In a knee-jerk reaction to the terrible shooting earlier this year, members of the German Parliament have called for a ban on Paintball and Laser games as they apparently promote violence and a love of guns!
This is pretty bad news for our sport. I hope that this is not the start of a Europe wide ban on paintballing, as a president has been clearly set when mentioning the "simulation of killing" people. I have been also following another parallel story to do with the "Real Shooting incident" that they are interested in ending computer based first person shooter games and once again "simulation of killing" was brought up and sited.
I suspect the only way to deal with this situation is to impress upon the powers that be that....
If we are to ban Paintball and video games due to the simulation of violence, that we should also ban violent films and books that discuss guns or bombs or army in any way shape or form. For these are all simulations of violence in one form or another.
In short we must show our Law makers how ludicrous what they are trying to implement actually is !
Well done Steve for representing the Paintball world. Few points.......
I feel that the difference between Marker and Gun should from here on out be made clear.
Seeing as we at =MBO= use more milsim type markers we are always careful to refer to them as markers. ( I know it is just a word, but believe me it will make a small amount of difference where it counts.)
I am a great believer in the fact that people who play paintball are only sublimating what they were brought up on and with. I refer specifically to being given toy guns, little soldiers and action man as a child - Is it no wonder that young men have a natural tendency towards all things army. I firmly believe that paintball is one of the best ways to sublimate and rationalise the behaviour that we were brought up to emulate.
As Steve quite rightly pointed out the problem isn't Paintball, the problem is real guns that fire real HOT LED that REALLY kill people. How ever Real guns is a massive money making industry so policies will always skirt around any problems caused by real guns. I can't help feeling that if the paintball industry made as much annual turn over as the arms industry that the powers that be would not quickly move to blaming tiddly winks.
At =MBO= we all use replica style markers and none of us have any intention what so ever to own a "real gun" infact the very notion fills us with repulsion and disgust. That is why we play paintball - expression and outlet of sublimation. After all how many of us went through our teens watching: Rambo, Terminator,Chuch Norris, Platoon, Black hawk down etc... Scenario paintball is only an extension of these kinds of movie experiences. I played with a couple of Dutch guys at Warren Wood a few months back. I touched upon the whole "Vietnam War Movie" thing and not only did they agree but where beaming with smiles from ear to ear at the realisation that they were not the only ones just re-living momments from old war movies by playing paintball. So the reality is that if you ban paintball you must consider banning all violent films that make us want to play paintball !
After the Dunblane shooting a few years back Prince Philip said that it was ridiculous to ban handguns from legitimate target shooters in order to try and prevent killings. He went on to ask "what would happen if someone went on a murderous rampage with a cricket bat, would banning cricket prevent it happening again; answer = no"
Will banning Paintball, Airsoft and LaserTag (as they are all under threat as they all simulate killing), prevent these kind of killings seen all over the world and most recently in Germany? I think not.
Have been reading many threads like this across the forums, and i think a few things need to be said. I do not see our goverment intending to impliment a ban any time soon, with the attention being raised in germany i think we should first brace ourselves for a tightening of legislation, same as they did with airsoft. Also i believe we need to raise our public profile, as was proven with the hunting ban if the public support a ban its easy to get through even when most of parliment was anti ban.
If we raise money for charity lets shout it from the rooftops, invite people to join our forums and view what we are about.
Nearly every paintballer i have met can be trusted, were else could over 1000 (NvS) people meet up and have fun, alcahol consumed-no trouble, gear left unattended- no thieves. we could teach the government a thing or two, they cant even make it safe to walk the streets.
We as a community need change nothing, as long as we abide by the rules of common scence, if you know someone is going to use a marker for something wrong, grass em, simple as. If you have violent members on your team remove em or show them the error of their ways
All paintball players need to be united in this, lets keep our sport clean, get the public on side and then we can realy fight our corner.
Have been reading many threads like this across the forums, and i think a few things need to be said. I do not see our goverment intending to impliment a ban any time soon, with the attention being raised in germany i think we should first brace ourselves for a tightening of legislation, same as they did with airsoft. Also i believe we need to raise our public profile, as was proven with the hunting ban if the public support a ban its easy to get through even when most of parliment was anti ban.
If we raise money for charity lets shout it from the rooftops, invite people to join our forums and view what we are about.
Nearly every paintballer i have met can be trusted, were else could over 1000 (NvS) people meet up and have fun, alcahol consumed-no trouble, gear left unattended- no thieves. we could teach the government a thing or two, they cant even make it safe to walk the streets.
We as a community need change nothing, as long as we abide by the rules of common scence, if you know someone is going to use a marker for something wrong, grass em, simple as. If you have violent members on your team remove em or show them the error of their ways
All paintball players need to be united in this, lets keep our sport clean, get the public on side and then we can realy fight our corner.
Well send, it's about time the people of this country stood up to this goverment. What is needed is a mass march on London by the people, to rid our-selfs of these thieving scum bags.
Germany to Ban Paintball? -
09-05-2009
, 12:21 PM
17-05-2009
, 01:28 PM
Linear Mode
