We paintballers have to convey a positive front for the sport.
People need to know that we do not walk around all day with loaded weapons shooting little kids and animals.
Guns of any sort have unfortuanately become so taboo that people dont even want to hear our side of the argument, so we might as well just not give them something to argue about. Here are some facts for warm-and-fuzzy-hippy-paintball-haters:
1. Paintballs are bio-degratable and non-toxic, and DO NOT damage the woods, or wildlife.
2. Paintball is completely safe, as long as played responsibly by responsible people. Think of how easy it is to mess up when you're practice swinging an aluminum baseball bat... They are more safety features on any paintgun than baseball bat, and the accident rate is NO WHERE near as high in paintball...
3. We (paintballers) are not Neo-Nazi's and we do not appreciate it that people think we're evil just because we dont think guns are the devil.
4. Some important things you should know are that paintball causes less accidents than BOWLING, SOCCER, BASEBALL, etc. This is because the people who play paintball and care about the future of the sport know that we are in a potentially dangerous situation (as you are every time you drive a car, or cross a street), and therefore exercise utmost care. It's as simple as that; there are a few people here whom my team refuses to play with, becuase we know they are not mature enough to carry out the game safely, and that's about what it boils down to, I will tell you no lies. It takes responsible people.
When you get right down to it, saying that shooting a paintball gun makes you more likely to shoot someone with intent to kill is like saying that performing surgery with a scalpel will posess you to run into the street and stab the nearest passerby. Think about it, the reasoning behind such complaints is nil.
But why do you hear about how horrible our sport is when some one who shouldn't be trusted with a butter knife shoots his or someone elses eye out? Because our sport involves a gun. Plain and simple, the media can pounce and rip us TO SHREDS at any chance they get. So we MUST exercise proper ettiquette, safety, and explain our sport to non-players rather than telling them they "just don't get it".
Another issue that has just recently been brought to my attention is that of parents getting upset at the money their kids spend on paintball. Paint is expensive. So are guns. So are upgrades. But so are the 200 dollar shoes that other kids get. So are the 150 dollar Oakley's little Johnny-kins wanted last year and now they're lost in his room... What I'm saying is that while we do spend money on our stuff, other kids do the same. Most of us paintballers won't get caught wearing 500 dollars of clothes that we won't fit in next year (or next month), or that we will blatantly refuse to wear because someone with a famous name has declared them dumb. We may however be caught using 500 dollars worth of gun that we'll still be using until the grandkids get it... (and I do intend on giving any grandkids I may have paintball guns).
If you still have a problem with paintball, I give up. There is no hope for you as you obviously do not have the ability to compute facts and are therefor cannot be classified as a human being. I do not care if monkeys don't like paintball. Leave my site.
