UKPSF + Sport England

[Flash-Bugout]

Originally posted by Richard Kirke (DUPS Rocket) UK
As an alternative we could adopt Jersey's system (perhaps a voluntary one set up by some official body might be a good start).

What is Jerseys system? You and your mysterious posts Richard!

What-ever, no-one can stop kids going out and shooting peple with paintball markers if they want to

Next time an OAP gets mugged with a cricket bat for her handbag, and ends up spending two months in hospital, having her hip replaced, let's all go out and ban cricket.

Kids-is-kids-is-kids, if they are brought up well, then they 'should' have some respect for the law, and know the difference between stupid and safe.

 

[Just Curious]

Jersey's system

In Jersey we are required by Law to hold a Firearms certificate as Paintball Markers arestill classed as Firearms here.

Pain in the arse but if properly enforced could prevent the markers getting into the wrong hands.

You also need to be a member of a Club here in the Island which could also be a good thing, i.e Markers could only be sold to a registered club member.
Now, before u all start jumping on me, I know that it would take some doing but hey,,just my opinion.

cya

 

[Duncster]

like you said, it would be a pain the rectal sphincter, but something like this will probably have to be adopted! Hell, you can buy Talon pumps at your local grocerystore these days!!! even they can kick a paintball out at a fair rate!

As for the cricket bat thing? I understand where you iz coming from, but at the end of the day a cricket/baseball bat is just a big stick!!......what does a Paintball marker remind you of??

dunc.

 

[John Molloy]

Originally posted by Duncster

As for the cricket bat thing? I understand where you iz coming from, but at the end of the day a cricket/baseball bat is just a big stick!!......what does a Paintball marker remind you of??

dunc.

A BIGGER more complicated stick seriously though you got a point we in this sport do not need the negative publicity that comes with incidents like that the Jersey system may be workable but I would suggest that rather than have the police license we do it in house (remember Dunblane, he had a fire arms license)

If we self regulate this we get bonus brownie points from the powers that be and we don't get a nasty watch dog sat on our shoulders scrutinising everything we do. Markers are already identified with serial numbers so a data base of where markers live shouldn't be hard to build (except for the Talons sold from corner shops of course) add that to the UKPSF and equivelant D-Bases around Europe we have a good start, confiscation wouldn't work (as the BBC found with pirate radio stations) so banning from sites and tournies would be the sword of damocles over players heads.

 

[Just Curious]

Self-regulation would be great and as you say would look good in the eyes of the authorities but I really cannot see that working out. What I mean to say is, who would do it? UKPSF? I think that they have enough on their plate just trying to get British Paintballers to join without taking on the extra workload of maintaining a Data-base of 'owned' Paintball Markers and thats only if the suppliers agree to advise each time a Marker is sold.
Apart from that it would still be too easy to get hold of a Marker without having it Registered, i.e mail-order from the States.

Another thing would be the Comps. We all know how tight the schedule in some of the tournies are. Just checking that all the Markers used at a Tourny like Campaign would take Hours and with the mix of Foreign Teams.........??? Do we just ban the British Team that is using an Unregistered Marker??

Its a good point of debate and something that will probably need to be addressed in the future but I don't think its got to the stage where Kids can go in to the likes of 'Planet' or 'SmartieParts' and buy a Marker of the shelf. I think the Staff would be asking questions of any '12' yearolds wanting to buy a Marker.

Maybe I'm wrong.

cya

 

[Tom Tom]

Having read this thread I feel I want to add an opinion.

It is always a 6 of 1 half a dozen of another situation.

If paintball gets to be a sport and popularity grows then kids are going to want the latest all singing all dancing marker and there is the chance that the start to shoot each other in the street and so the reputation is brought down.

It stays where it is and the recognition we feel we deserve as players is lost because we don't make it onto regular Media outlets (TV, Papers etc)

It always when things are going good no paper wants to know but you get one idiot shooting the latest marker in the local shops every paper in the country would want to know so that they could "be responsible" and ban paintball.

Well thats Horse $hit.

Kids are gettig interseted any way. We get kids on site who after a day of play want a marker to take home and do it more etc etc, the parents hear the price tag and go maybe next time.

I was told that other week we had some kids who were playing little league with us (its a kiddies version of p/ball using things that resemble super soakers but fire small paint pellets at about 4 f/s) They were lifting googles all day and the marshalls were getting furious because on other fields there was real games going on.

