Paintball on Public Land
Wednesday March 5, 2008
While public land is intended to be used by the public for recreational purposes, some officials have decided that paintball is not an acceptable way to use this land. In Ohio, for example, "No person shall discharge any device capable of propelling a capsule which upon impact with a person or object will release a dye or colorant within any state forest except as permitted by the chief or authorized agent." So, if you're buddy buddy with the forest ranger you can play, otherwise you're out of luck.
What are the policies behind this? Sure, there are areas where paintball playing could be disruptive, but a blanket ban on paintball for large tracts of public land seems pretty extensive. It's possible that the forest service is concerned with paintball remains left on the trees, but paint washes away and is non-toxic. Maybe ranger say some paintball players leave garbage after playing, but so do picnickers. I don't see the problem.
I'm not sure why paintball players are sometimes blocked from public land, but I'd be interested to find out
Comments
I think the problem is the rotten apples in a good bushel. Most of the paintball players I have been with are really good people. But the public doesnt see those. They only hear of the crazy bunch tearing up the woods and ruining it for the rest of us. Fortunately I have a field close by to play at. I am sure many people have no organized field to play at. Immature players will ruin it and cause towns to shut us down.
I think the biggest issue with trying to play on public land is controlling the boundaries.
It would be too easy for someone that hears the noise to come stumbling in to the middle of some action while not wearing a mask or other safety gear.
If this could be addressed, there are some local places around here I would LOVE the chance to play in.
The issue is one of safety. It is never OK to play paintball somewhere where the public has general access, because there is no mechanism for making sure anyone in the playing area has proper safety equipment. Requiring paintball players to have specific permission from whichever agency is in charge of the public land gives the agency the opportunity to make sure that basic safety requirements are followed. Just starting up a paintball game in the middle of a public land area is not safe and should not be permitted.
I agree that there are safety concerns, but it’s really easy to play on public land in a safe way so the general public isn’t at risk – marking boundaries, playing off beaten trails, paying attention, etc. There are many tracts of public land where paintball is allowed and its played very safely – I know because I’ve done it many times. Conversely, there are pieces of public land where you could literally not see anybody for days and yet it’s still not allowed.
My guess is that there are two primary reasons why paintball gets banned: a couple of bad apples ruin it (like Donald said) for a lot of people, and I bet a lot of agencies haven’t even really investigated it. I would love to go to a hearing on the matter and help the authorities understand what paintball is all about and assure them that it can be done in a safe and environmentally friendly way.
Sure there are many problems with public lands for paintball. Safety should be the main concern. Without formal boundries, netting and oversight an accident is waiting to happen. I’ve played 12 years now and one place was on an island in the middle of a river. Everything was fine until some knuckelheads started shooting across to neighbor’s property. That was the end of a good playing field.
Richard Conrad Essex County Sheriff’s Office Retired
so you can’t shoot something that washes away but you can shoot a 12guage shot gun…and possibly kill someone….brilliant