Paintball enthusiasts worry....

[Grendel]

Paintball enthusiasts worry about growing sport’s reputation
Criminal use of equipment could lead to restrictions

Monte Sonnenberg SIMCOE REFORMER
Thursday April 05, 2007

Norfolk council expressed reluctance this week to get involved with increasing problems arising from the abuse of paintball guns.
Council was asked Tuesday to take the lead in Canada and make it mandatory for paintball guns to be in a locked container while being transported. Two Waterford residents involved with the popular pastime asked for a bylaw to this effect.
“It’s an incredibly fast-growing sport, and it is family-oriented,” said Barb Petra-de-Lee-Rentrer. “However, there are cons, and we’d like to counter the cons before it is too late.”
The cons involve the increasing frequency of paintball gun abuse. Vandals use the realistic-looking guns to splat paintballs on vehicles, buildings and other property. Terrified pedestrians, motorists and cyclists have been splattered in drive-by “shootings.”
Scott Pullen, owner of the Paintball Depot on Alice Street, is concerned because the air guns look realistic. However, these rifles and pistols are not subject to the same laws requiring acquisition, storage, transport and display. Pullen is concerned that paintball abusers will discredit the pastime and possibly lead to across-the-board restrictions.
Paintball guns are powerful. The air in the firing chamber is compressed to 280 pounds per square inch or more. They are accurate to a distance of 50 metres. Some vandals substitute marbles and ball bearings for paintballs.
Municipalities have the power to enact bylaws that promote public health and safety. However, Windham Coun. Jim Oliver and Mayor Dennis Travale wondered if a municipal bylaw was a good place to start.

“It seems to me you should be lobbying the province for a province-wide standard instead of aiming for a hodge-podge of bylaws,” Oliver said.
Travale said lobbying on behalf of Pullen and Petra-de-Lee-Rentrer was likely not a good use of Norfolk’s time at Queen’s Park. It’s difficult on issues like this, Travale said, to get the attention of relevant cabinet ministers and senior policy advisers.
Yesterday, Const. Mark Foster of the Norfolk OPP said most incidents of paintball abuse are already prohibited by law. Shooting paintballs at unsuspecting bystanders is assault, he said, while defacing property is vandalism. Foster noted that paintballs don’t have to be fired from an air gun to leave a mark.
Foster said it may be legal to carry a paintball gun in a public place, but added this would be unwise. Casual behaviour of this sort would prompt weapon reports from the public. As such, police would respond assuming the worst.
“Yes, we would investigate,” Foster said. “And we would tell the person ‘Not the best choice in the world.’”
Paintball enthusiasts distinguish paintball guns from real guns by referring to them as “markers.” However, Travale doesn’t buy it.
“A weapon is a weapon, whether it’s a BB gun or a pellet gun or a paintball gun - it’s a weapon,” he said.
Pullen and Petra-de-Lee-Rentrer would like to lease an area of scrub land north of Nichol Street in Waterford between the Spruce Row Museum and the Waterford Legion for paintball war games. The land belongs to the county. As it stands, the two are organizing events in partnership with a farmer in the Waterford area.

Monte Sonnenberg
519-426-5710 ext. 150
msonnenberg@bowesnet.com




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