Germany to ban Paintball

Germany to ban paintball in wake of high school shooting - Telegraph

Quote:

Experts from Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and her Social Democrat (SPD) coalition partners have agreed to outlaw all games in which players shoot at each other with pellets.

The governing parties say paintball trivialises violence and risks lowering the threshold for committing violent acts.

Infringements to the new rules, which the cabinet hopes to pass before a general election in September, could incur fines of up to 5,000 euros (£4,400).

A 17-year-old shot dead 15 people in the southwestern town of Winnenden, before killing himself in March, stunning many Germans and leading politicians to call for tighter gun rules.

The teenager shot many of his victims in the head with his father's legally registered pistol. His father, a member of a shooting club, had 15 guns at home – fourteen were locked in a gun closet as required by law but the pistol was in the bedroom.

Germany toughened its gun laws in 2002 after Robert Steinhauser, 19, shot dead 16 people before turning the gun on himself at a high school in the eastern German city of Erfurt.

The changes raised the minimum age for gun ownership to 21 from 18 and required gun buyers under 25 to present a certificate of medical and psychological health. Gun laws already required applicants to pass rigorous exams that can take up to a year.

The new rules would also grant authorities more rights in conducting checks with people owning guns, the sources said.

Sources in the SPD said the parties were also moving towards on agreement on the creation of a nationwide weapons register and were considering setting up biometric security locks for weapons' stores.

Ve vuld not vant ze paintballs trivializink ze violence, ja?

*drinks shitloads, watches pornography*

Jam it back in, in the dark.

This is totally dissembling. They are not going to do anything against the millions of firearms in private homes, instead they are going for the harmless paintball guys who only want to exercise their hobby. I can understand this kind of populism, though, there are three elections in Germany this year.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I remember back when they wanted to ban rap music because N.W.A. would film themselves in their studio playing around with loaded assault rifles and sub machine guns while Eazy-E praised the advent of the laser sight for making it infinitely easier to "blow a mothafucka's head off". But now that modern rap music actually deserves to be banned they go after the paintballers.

This world is SO not fair.

Additional Spam:
Also, from the late great prophet George Carlin: And now, they're thinking about banning toy guns - and they're gonna keep the fucking real ones!

Most amazing jew boots

The government that thinks people can't disassociate games from reality is perfectly fine with minors drinking.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Germans are weird though. The reason the G-Con for PAL Playstations was blue was that the German government thought people might try to use it in armed robberies. It's also the Germans' fault that Li Long used a three point staff rather than nunchucks in Soul Blade.

As Mush says, this is just a bit of headline grabbing posturing by the government, playing on people's fears. Chances are it won't even get passed or it'll get lost in the process somewhere.

I fail to see what drinking has to do with anything though. Levels of alcoholism are much lower in Germany than the US with your retarded drinking age. In fact, levels of alcoholism are lower pretty much everywhere than the US, except here of course but then drinking is our national sport and everyone ignores the legal age limit anyway.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Hah, and I thought Germans are hard core people. World War 2 and stuffs, ya know?

I agree that paintball ban without gun ban is useless. I've never played paintball before - do them guns look/feel real?

___________________

I'm not sure about levels of alcoholism. As for alcohol consumption however, Germany trumps the US in per-capita alcohol consumption.

Total Recorded Alcohol Consumption per capita (15+), in liters of pure alcohol:

USA - 8.51
UK - 10.39
Germany - 12.89

The highest is Uganda at 19.47 and lowest is Iran at 0 (yeah right).

Source

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

That same WHO report states the alcohol dependence percentages on page 34 though. USA is 7.7%, Germany only 3.8%, UK 4.7%.

Whilst we might drink more over here, we can handle our booze.

And I think it's the whole WW2 thing that makes Germans so uptight about appearing to be a violent nation. They're rather concious of their militaristic image so try to shy away from anything that might make them look the slightest bit warmongery.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Zergrinch

I agree that paintball ban without gun ban is useless. I've never played paintball before - do them guns look/feel real?

They have a large plastic container of paintballs on the top. They don't look remotely real when they are loaded. They do look a little bit like a real gun when they are empty, I suppose.

Most amazing jew boots

Originally Posted by Shin

I fail to see what drinking has to do with anything though. Levels of alcoholism are much lower in Germany than the US with your retarded drinking age. In fact, levels of alcoholism are lower pretty much everywhere than the US, except here of course but then drinking is our national sport and everyone ignores the legal age limit anyway.

I'm just pointing out that for a culture which is not afraid to expose children to the adult world, the German government does not think there are adults.

Quote:

The reason the G-Con for PAL Playstations was blue was that the German government thought people might try to use it in armed robberies.

What if I paint it black? Heh, suck on dis Angela MARXel *twang twang*

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Germany's government is going totally crazy now and I have no words for the shit what's going on here at the moment. Let me tell you that to ban paintball is only one of a bunch of silly ideas they have.

Can't wait for the elections.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I'm anti gun control so naturally I think that taking people's gun rights is wrong anyway, but paintball guns? Come on. I can think of a dozen toys that are a lot more dangerous than a paintball gun. How about Airsoft guns for example? I would think they would go after the more 'realistic' hobby if this is the road they're going to take. All in all pretty ridiculous.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Quote:

Experts from Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and her Social Democrat (SPD) coalition partners have agreed to outlaw all games in which players shoot at each other with pellets.

I imagine Airsoft rounds fall under the "pellet" heading even more so than paintballs.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Well not that it's good news, at least it show's that their heads aren't 100% inside their asses.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Wow , it seems as if Germany bans a lot of things.
Are BB guns banned there too ?
anyway,I really don't see the reason to ban paintball, It's nothing but a competitive sport.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

BB guns?

It looks like war that's reason enough!!!1 Funny is gun clubs are absolutely okay.

How ya doing, buddy?

Sometimes I feel like the government is wasting time forcing useless laws on us, just to be re-elected by the older and more conservative generations. We're knee-deep in problems and their top priority is to satisfy voters through populism like premature bans, their noble fight against child pornography setting up the Great Firewall of Germany and insane tax reductions.

When really, all comes down to one question: Who will form Germany's government forty years from now?

I don't understand how people can waste their lifes trying to make their own agenda the one of the general public. It seems like they are never thinking about the big picture. They won't be there to rule us in a few decades, our generation will be. Maybe we'll be smart enough to actually govern the country instead of trying to stay in the government. In any case, I'm excited about the next few elections. I guess some of the bigger parties might see themselves surprised, and some a bit more splintered than before.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Government dropped the plans for banning paintball today. Not sure why but I welcome this step.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Shin

And I think it's the whole WW2 thing that makes Germans so uptight about appearing to be a violent nation. They're rather concious of their militaristic image so try to shy away from anything that might make them look the slightest bit warmongery.

I agree. The Germans do try to avoid that kind of stuff. It makes sense... I mean the country was a main player in both world wars and millions of people suffered from it. I know I would want to try and disassociate myself from historical aggressions. I mean, its not current Germany's fault for the wars but they are drenched in the dark history of their forefathers.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Plan of banning PB was very stupid (same as green blood in German games), but about month ago when I was going to my sister's home by a train. While I was looking through the window as usual suddenly I heard a noise and BAM - a red marks on the window. It looked almost like if I got a headshot People got really confused, the red marks on the windows and they train slowed down to around 5km/h for a 15 minutes. I was late and pissed off, just because two kids with paint guns had a good fun...

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.