Today’s writing inspiration came from a conversation with a friend of mine who explained that he was getting out of paintball to pursue range shooting and game hunting with real firearms. We as paintballers go to great lengths to distance paintball from such activities,and are adamant that paintball markers are not guns but rather markers. No we do not wish to be associated with real firearms at all, its a totally different classification BUT we all ought to adopt some of the hunting safety rules as part of some good sensible safety precautions.
I think there might be a lesson learned from the game hunting enthusiasts with respect to how they treat their firearms and their adherence to government legislation. Yes owners of real firearms must store them properly in gun safes, make sure to unload the firearm prior to storage and be careful when sport hunting to aim the rifle downwards at the ground and keep the safety on when traveling through the bush etc. A skilled hunter will only raise and aim his/her firearm upon spotting their quarry and never fire blindly. A real firearm can severely injure or even kill when discharged, thus it is so much more important to follow those rules and guidelines for that activity, after all it is a difference between life and death. Veteran hunting enthusiasts are extremely careful with respect to how they handle their firearms and rightly so.
To carry this over to my point, a paintball marker should be treated as a real firearm when it comes to its usage. While yes, it is a non lethal projectile that emerges from the end of a barrel each time a paintball marker is fired, it can still do some severe damage under the wrong circumstances. Mom and Dads, while paintball is an innocent and fun game, teach your kids how to handle their paintball marker as if it were in fact a real firearm. If your child is younger, store their marker out of reach and only allow it to come out when taking them to a local field or paintball venue.
I am likely to be stepping into a very controversial subject here as it pertains to incidents in the news regarding youth and the criminal misuse of a paintball marker in public. Yes paintball “incidents” in the media are sensationalized because of the term “gun”. Anyone see a news story regarding the misuse of a golf club or baseball bat lately? I am of the opinion however that law enforcement and the courts should also consider penalizing the parents, maybe then the percentage of news stories would significantly dwindle. Hey I am a Dad too and I make a point of knowing what my children are doing. If I got hit in the pocketbook on account of something my child did, I assure you such a thing would never happen again guaranteed.
On numerous occasions and no matter how many times we speak to everyone about the standard paintball rules it never fails that at least one person will take their helmet off on the field or walk into the staging area without their barrel sleeve on. How we as the paintball community handle that should be conducted on a case by case basis. Sometimes I am very direct and can get pretty ugly with the offender, on other occasions a bit gentler but very clear and firm when dealing with the younger generations and the new players. At the end of the day if falls upon all of us to deal with the infractions, not just field staff. If an individual cannot grasp the importance of paintball safety…I hate to say it but show them the door. They may hate you for it, but you probably saved them a whole lot of grief and some hospitalization.
So next time you are out and see a paintball marker entering the staging area of your local field without the safety on, or without a barrel sleeve covering the barrel, remember this lesson that paintballs on average do come out of the end of a barrel at a standard speed of 280 feet per second and can permanently destroy an eye. Many paintball marker manufacturers packaging clearly state that a paintball marker is not a toy and should not be treated as such. So treat it like you would a real firearm and follow those paintball safety steps at all times. Put your marker safety on (or turn it off), put your barrel sleeve over the end of your barrel when exiting the field and never ever remove your paintball helmet outside a designated safe area.
So call it The Catshack Reports “Big Game Hunter’s” philosophy for paintball. If everyone treated their marker as a real firearm, perhaps even more of an impact could be had on lessening injury and infraction within our game. In so doing we all can continue to enjoy the sport of paintball, so lets all be super careful and never careless, play safe, have a blast and paintball, paintball, paintball!
