it's a start at least!!!! PLAY.COM
- Thread starter Dusty
- Start date
I guess they'll be selling baseball bats at JD Sports next 
Air rifles have been around for years - and (when I was a lad - 20 years ago) nearly every schoolboy had one of some description.
Let's face it - if anyone wants to 'abuse' any piece of sporting equipment - they will.
Then there's the home made stuff. You will never stop the idiots - you can only try and educate them at a young age and hope they grow out of the 'urge'.
Same goes for riding a motorbike. My 8-y-old wants one - as do most 8-y-olds. Oh, and don't forget the ninja sword/death-stars/etc that they 'need' after watching Power Rangers or TTMNT etc.
People like Play.com are only supplying a demand - it's called 'business'.
Surely bringing prices down and new 'genuine' players into the sport can only be good for it - or do you enjoy the 'elitism'?
*ding* - you're right - these are expensive times.
Air rifles have been around for years - and (when I was a lad - 20 years ago) nearly every schoolboy had one of some description.
Let's face it - if anyone wants to 'abuse' any piece of sporting equipment - they will.
Then there's the home made stuff. You will never stop the idiots - you can only try and educate them at a young age and hope they grow out of the 'urge'.
Same goes for riding a motorbike. My 8-y-old wants one - as do most 8-y-olds. Oh, and don't forget the ninja sword/death-stars/etc that they 'need' after watching Power Rangers or TTMNT etc.
People like Play.com are only supplying a demand - it's called 'business'.
Surely bringing prices down and new 'genuine' players into the sport can only be good for it - or do you enjoy the 'elitism'?
*ding* - you're right - these are expensive times
.
Not my point at all. The only reason UK paintball is ignored by the powers that be, is that we've self regulated and behaved. That control is gone now. Yes, you could always buy a cheap marker IF YOU WENT LOOKING FOR ONE, but now they are advertised on non-paintball websites...... also, the fact that markers could only be gassed up at a site meant that it kept casual "in the park" use down...... these come with a pre-filled tank, anyone can just pick one up without ever having anything to do with paintball, that means they do become as open to misuse as any other piece of sporting equipment...
Markers don't require a license or any special consideration as they've never been a problem, getting hold of one and keeping it gassed up needed trips to paintball sites/retailers....that's going to change now. You can order a fully gassed up marker that comes ready to fire...... that's what worries me more.
You can play football, baseball etc.... on any bit of grassland or flat concrete........ are you suggesting that paintall should be treated with the same lack of precaution?
Anyway, this thread is making a nice trade ad for them anyway
Oh, and good example....... 20 years ago nearly everyone had an air rifle...... what happened to them then? Give it 20 years, I'll be saying....."do you remember paintball?"
Markers don't require a license or any special consideration as they've never been a problem, getting hold of one and keeping it gassed up needed trips to paintball sites/retailers....that's going to change now. You can order a fully gassed up marker that comes ready to fire...... that's what worries me more.
You can play football, baseball etc.... on any bit of grassland or flat concrete........ are you suggesting that paintall should be treated with the same lack of precaution?
Anyway, this thread is making a nice trade ad for them anyway
Oh, and good example....... 20 years ago nearly everyone had an air rifle...... what happened to them then? Give it 20 years, I'll be saying....."do you remember paintball?"
That's actually a very scary thought. But it 'could' happen - who knows what the future will bring?
I agree - selling full canisters over the internet is more than dumb - and I think it could be illegal as well (dangerous goods or something).
My point is that thugs will be thugs - yester-year is was a brick, then air guns - laser pens etc - and today's flavour - paintball markers.
There is nothing we can do about it - and if we make 'ruptions' then all it will do is bring the negative side of paintball markers to the media's attention (UK media only seem to be interested in the bad things). Remember when glue sniffing was 'it' - there is no way that it would have been anywhere near as 'big' as it was if the media hadn't reported it in the first place.
All we can do is ignore this - and hope it will go away. Sad - but true.
Oh, and as for air rifles - they turned into air'soft - but that's another thread
Selling air cannisters........ soda stream have done it for years. That's all these things are, prefilled co2 bottles.
