P aintball, a strategic pastime and international sport, but others may call it the gun crazy maniac’s game or the rich kid sport. But to the athletes that compete, it’s a lifestyle. Players purchase guns and gear that total thousands of dollars and dedicate mostly every weekend to this expensive pastime. But with mass shootings on the rise and a recovering economy, is the game of survival going to survive? In 1976, Charles Gaines and Bob Gurnsey came up with an idea of a game in which the participants would hunt each other through the woods. In 1981, Gaines and eleven others competed in the first game of paintball, using Nel-Spot pistols which were intended for marking trees and livestock by ranchers. This first game was a capture the flag …show more content…
Even countries put tough legislation on the sport, because they think it promotes violence. Argentina considers it an “inappropriate game.” For children that are under the age of 16 years the sport is forbidden, unless they have written consent by parents. In Australia and Cyprus, the sport is controlled by the police. Yes, you heard me right, the police regulates one of the safest sports in the world. All paintball markers have to be registered and licensed. Just to purchase a marker you must have completed military service, have a clean police record and be over the age of 18. In New Zealand teens between the ages of 16 and 18 require a firearm license to possess a marker. Germany is the only country that has put regulation on the sport after a mass shooting. In 2009, there was a school massacre of 15 people in Winnenden, Germany where a 17-year-old student took a weapon from his father’s bedroom and brought it to school to shoot fellow classmates that he had been with a year before. A chancellor of Germany brought up that the shooter loved paintball and used that evidence to push for legislation on making all “air rifles’ that shoot paintballs illegal and if found with one of these ‘air rifles’ fines could go up to $5,000.”(Connolly, 2009) This was never passed but legislation was passed that there is an absolutely No Mil-Sim Policy, banning any camouflage clothing or real-life looking markers. (Wikipedia,