snipermonkey2

This one small thing drives me so mad. People please paintball markers are not guns. Guns shoot to kill, or injury. A marker is used to mark things. Paintball isn't about going out and killing people its about having fun and tagging people. This violent view people have toward paintball is because of the phase "paintball gun" and the fact when some fool goes out and shoots up a house with a marker it is called a gun in the news. Neither of these things are the sport of paintball. We compete and play in the safest sport in the world, yet we get the whip of the public every time that stuff goes on.

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Paintfighter

I use both terms pretty indescriminantly. Then again, I wasn't aware of this groundswell of anti-paintball sentiment. Keep us posted on futher developments.

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Crawdaddy

It was a big deal in the early to mid 90's tourney players today can thank the desire to move away from the image of gun toting camo clad guys shooting each other up in the woods. Woodsballers never left but the sanitized game of inflatable bunkers and bright jerseys and gear got all the magazine glamour shots.

Dark.angel

I have a paintball gun, why do you even ****ing care?

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snipermonkey2

The early woodsballers never wanted it to be a gun. I have met some of the godfathers of paintball and they don't call it a gun at all. And I care because I want this sport to grow more.

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2.0

As i understand it, and i could be wrong, is that it's called a marker because the intention the first markers built, before they became recreational tools, was to mark trees in scientific research and in logging. If this is true they've always been called markers, and the debate of calling them guns or markers started merely out of blissful ignorance.

I mean, if people don't know it's a marker, they wouldn't know what else to call it but a gun i suppose.

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the_real_kaz

I think your missing the big picture. Don't post if you don't actually have anything to say.

2.0, one of the first paintball markers was used to mark cattle actually.

Saddly people not used to paintball will still call it a gun, and give it a negitive rep. Fighting about it isn't going to get us anywhere, but what will is promoting saftey at every event and continue to be one of the safest sports around.

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Crawdaddy

The reason people care about the gun vs marker issue is that paintball has always existed on the fringes as a rather small sport. Paintball has a lot of things going for it the game is relatively safe and can be easily enjoyed by people of all ages. What paintball has going against it is the fact the the equipment can be bought cheaply and easily misused. All it would take to get the game shutdown is a few well publicized "paintball gun" attacks and if somebody were actually killed (don't laugh it is very possible) there would be regulations and that is a short hop to a full on ban. How many kids could play if a license were required? How many fields would shut down? How many stores would stay in business? Calling it a marker helps the case that the equipment is just that equipment. No different from a baseball bat or a soccer ball. Calling it a gun makes it a weapon and it is hard to justify allowing kids to shoot weapons at each other. No matter how popular you think the game is paintball has a minuscule market share compared to mainstream sports and if you don't play you don't understand and on the whole not many people play.

TwEsT

gun-
–noun 1. a weapon consisting of a metal tube, with mechanical attachments, from which projectiles are shot by the force of an explosive; a piece of ordnance.
2. any portable firearm, as a rifle, shotgun, or revolver.
3. a long-barreled cannon having a relatively flat trajectory.
4. any device for shooting something under pressure: a paint gun; a staple gun.
if u want to see it yourself gun - Definitions from Dictionary.com

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XtremeAaron

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Crawdaddy

We are all aware of the definition but no matter what the dictionary says it is an intentional effort to distance paintball guns from actual guns. Those that care about the healthy growth of the game will insist on staying as far from the image of the guns and the vandals as possible and calling paintball guns markers is an easy way to do that. You can call your gear whatever the hell you want and go on being part of the problem or you can take the small step to change your terminology and do your part for the game.

TwEsT

if you look in my sig it says MARKER setup, not gun setup. i realize that the sport as a whole is trying to move away from the image that many ignorant ppl have of ppl just running around shooting each other for fun, i just like being a smart@$$

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snipermonkey2

Yes the first markers were used for both cattle and trees. Then a bet between a group of business men in Henniker NH led to the birth of the sport. Their idea was just to see who could survive the longest. The winner of that match never even fired once.

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Crawdaddy

I don't have sigs turned on but I'm sure your's is just awesome.

Dark.angel

I don't think calling a paintball marker a gun, is going to stop the sport from growing. Paintball is supposedly the fastest growing sport right now.



I had something to say, and thats why I posted. Kthanxbai.

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snipermonkey2

Though I think that comparing it with a gun does slow the sports growth. And the image of going out and shooting some one with a gun is something that paintball doesn't wants ties too.

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TwEsT

thanx man, it think its pretty cool

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pjmcbride

I understand what you are trying to say and it is a worthwhile discussion but I don't think that calling a marker a gun creates a negative image of the game. Anybody with half a brain knows the point is not try to physically harm anyone. There will always be ignorant people. I think its best we all just ignore them and spend our time promoting the positive aspects of the sport. Most people do get it. Thats why the sport is growing so rapidly.

Next we'll have to call our kids squirt guns something else too...maybe water projectile devices?

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snipermonkey2

I have had friends growing up that their parents would not let them get any toy with the word gun in it. I know they are extreme parents but those people need to learn that its not a gun.

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the_real_kaz