Germany to ban paintball

[Rabies]

at every news on tv, paintball is no1.

some of them are not to bad with paintball at all. but i think the politicans didn't care about the fact in the media.

Quite the opposite, the politicians live or die by the media. Especially in a case like this where they are just trying to come up with some eye-catching action to win a few votes, by linking it in the media to something bad, like school shootings.

Winning the media over is essential for this to work - they rely on the fact that the opinions of their target demographic are shaped by what they read in the newspapers and see on TV. So if the TV news tells them that paintball is evil, and that the CDU wants to ban it, then a few more people might vote CDU. If, on the other hand, the media shows the whole case up for the farce that it is, then the measure won't win them any votes (in fact it could lose them votes), and it will be dropped quickly enough.

The foundation stone of any coordinated effort to head off this law must be to engage with the media and get them to cast paintball in a good light; lobbying politicians and talking directly to the public are secondary.

 

[Mario]

Yes. When they say "US soil", it's more of a friendly agreement unless the US has deeper involvement in the actual laws and policies of the country. If you were somehow born in a US embassy you would not be classed as a US citizen.

Even if this wasn't the case, you would still need to actually get there by travelling through part of Germany with the gun in the first place. Thus still managing to trample over German law on your commute (if markers were illegal)...

thus spoke zarathustra...

 

[Chicago]

This is definitely a case where MilSim is going to hurt us.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,623518,00.html

Whoever these GSG9 people are make us all look like the actual nuts the legislative nuts are trying to portray us as.


Someone should figure out who those CDU politicians were who played paintball recently and out them.

 

[onasilverbike]

Quite the opposite, the politicians live or die by the media. Especially in a case like this where they are just trying to come up with some eye-catching action to win a few votes, by linking it in the media to something bad, like school shootings.

Winning the media over is essential for this to work - they rely on the fact that the opinions of their target demographic are shaped by what they read in the newspapers and see on TV. So if the TV news tells them that paintball is evil, and that the CDU wants to ban it, then a few more people might vote CDU. If, on the other hand, the media shows the whole case up for the farce that it is, then the measure won't win them any votes (in fact it could lose them votes), and it will be dropped quickly enough.

The foundation stone of any coordinated effort to head off this law must be to engage with the media and get them to cast paintball in a good light; lobbying politicians and talking directly to the public are secondary.

Although, with paintball already viewed with great suspicion in Germany as some kind of Neo-Nazi activity (according to one of the major distributors) by local and national bureaucracy and the equipment controlled by firearms regulations, the German players, teams and industry may have more of a fight on their hands than you suspect.

As for Bitburg not being subject to German law, I think you'll find that the last USAF/NATO activity on the airfield was several years ago and that the remaining US personnel moved out from the accommodation towards the end of 2006, the site is now a commercial air field.

This realy is more of a bandaid solution for a problem that politicians cannot fix. Being unable to legislate againts psycosis they want to be seen to do something that might reduce the risks of a repeat incident. Do they really think there were no psycotics in Germany (or elsewhere) before the advent of horror movies, shoot-em-up video games or paintball?

 

[Mario]

Do they really think there were no psycotics in Germany (or elsewhere) before the advent of horror movies, shoot-em-up video games or paintball?

This made me laugh.

Paintball in Germany is done. I seriously doubt that a lot can be done, because in the end this is all about being seen to be doing something. The gun lobby in any country is massive and this legislation ticks the buttons for all parties involved. The politicians look to be seen as doing something, the gun lobby get to keep all their guns,the masses don't give a sh!t and paintball is the scapegoat. Its the easy option for the legislators.

On a side note, the gun laws in Germany are crazy. When i lived there (at the age of 14,) a friend came over to say hello and just bought his handgun to show me. In his school bag. Fu(king crazy.

Think of it this way. At least Amsterdam or Sweden might make a comeback...

Edit: ticks the buttons? Who the fcuk ticks buttons?

 

[NSKlad]

This is definitely a case where MilSim is going to hurt us.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,623518,00.html

Whoever these GSG9 people are make us all look like the actual nuts the legislative nuts are trying to portray us as.


Someone should figure out who those CDU politicians were who played paintball recently and out them.

GSG9 is the German anti-terror/spec ops force.

As for most of the other opinions in that article, disgusting.

 

[Pmr Man]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20090508/twl-police-siege-with-rambo-soldier-3fd0ae9.html

do you think paintball will be banned in new zealand? (slight hint of sarcasm)

 

[onasilverbike]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20090508/twl-police-siege-with-rambo-soldier-3fd0ae9.html

do you think paintball will be banned in new zealand?

Ex-army reservist Jan Molenaar, 51, allegedly fired a fusillade of shots from an automatic rifle at police who arrived with a warrant to search the house for cannabis.
A police dog was also shot dead, with two other officers seriously wounded and in hospital. A neighbour was also hit.
According to the New Zealand Herald, friends of the gunmen have described him as a "one-man army" and a "nightmare waiting to happen".
Molenaar remains holed up in the house trading fire with police, while the two camouflaged armoured personnel carriers provide police protection.

Oh yeah, paintball is certainly the root of all evil, especially in this case, its clear to see this guy once saw an "Angel" and instantly turned in to a psychotic, arms hoarding, dope smoking maniac, no doubt about it!

 

[Bunkerkidz]

Hey guys, I just got linked to this by a friend and I must say it is rather disturbing.

Here in Portugal, due to the help of our National Paintball Federation (www.fppaintball.org), we were able to recently fight a law that would present severe difficulties to the practice of the sport, such as having to have a gun permit to own a paintball gun, having a gun license to sell paintball gear, as well as having to be 18 to play it.

And we managed to exclude all those things from the law and keep paintball the way it was.

Even though I'm from Portugal and this doesn't directly affect me, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make sure this doesn't happen, we all have to stick together through these rough times, because even if you think that something like this wouldn't affect you, you can't forget that if for some reason this goes through, then a precedent has been set that will spread, and that's never good.

PM me if you would like the contacts of the Portuguese Paintball Federation or any help, I'm also from Benfica (major sports club) that took paintball as one of it's sports, so that could definitely be included as a positive argument against the ban, especially because I realize that football is also very popular in Germany.

Hope we can all fight this together.

 

[Rat]

what about reenacting in germany then? they use deactivated/blank firers, if thats not gory/death related (which paintball isn't) then what is?