As many in the paintball community are already aware, a new paintball players organization has reared up in response to all the negative media and the constant threat for some countries dealing with negative government legislation.
Founders James Boulter, Dan Sperry and Tom Cunningham concede it is a daunting task they have undertaken, but nevertheless something needs to be done. What is the World Paintball Union?…it is an ever growing list of paintball players, the real paintball players who are no longer satisfied to read or write rants on the internet about bad media or government legislation. In an interview on PBLive last Wednesday with Ryan McDonald founder Tom Cunningham was very clear that talking about it does little to nothing…now is the time for action. James and Dan concur that this is not about woodsball or speedball…it is about paintball overall as the sport that thousands worldwide enjoy immensely.
All this having been said a campaign to monitor the news media and contact each publication that runs a story regarding the improper use of a paintball marker is in full swing and to date has in fact a small measure of success as indicated in the second successful email message to a news source being published as follows
http://www.newsherald.com/news/vehicle-75658-deputies-report.html
Thanks to Dan Sperry’s email to the editor.
Other problems include such things as what Wael Kassab of Lebanon described as a nightmare with customs. By going outside traditional suppliers of paintball gear and the like in his country and placing an order online resulted in a 6 month wait and an interrogation with Customs officials who had difficulty understanding it was a paintball marker and not a real firearm in his country.
Whats next?…..the World Paintball Union is set for a meeting on Wednesday with Canadian Government representatives of both the Federal and Provincial levels to discuss a few ideas and perhaps work alongside them in a move to have paintball officially recognized.
To be honest the World Paintball Union is still in its organizing stages and much work has yet to be done. If you have not already done so be sure to check out The World Paintball Union on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=502383696#/group.php?gid=173762535452&ref=ts and on Twitter under WPBU and last but not least the official website at
http://wpbu.org/news.php
Consider joining the organization today and ride the wave!
Glad to see Dan got the word out that we, as paintball players, do not go around doing drive by shootings with our markers.