I know Im going to start a flame-fest but Im really curious. Im a firearms instructor for alot of younger kids and I hear it all the time that they are not allowed guns at home but they go play paintball all the time. These are the kids that have the worst ideas regarding firearms. I have a hard time agreeing with a parent that refuses the safe teaching of firearms safety and yet allows kids to participate in a game that shows its fun to shoot others with no consequence. I know theres a line between the real deal and this, but these kids only see one end of the spectrum. And they learn all the wrong things.
How does everyone else feel?

I was taught gun safety at a young age.  I always had toy guns.  We always new that the real ones killed though.  I'm all for paintball as a training tool and a recreation sport.

[b]no consequence[/b]??

Those things hurt when they hi! [;)]

I personally like the sport – haven’t played it for a while but I here it’s under attack lately.  I have no problems with it as a regulated sport with rules.  I’ve played with reefs and lots of rules, and I have played with a bunch of people with almost no rules… Believe me, I prefer a lot of rules when it comes to paintball – it’s not cool when someone gets hurt and they don’t want to stop playing and help that guy out.  

Well with that said, too many people out there that don’t have respect for paintball guns and use them for stuff that they were not intended for.  Those are the people that should pay, not us.

I like paintball. I haven't played in forever though. It's kinda cold right now, but hopefully I can play again soon.

I played for several years on an organized tournament team during the early 90s. Mostly everyone on the team had prior real firearms experience and it truely showed on the field, ie. no fingers on the triggers, watching the muzzle direction, useage of safety gear, etc.

Accidental discharges happen in paintball just as they do with real firearms. Let loose a paintball in the staging area cause someone had a ball in the chamber and finger on the trigger got just as much as an ass reaming as they would have if it were a real firearm.

Experience pays -  Just keep doing your best, eventually it'll wear off on the kids and they'll take what they've learned from you onto the paintball field.

My girlfriend's nephew is 9 years old and is allowed by his mother to play rag-tag games with older kids in the neighborhood.  His Mom is also rabidly anti-gun.

I found this out when I was babysitting him alone for a few hours.  He was begging me to shoot my BB gun, so I let him.  We went over the 4 rules of gun safety, I had him wearing eye protection, and even ear protection..the whole nine yards. I watched him like a hawk.  

A few days later my girlfriend got a call from her mom stating how pissed she and her other daughter was that I was teaching him about guns.  [rolleyes]

I don't understand it either...

I really, really like paintball, so I can't speak out against it.  It does tend to be more of an adult or older kid's sport, at least where I live.    I havn't played in a while so I don't know how much that has changed in VA.  There are occasionally a group of kids who come out and play for a birthday party or something and sometimes they show a lack of safety.  Refs do a pretty good job of clearing it up.  I do think parents need to be responsible with their children in regards to paintball.

I against shooting at people with anything - paintball, BB guns, slingshots, arrows with rubber suction cups, whatever. General principles, guess I'm old fashioned.

I've been playing for about 14 years now and, in my opinion, it teaches responsible gun handling. Sure, you shoot at each other out in the field, but in the staging areas there are constant reminders to have your gun unloaded, pointed in a safe direction, barrel plug in, ect. Take you goggles off out in the field once in front of a ref and see what happens. Take a shot in an area where you are not suppose to, purposeful or not and you'll hear about it, both from the refs and from the other players. I just do not see the recklessness. Hell, the one field owner I know makes it a point to give a speech before every group goes out. During that speech he mentions that we do not tolerate people removing their goggles during a game. We were instructed to give only one warning about this. If we have to remind someone of this more than once, they are to be ejected from the field.

My big problem with paintball is it eats into my gunz & ammo budget!

Paintball, D&D, Doom, Quake, Harry Potter.

Most people can handle it. I'd be in favor of excluding those that can't keep a grip on reality.

Don't let them watch movies with talking animals either.

I think anybody anti-gun who allows their kid or themselves to play paintball is a big hypocrite.  I also believe that those that go from owning guns and understanding and practicing gun safety have a lot more respect for paintball safety rules.

I started playing paintball at the age of 26 after owning several guns for about 8 yrs.  I see these little kids out on the field playing who really don't understand the significance of their actions (spray and pray, no trigger finger control, sweeping their teammates, etc).  I shudder to think how they are going to act if they ever have a real gun in their hands.

I don't like the idea of slapping regulations on things, but I do think that there ought to be limits on how old you must be to play and there should be more formal safety training for paintball.  

I certainly understand what you're saying, S-Bob. Mainly because I come from the opposite side of that spectrum.

The guys, and 2 or 3 girls, that I hang out with all have learned firearms saftey as youths and KNOW the difference between paintball guns and real guns.

Because of our upbringing we treat paintball guns as if they ARE real guns.

Saftey first, second and last. Always.

for one, gun freaks like me play paintball as if itwere real, but most of it is not like that at all, just look at the most popular gunsand equipment. not gunlike at all, all chromed and anodidized red and bright blue.

I'm not sure how I feel.  I was raised in a gun friendly home, and taught gun safety and shooting skills from a very young age.

