The title to this topic is "Should paintball be regulated like firearms?" I am going to try to make the point that
Firearms should NOT be regulated.
Second Amendment Of The US Constitution wrote:
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed
Here are some quotes of the quotes from the founding fathers giving their point of view:
Thomas Jefferson wrote:
No citizen shall be debarred the use of arms within his own lands
Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, 1787. wrote:
What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.
Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759 wrote:
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Noah Webster, An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution (Philadelphia 1787) wrote:
Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States. A military force, at the command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the power, and jealousy will instantly inspire the inclination, to resist the execution of a law which appears to them unjust and oppressive.
Tenche Coxe, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788 wrote:
Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man gainst his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American...[T]he unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people.
Richard Henry Lee, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788 wrote:
Whereas, to preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them; nor does it follow from this, that all promiscuously must go into actual service on every occasion. The mind that aims at a select militia, must be influenced by a truly anti-republican principle; and when we see many men disposed to practice upon it, whenever they can prevail, no wonder true republicans are for carefully guarding against it.
The Virginia delegation's recommended bill of rights wrote:
That the people have a right to keep and bear arms; that a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defence of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, are dangerous to liberty, and therefore ought to be avoided as far as the circumstances and protection of the community will admit; and that, in all cases, the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.
James Madison, I Annals of Congress 434 (June 8, 1789) wrote:
The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country...
This is just a small amount of the quotes of the founders. Gun control has always and will always be used to control the people. Look at these quotes:
George Mason - Delegate to the Constitutional Convention - Father Of The Bill Of Rights wrote:
Forty years ago, when the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British parliament was advised to disarm the people. That it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them. But that they should not do it openly; but to weaken them and let them sink gradually.
Adolf Hitler, Germany, 1935 wrote:
This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future!
Did you notice who said that, and what year it was? Arming the population is the best and most efficient way to prevent crime. Switzerland has compulsorily gun ownership by all able-bodied men, and consequently has one of the lowest crime rates anywhere.
Even though America has almost erased our Constitutional rights, I wish to make one thing clear. Our Bill of Rights does not grant rights, it preserves and guarantees pre-existing individual and God-given rights. The Declaration Of Independence states it thus:
WHEN in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation. We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.