I must quote this one in full:
Please do not refer to the incident with the Wold Bank
president as getting “paintballed”. Yes, some paint was
tossed at them, probably in the form of a balloon filled
with the stuff, but it is obviously not the work of a
paintball gun, or marker, that would be used in the sport.
1. Paintballs do not make that big a mess. A break is
typically the size of a quarter.
2. A paintball marker
fires at 300 feet per second. At close range it is enough
to bruise. Contact on or near the eyes as pictured in
your link will likely result in lost vision.
I wouldn’t normally be such a harpie, but I play paintball
recreationally. Paintball players are constantly fighting
for recognition as a legitimate sport and pasttime. It is
the third most popular “extreme” sport in North America.
Despite this, we are constantly harrassed due to the
irresponsible actions of the few who run to Wal-Mart, buy
a cheap off the shelf marker and literally paint the town
red. Statistically, baseball bats are used in more
violent acts than paintball markers, but there’s no
restrictions on baseball bats, is there (mind you, a
baseball bat does not resemble a HK MP5 like my Tippmann
A-5 does, so for the sake of not getting shot by a police
officer, it only leaves the house when I got to the
field). Having acts of vandalism refered to generically
as “paintballed” does not help, either.
On Jonah, I think we can kill two birds with one stone.
SPPLAT – the Society of Paintball Players, Leagues, and
Teams – hosts an annual paintball scenario game – William
Shatner’s Spplat Attack. I attended the first one – which
is available on DVD – and had a, no pun intended, blast.
There were about 1500 people. It was Star Trek themed –
mock uniforms included in the registration. If you can
convince Jonah to go to this summer’s, I’ll be happy to
join the other side and paintball him – in the proper,
read: safe, prescribed maner.