Yup, ignore it, that's the way to go. Then it'll all go away........well, paintball will anyway. We currently have no laws enforced against us. We are ignored as "paintball related crime" is so close to non existant it doesn't matter. As for "readily available in the states", fine for the US, but bear in mind we already have the laws in place to ban markers on the spot, we are just ignored. You cited laser pens Raffles...... good example.. are you aware you can no longer buy anything more powerful than a class 2 laser ? Why? Because after years of legitimate use by lecturers, surveyors, builders etc....... the idiots got hold of them when they became "popular" and high street stores started selling them to people who had no legitimate use for them. Sound familiar? How about martial arts weapons? Freely available for years, largely to martial artists, then along comes the burst of popularity and they are banned overnight....... remember that? Enter the Dragon was edited to remove the nunchuks, the Turtles were the Teenage Mutant HERO Turtles in the UK, all references to Ninja/martial arts weapons was wiped out in the UK in one fell swoop....... that's only recently been relaxed. Not expecting a knee jerk reaction in the UK? Where you from, Mars?
Yup, ignore it, that's the way to go. Then it'll all go away........well, paintball will anyway. We currently have no laws enforced against us. We are ignored as "paintball related crime" is so close to non existant it doesn't matter. As for "readily available in the states", fine for the US, but bear in mind we already have the laws in place to ban markers on the spot, we are just ignored. You cited laser pens Raffles...... good example.. are you aware you can no longer buy anything more powerful than a class 2 laser ? Why? Because after years of legitimate use by lecturers, surveyors, builders etc....... the idiots got hold of them when they became "popular" and high street stores started selling them to people who had no legitimate use for them. Sound familiar? How about martial arts weapons? Freely available for years, largely to martial artists, then along comes the burst of popularity and they are banned overnight....... remember that? Enter the Dragon was edited to remove the nunchuks, the Turtles were the Teenage Mutant HERO Turtles in the UK, all references to Ninja/martial arts weapons was wiped out in the UK in one fell swoop....... that's only recently been relaxed. Not expecting a knee jerk reaction in the UK? Where you from, Mars?
Hehe - I'd forgot about soda stream bottles. They actually fit most markers as well. I thought you could only buy them over he counter though - and not have them posted (explosion risk etc). I maybe wrong - I'm not a solicitor - I just work with the leeches .
I wonder how long it will be before high street stores sell paintball 'gear' off the shelf? Can't wait to get my hands on the first 'Taiwanese' paint gun.
.I wonder how long it will be before high street stores sell paintball 'gear' off the shelf? Can't wait to get my hands on the first 'Taiwanese' paint gun.
In meadowhall you can walk into a sore (a gedget shop type thing) and buy a paradox mf1, air, paintballs, goggles and accessories off the shelf... yay!
Dont know what the fuss is about to be honest. I do understand where you guys are coming from on the safety side of things, and how laser pens etc got banned, but surely we want to get the sport mainstream. Obviously growth brings disadvantages along with all the advantages, but we want to go forward, not stagnate where we are. Television deals won't arrive until theres a real audience to watch it, which is almost exclusively going to be paintballers, because its so hard to make it look exciting to someone who's not familiar with whats going on, which means we need more people to be taking it up and being exposed to it, which means we need exactly what Play are doing. The more people that play, the more tournaments that will be organised, and the more places that will sell paintball gear, which should lower the price of everything because of competition, which means more people will be able to afford to play, and itll keep going round (hopefully) until before we know it, we're a real recognised sport.
Think thats the idea anyway
Think thats the idea anyway
Paintball can only grow as a sport if it is profitable. Selling stuff cheap is actually a step backwards. For sites to start running walk-ons (the initial 'hobby' side of the business) more frequently they need to be able to make more of a profit than running a normal punter day, or why bother? The more money there is to be made, the more sites will open to own gunners & therefore the more accessible paintball becomes. By selling kiy & paint cheaply, these people are taking potential profit away from site operators, forcing them to revert to punter only days, to pay the bills. In the long run, paintball needs to remain a high profit industry, to sustain itself.
Jose, no offence mate but you are a bit of doomsayer.........
name any recreational activity, baseball, squash, golf, tennis, cricket, remote control aeroplane flying, airsoft, paintball, ad infinitum and the tools of each of these particular sports/pastimes, in the hands of a thug or general hooligan can be deadly.
give a hooligan a golf club and watch the damage he does.......
adn as someone else mentioned, the internet, which lets face it is in almost every home, brings everything to your doorstep for the sake of a few keystrokes and a search engine.
name any recreational activity, baseball, squash, golf, tennis, cricket, remote control aeroplane flying, airsoft, paintball, ad infinitum and the tools of each of these particular sports/pastimes, in the hands of a thug or general hooligan can be deadly.
give a hooligan a golf club and watch the damage he does.......
adn as someone else mentioned, the internet, which lets face it is in almost every home, brings everything to your doorstep for the sake of a few keystrokes and a search engine.