From: henryc@panix.com (Henry Chan)
Subject: Re: Paintball and legal restrictions
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 11:00:47 GMT
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix & Internet, NYC

In article <1992Aug11.171038.9222@igor.tamri.com> donb@igor.tamri.com (Don Baldwin) writes:
>A couple questions
>
>1. I'm interested in trying paintball sometime; my current hobbies include
>   trap-shooting and other sports involving firearms.  Do many other
>   paintball people engage in target practice?

Paintball magazine, a while back, ran an article on airgun target shooting.  I
guess airguns sharing the same mechanical roots as paintguns was chosen as the
next logical step into intoducing non-firearms-naturalized (I made this one up
obviously) paintballers to other shooting sports.

>2. Looking at a paintball magazine recently, I was amazed to see how much
>   it reminded me of firearm-related magazines.  Do paintball players
>   face a lot of hassles regarding restrictive laws being enacted?  I keep
>   thinking that, if  the Safety Nazis keep going after paintball AND
>   firearms, maybe the NRA should take an interest in paintball legislation.

According to the editorials of Paintball and other pursuit magazines the world
renown SHOT show banned paintball product companies from its shows because the
the perceived image problem.  I take offense that SHOT dissaprove of paintball
because we, paintballers, point *guns* at each other.  There is a high level of
hipocracy because we are made out to be terrorists in training ( Pro TI take
note ^-^) or survivalist wanna-be's.  Thats my understanding of the reason why
won't see a Nel-spot at the SHOT show but can the latest literature of on
on your right to keep and bear a CLASS III fully automatic weapon (supplies
are limited! act now).  If your locality forbids legal ownership, like my
state (N.Y.), then the persistant ones can obtain a legal semi-auto like the
AR-15, MAC-10 or Interarms KG-9 and convert them to full-auto with a file and
ingenuity.  I don't belong to the NRA but I would perceived their official
policy would be along similiar lines as the SHOT.   Paintball does have a
slight image problem but legal semi-auto and full auto-rifles have a bigger
and more deadlier image problem with drug dealers and felons believed to be
the majority owners of these guns.


Regarding local laws covering paintguns.  I could be wrong, but so far most
states (CA, NY, and NJ) apply laws covering airguns for paintguns.  New Jersey
has made a distinction between airguns and paintguns.  Used to be NJ that airgun
s were seen in the eyes of the law as firearms and treated as such.  Ray Gong,
field owner of Top Gun, took his test case (Ray Gong?  vs Township of Malboro)
and won his argument in court allowing his field to exist (and allowing NJsians 
to own paintguns and play paintball legally).

For my town, NYC, its wierd.  As far as I'm aware, ownership of airguns have
been illegal since the turn of a century.  NYC passed the law to stem juveniles
from shooting the backsides of milkcart horses on delivery.  Looking out my
window I haven't seen a horse drawn milkcart, much less a milkman on foot, in
the 22 years I have lived in NYC and I conclude this law to be archaic.  Looking
around town I've seen at least 4 stores devoted to selling paintball equipment
and paintguns.  Either the law was repeal, unlikely in a city like NY, or the
administrators turned a blind eye towards paintball and concentrate on catching
real criminals; such as Transit fare evaders.  Discharging airguns is still
illegal within city limits.  I have played on illegal fields, some have operated
for years with benign knowledge from local police(or so I'm told).
For NYC, many of the players I've met play often at illegal home fields because
of economics.  Many of the legal fields, as it seems, haven't change their price
s since 1986 and charge an arm and a leg.  Paying $4-5 for a 7 oz fill and $8-
$12 for a 20 oz while paying $18 for a bag of $150 paintball (no carry on in
most cases, though some fields have experiamented with carry-on days) in 
addition to paying $25-$30 in gree fees(paintgun rental additional) have driven
(literally) many to the cheaper fields in NJ, and PA (Wolf's Lair!) or resort
to illegal fields.

>Just a thought...
-- 
My friends, we can and we will, never, never, surrender to what is right.
--Dan Qualye speaking to Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition.