Airsoft Safety Foundation Casts Paintball As the Bad Guy

The Airsoft Safety Foundation published a press release regarding CA SB 798 a few days prior to the bill’s failure to pass out of committee. The statement can be read in its entirety here.

Among other things the release said were:

“Federal law requires airsoft type guns to have orange muzzles, only. It completely exempts paintball, BB and pellet guns from any coloration in recognition of the fact that they are relatively powerful and should be treated as being potentially dangerous.

Curiously, SB 798 was recently amended to exempt paint ball (sic) guns from the proposed state coloration requirement while still mandating that the potentially more dangerous BB guns and pellet guns be colored like toys.”

and

“…thus giving the paint ball (sic) industry a competitive advantage in the marketplace…”

and

“Exempting paintball guns from SB 798 would have comparatively little impact on the economic and job losses that would be suffered as a result of the bill”

and

“SB 798 has been promoted as a public safety bill, but in view of the paint ball gun (sic) amendment, it can no longer be touted as a safety measure. It has become, instead, a bill that would favor paint ball (sic) guns in the marketplace by requiring their competitors to be colored like toys.”

Emphasis ours.

You can read the entire missive here.

No big surprise. Now the war is on – which sport can vilify the other the most effectively in front of the CA legislature.

Airsoft can squirm all it wants to, but the fact remains that airsoft guns are made to look like real firearms and most paintball guns aren’t' at least half of the paintball guns out there ALREADY come in bright colors.

There’s also the impression issue to consider: paintball managed to divorce itself from the military wannabe connection in a deliberate bid for public acceptance and managed that admirably (just look at all of the positive mass media portrayals over the past 15 years). Airsoft, on the other hand, seems to want to embrace the connection.

And after all this time, Air Soft Safety Foundation, you’d think you’d learn how to spell paintball’s name right, wouldn’t you?