MrTorrance]

Heck, I've got multiple scars on my stomach from letting a friend shoot me with an airsoft gun bare skinned a year ago.

Wow... Kinky.

Not really...they seriously look like chicken pox scars.

You know, if we go by the "laws only affect law-abiding citizens anyway" logic, we might as well scrap all laws. I don't really think that this logic is a good rationale for opposing a law.

I would tend to agree with you Darth, but at the same time I do think that laws only effect law-abiding citizens. It's the possible punishments that truly deter a criminal. A thief may steal and be okay with it, but he won't murder. Does that mean he respects human life or is he afraid of the jail time he'd most likely face? I'd like to think it's the first, but once you cross the line of good and evil...cross over to the "Dark Side", bad things stop looking so bad.

[FF8Jake`]

Heck, I've got multiple scars on my stomach from letting a friend shoot me with an airsoft gun bare skinned a year ago.

Wow... Kinky.

Not really...they seriously look like chicken pox scars.

I wasn't referring to the scars, I was referring to the fact you let someone shoot you with one in the first place. @_@

As for the paintball guns, I can't see age laws helping to keep them away from children. How many kids do you know that have enough money to go in and buy the stuff? It's the parents that do it most of the time. I know people who buy their 15yr old cigarettes.

[CLee]

So you want to restrict paintball guns in order to stop a string of vandalism? By that kind of logic, we should ban baseball bats because of some idiots' tendency to use them to play "mailbox baseball" were one person hangs out the window of a vehicle and uses a baseball bad to whack ever mailbox they come to along the side of the road.

What you are attempting to do is create a stupid regulation in order to prevent stupid behavior. But in the end, you haven't actually prevented anything and only created a few extra headaches for others, such as the store clerks and other legitimate consumers, in the process. You are much better off trying to find the vandals instead.

Speaking of Wal-Mart's recent checking of ages for certain products, I got hit by that too when I purchased two cans of compressed air to clean out the dust from an old computer. Not only was I annoyed by having to confirm that I was well over the age of 18 (I'm 31) but it will probably be the last time I'm buying compressed air from Wal-Mart.

[firefighter_508]

In a way, paintball markers are already regulated like firearms. You definately half to be 18 to buy them and you most places say you have to be 18 to buy paintballs. Of course, there are ways around these restrictions, like ebay.
I am an avid player and hate to see a bunch of rejects running around shooting people just for fun. In that case, the police need to treat it as a firearms violation, and take them to court and charge them with assualt with a firearm.

People that do shit like that for fun are just plain dumb.