However, my Dad was totally against toy guns of any kind.  I wasn't allowed to have any toy guns, not ever water pistols.  In his mind, toy guns created confusion between the real ones... and aided in some the the child fascination with loaded guns.

I can see his point... but I also know that I was COMPLETELY fascinated with his pistols... and since I never got to play with them... and even though I knew he would beat my ass if I got caught, I used to play with his as a kid.  Now, I knew all about how they functioned, and unloaded them first... but I must say... I dont think that strategy worked very well based on my personal experience.

I am not sure how I feel about paintball, and the like.  In theory, shooting other humans in a game brings up some serious moral questions.  Especially since most of the people at out local paintball games are under 12 years of age.  Then again.... it can be excellent training... but I would think it would need to be coupled with constant reinforcement about the difference in toys and the real thing, both in the hardware and in the scenarios.

Will I let my kids play paintball?  Hmmm... I just dont know... maybe when they are 18.

:-)

I love paintball!!  Granted, they need to be treated like a real gun for the most part, but that can be done over time with kids.  You just have to do your best with what you have.

Here is a paintball gun I want to get:
[url]http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Field/4608/mp5.html[/url]

If you get real looking ones, maybe you can teach them to treat it with respect?

(Edited: trying to get the link to work right!!)
I give up!!

I've (sadly) never played paintball, but I think I can answer the question.  ALL kids need to be taught how to [u]safely[/u] handle guns.  Those that demonstrate that they are responsible and have a grip on reality should be reasonably trusted by their parents.  That's real easy to say, but now we just have to figure out what to do with all the dumbass parents out there -- THAT is the [i]real[/i] problem.

My brothers and I shot each other millions of times with toy guns without regard to gun safety.  My dad was military and I grew up with guns in the house (a couple of them loaded).  He didn't have much time to take us shooting, but we had a [b]very[/b] healthy respect for the power of a real gun and never gave him any reason to not trust us.  My son is learning gun safety in a more organized way, but still shoots his friends with toy guns.  As he demonstrates more and more responsibility with real guns, however, he's granted a higher level of trust with them (for now, they stay locked in the safe).

I believe that kids should be taught to handle paintball guns with a level of responsibility similar to real guns.  As for shooting each other with paintballs, I reject any notion that it teaches kids that it's OK to shoot people.  Normal kids understand the difference between a paintball and a bullet.  If they don't, they should be institutionalized.  In fact, I will encourage my son to enjoy paintball when he's old enough (just turned 7).  Learning to safely handle guns on the range is very good, but I think that paintball goes further to teach kids tactics.  Both very useful skills.

 [soapbox]

Paintball has it's applications, it can be a great way to teach safety, etc.  I do, however get tired of hearing these wanna be rambo's playing weekend warrior and thinking that makes them some kind of true combatant.  I've been to war twice, and it ain't no paintball game.  (Sorry to rant, but I get real sick of hearing these pukes that never even thought of serving their country go on about how if THEY were in combat, they'd do this, and they'd do that- and you can tell that all they'd really do is just loose control of their functions and snivel like a baby)
AIRBORNE!!!

Real gun safety rules first.
Once they have a good solid understanding of that, let them play paintball.
If the kid can't grasp the difference between paintball and actually shooting someone, that kid needs to be watched like a hawk: no video games, no TV, no comic books, etc.  Get my point?
If you saw our group getting ready for/playing paintball, you'd swear we're some kind of para-military group in training.  We all have black or camo paint guns and we wear fatigues.  All our games are played in the woods, if you aren't camo you're gonna get nailed quickly.  All the newbies learn that real quick.  Some of them come out there with high dollar flashy guns and get their ass shot off.  A big bright red and chrome gun is just like a flashing sign in the woods.

Just pulled my Nova 700 out last night for the first time in months... That sucker was itching to goggle somebody!

Paintball is great fun, and when supervised and instructed properly it can give a pretty thourough indoctrination to gunhandling for some newbie that's never fired a real gun.  It's no replacement for real firearms training, but in the new world order where it's taboo to talk about guns in public, I say [b]any fundamental safety training is good training![/b]

That being said, it'll form bad habits for any type of real combat (except maybe CQB), especially if you think drywall and plywood will stop bullets like they do paintballs.

I'd love to see the look on the paintball player slash perp that thinks his 'mad skillz' on the field will help him shoot it out with the law... and bullets are suddenly whizzing through the stucco wall he was taking cover behind!

We must ban paintball, for the children.

I agree Gunbert that paintball can develop bad habits in regards to the differences in a fight using real guns and paintball guns.  However, I still think Paintball can be excellent small-unit tactical training.  Certainly not as good as you could get, but about 50,000 times better than sitting in front of a PC looking at AR15.com like so many do.

To answer the original question - I love paintball and any kid who can't tell the difference between shooting someone in a paintball game with a paintball and the real thing, needs help.

One of the writers for Guns & Ammo talked harshly about paintballing.

Personally they are only toys. It is a fun game to play also...a lot better than having your kid out drinking and doing stupid stuff.