So one marshall said to a friend from the other field can i borrow your marker, and said to the kids that these were being used and the saftey point of it all he then shoot the other marshall (with permission) from about 45 feet away the other marshall let out a cry of agony. The kids soon stopped lifting.

The point I make is, the younger kids might not realise the real dangers but with proper education the stupidity bit (may not be eliminated) but we can try to cut it down as the "sport" expands.

I think all the work the UKPSF is doing is needed and can only be good for us, but for each argument we put for it people with small minds will find the con. So we try and eliminate their point and they find another one.

We need to get more people in the right places to hear our crys for a serious and safe sport and to show them with out a doubt that their small minded attitude is wrong.

 

[John Molloy]

I can find little in your post to argue with Tom Tom and I do think that Smart parts and Planet (and the other outlets) are resposible about the sale of gear, I think we still need the debate and we need to look at other sports organisations like FIFA or the RFU to see the way to go, I played Rugby Union for 9 years (and picked up some impressive injuries ) and was not a member of the RFU I was a member of a club ( in this case Sedgley Park RU club) registration of teams not players is the way the RFU goes this would be easier to record as you would have "Team NoNuts" with a squad of 8 names listed so each team registers for all players not the other way round (and with simple Dbase software that is easy to set up) the info is sent to event organisers anyway so the data is their already. As for Rec players they contact fields to play as well so field organisers have that info colaboration can not be that difficult
rambled a bit havn't I ? The UKPSF is on the right track but as you say Jynx they have enough on their plate already and we need a european Dbase for this with a bit for the visitors from statesville. The ever present questions are, Who when where and how the How we know the when is soon the where is who cares the who is whe important one, any voluntears?

 

[Robin Hood]

Originally posted by Duncster
Very quickly kids start to shoot eachother in the streets and parks of our merry land, and paintball instantly gets it's recognition revoked due to it's vandalistically (??!!) inducive nature....

Can you just imagine what it would be like if paintball was as popular as football over here? Instead of having the neighbours son kick their ball through your window you'd have 20 paintballs whizzing through shattered glass going at 20bps on full auto with their new IR3000!!

Originally posted by Flash-Bugout
Kids-is-kids-is-kids, if they are brought up well, then they 'should' have some respect for the law, and know the difference between stupid and safe.

This is correct - but we all know that not all kids are brought up well. You'll have the trouble makers who the press will focus on when they get their marker and start shooting up old grannies or worse; no matter how much education and sasfety info. we pour out there. These are the kind of people who don't even play paintball, just buy the guns for the fun of shooting stuff up with them!

I would personally love paintball to go nationally on tele and be a huge spectator sport or similar. But the problem with paintball is that it's a sport that requires so much responsibility from EVERY SINGLE player. You get the few a$$holes who piss about at their first tourney and they're the ones digging graves for our sport!

At least on the one hand paintball is very expensive, therefore those playing should have some feeling of responsibility and all take it seriously. But on the other hand there's no substitute for experience and maturity - like Tom Tom said, you're going to have the goggle lifters and associated problems with some of the younger crowd! (cool idea, but I reckon paintball is way too dangerous for some kind of little legue version - it's asking for trouble)

It's a very tough call and I know that we're definitely getting higher and higher status as the years pass. (Everyone I meet knows about paintball now!) But it's evident from the professionalism that the sport is gaining, top quality magazines (he he, kissass ), fanastic tournaments that are exremely well organised etc.

But the safety has to be kept under control and if licensing the markers turns out as a last resort - then so be it. If anything you'll be able to get them chipped for if they're stolen or something happens. I'm sure most of us would understand it's for the good of the game and wouldn't mind at all having to make sure the markers we were using were liscensed or tagged....I wouldn't

Just some of my thoughts.....

 

[Just Curious]

Thats the point:::: Responsibility:::

Who will take it??

Who will be responsible for ensuring all the Markers are registered? Suppliers/manufacturers or Players?
Who will be responsible for applying any fines/penalties/bannings?? (this is the one with the 'meat' on )
A Governing Body (which we don't have) or the Police/Authorities??

This is a 'sticky' issue and one that touch's on a lot of 'grey' areas within our Sport, i.e If Rules and Laws of the Sport are applicable in one Country should the not be in all others? I mean, the rules for Football are the same all over the World.....?
Again, this also leads to the question of an International Governing Body for our Sport and I think this one has already been debated.

I gotta stop now......sore head with all this thinking...not used to it.


Cya

 

[Jinxy]

Ha Hotpoint,
Can you please tell me how is on the UKPSF committee.

I believe the last AGM was sometime in the late 90’s,