Germany plans paintball ban

[Ragnarok]

Before this gets banned to Theopia....

Which it shouldn't as long as nobody starts an argument.

For which reason, I am telling you to just forget whether or not what kind of war it is. It doesn't really matter either way, and it's not the subject at hand.

This subject has some relevance to this forum, so unless anyone decides to turn it into a flame war, there is no reason why it can't stay.

[spudamine]

Actually reading this it seems they're not trying to ban it out of any belief that paintballing or markers are dangerous themselves, its because they don't like the idea of 'glorifying conflict'. From this point of view it's a lot more worrying than just talking about banning percieved weapons, it's a massive restriction of civil liberty. With the same reasoning you could just as easily try and ban violent video games, fimls or books. utter madness.

[john bunsenburner]

Funny thing is that everyone, to my knowlage atleast, who is male in germany has to join the military. Now most probably 95% of painballers are also male. And i highly doubt that bein trained to kill soem one for your government, country, officer what ever, is anyless of a potentual crime trigger than paintballing where the idea is not killing seeing as how no one dies in a painball skirmish.

They also altered swiss gun laws, no airsofts for under 18 year olds(painball being no exeption), then again if you own the gun its no prob, ergo, if oyur parents buy it you can shoot it. Most guns that are sold to minors ar emodfied to not fit air soft bbs, the great mdofication consitst of a screw that is scred into the barrel to allow the rubber projectiles you buy to pass by but makes bbs get stuck and wreck the gun. At this point I have realized how useful a screw driver tends to be. IMHO its just plain pathetic to ban painball, airsoft or what ever and to then send people to be educated on how to kill some one...

[POLAND_SPUD]

lol germans want to ban something becasue it glorifies violence... what the world has come to??

[Solar]

Slavery had very little to do with it. Lincoln freed the southern slaves in hopes they would join the fight against their former masters while keeping the northern slave laws intact.

[jimmy101]

I wonder, are they considering outlawing Fencing? Clearly that is a "combat" sport. How does paintball differ from fencing? (Other than the fact that it is generally the rich that fence.)

[jimmy101]

Before this get's banned to theopia, let me say to USA residents, it WON'T be a civil war, it will be a revolutionary war... BIG DIFFERENCE....

Umm no

The revolutionary war was fighting independence from Great Britain. As we weren't a country at the time.

Revolutionary War

The war for American independence from Britain

The civil war was about the union breaking up (secession) because of slavery.

Civil war

a war between political factions or regions within the same country.

Ie; anti gun v. gun

There is really no difference in the linguistic meaning of "revolutionary" versus "civil" war. After the fact, "revolution" implies the dissenters won, whereas "civil" implies the dissenters lost. But even that difference is not linguistically universal.

Americans were British subjects during the revolutionary war. What a "patriot" did during that war was no different than what a confederate did during the civil war. In both cases, they could have been hung as traitors if the then current government had wanted to do so. In both cases a group of people were trying to separate from a government they didn't agree with. In one case the dissenters won, in the other they lost.

[jimmy101]

I wonder, are they considering outlawing Fencing? Clearly that is a "combat" sport. How does paintball differ from fencing? (Other than the fact that it is generally the rich that fence.)

EDIT:
If they are concerned that a paintball gun is dangerous, have they ever seen what a modern fencing sabre will do to a person, even if they are wearing the proper gear? Broken bones are not unheard of. Welts that would put a paintball to shame are common.

Without the proper gear a fencing sabre, bated tip and all, can cause a fair amount of damage. A fencing sabre would be just as dangerous, and would have about the same potential for lethality, as a paintball gun.

oops, tried to edit but ended up with a double post.

[Ragnarok]

Yes, thank you, we've seen quite enough of the semantic discussion on types of wars.

@Jimmy101: I doubt it will advance quite that far.

But of course, I know the UK has restricted purchases of various sword types. However, I think they actually loosened that law after they put it into place, oddly enough.

[Solar]

Good point about fencing (pun intended). I guess they don't think someone running into a school with a rapier is dangerous. Heck, they would be a lot quieter in their killing, except for maybe the victims screams... I guess their thought process has been foiled.

[psycix]

Banning guns or other things from a country does not prevent murders to happen. It just takes away one of the ways to do it.
In the end, 99% of all people have a big shiny knife in the kitchen, which will always do the job.

Or when out on the street, look what one men can do with the object many people have: a car. (Referring to queensday over here in holland.)

Governments should not ban stuff because it can be used to kill someone. The "ways to do it" are endless anyways, so it will not stop murders.
What a government should do is to make sure all children are properly raised, as a large part of all criminals and killers had a bad childhood.

A responsible man with a gatling gun is not dangerous.
Yet, a violent and crazy criminal with a piece of wood is!
It is not the object that kills people. Its the person using it. And governments should realize that.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

And governments should realize that.

Governments realise this, but they respond to public outcries fuelled by sensationalist media reports through knee-jerk reactions that give nothing but the delusion that such events won't be repeated.

[Ragnarok]

You can't really deny however, that easy access to firearms makes it considerably easier to commit murders or mass shootings.

When was the last time you heard about someone going on a rampage with a golf club or long sword? It doesn't happen (well, often or very successfully at least), because it's so much easier to do it with a gun.

Of course, banning golf clubs or bladed objects is in the first case pointless, given the number of blunt heavy objects that exist; and in the second, impractical, given the many requirements for them in simple things like cooking and construction.

You might be able to ban swords rather than knives, but then again... they don't get used for any murders where other sharp pointy things (which you can't ban and which would actually be more easily concealed) make a practical replacement.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

When was the last time you heard about someone going on a rampage with a golf club or long sword? It doesn't happen (well, often or very successfully at least), because it's so much easier to do it with a gun.

So much for the handgun ban. And let's not forget it's possible to commit genocide mostly with machettes.
Fair enough, a repeating firearm is a much more efficient way of causing casualties, but you can't legislate against violent intent.

[paaiyan]

Yeah I heard about this, and while I really don't think it'll pass it's still very disappointing. Paintball doesn't increase the human propensity for violence; if anything it gives people an outlet to vent where they aren't going to cause anyone harm.

This is just more feel-good, pass-the-buck legislation from people who just want to ban something they don't understand rather than admit that maybe, just maybe, the people who commit such heinous crimes as mass murders are just loons. Their issues weren't caused by video games, paintball, firearms, or anything of the sort. They just had problems and couldn't deal with them like they should have.

...but you can't legislate against violent intent.

Tell that to the politicians.