Germany Wants to Ban Paintball

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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Germany Wants to Ban Paintball


The German government intends to ban paintball as yet another reaction to the Winnenden school shooting in March.

The Social Democrat coalition government has agreed to outlaw "all games in which players shoot at each other with pellets," according to a report in the Telegraph [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/5291891/Germany-to-ban-paintball-in-wake-of-high-school-shooting.html], saying the act of shooting at other people even in a simulated environment "trivializes violence and risks lowering the threshold for committing violent acts." The government hopes to have the ban in place before September of this year; once enacted, the law could impose fines of up to $6800 .

The harsh measure is yet more fallout from the March 11 high school shooting at Winnenden in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, in which 15 students were murdered before the 17-year-old shooter killed himself. The shooting was government officials [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/90185-Surprise-Surprise-Germany-Shooting-Linked-To-Games] very quickly called for tougher regulation of gaming.

One wonders how far Germany will go to protect its youngsters from the "dangers" of violent gameplay. Paintball guns weren't even on the radar when I was a kid, so instead my friends and I ran around with rifle-shaped sticks making machine-gun noises at each other. Thousands of glorious battlefield deaths were inflicted and suffered in our imaginations; will German authorities someday try to bring that to a halt as well? Germany may still be a bit over-anxious about keeping a lid on some of its less-admirable national instincts - starting two world wars less than a half-century apart will have that effect - but how far can a government go in regulating fantasy before it topples over into outright paranoia?

via: Slashdot [http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/08/1628224&from=rss]

(photo [http://www.flickr.com/photos/magoexperto/3317956444/])

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LoopyDood

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Dec 13, 2008
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Things like paintball and video games can be outlets for violent people. Taking away these from them could be a MISTAKE.
 

Sergeant M. Fudgey

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LoopyDood said:
Things like paintball and video games are outlets for violent people. Taking away these from them could be a MISTAKE.
I agree, mostly. But for some people it might be better, a lot of people who want to kill someone could learn how in paintball. They would learn how to use a gun, I mean.
 

HuCast

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LoopyDood said:
Things like paintball and video games are outlets for violent people. Taking away these from them could be a MISTAKE.
I would prefare a "can be" istead of a "are" ;)
 

Cousin_IT

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Shine on you crazy German neo-socialists. With enough bubblewrap u may yet end all violent deaths
 

LoopyDood

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HuCast said:
LoopyDood said:
Things like paintball and video games are outlets for violent people. Taking away these from them could be a MISTAKE.
I would prefare a "can be" istead of a "are" ;)
Heh, I guess I'll go change that. :)
 

Time Travelling Toaster

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Mar 1, 2009
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I'm sure I've read this before but meh.
Outlawing a game that can get rid of dreams of shooting people could possible result in more shootings =/ which is counter-productive.
 

johnman

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And when this makes no difference what will they ban next? Free thought so people cant think of killing another person?
What happened Germany, you use to be cool
 
Apr 21, 2009
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What a load of rubbish, its paintballing for god sakes, let the people have they fun, the way this world is going we will all be under control by a higher power soon.

Plus ive been paint balling and its a right blast, but hurts lol
 

HobbesMkii

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Watch them all be fine, because its Germany. I mean, frankly folks, this is their Columbine, but they don't have the same size population the US does, and they're more into banning things. It makes sense, don't it? Frankly, we Americans are probably lucky that Popcap isn't the world's biggest development house and that we got to keep all our violent games even after every major news outlet ever decided that they were the cause.

Anyways, I'll bet Germany gets along nicely, because it's not the US and the crazies can't get their hands on guns quite as easily nor are they as inclined to. Plus it'd really stick in the craw of all you "boo-hoo-hoo! not paintbaaaall!" fellas. Heh.
 

Melancholy_Ocelot

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What do these so called "Protectors" plan to do about the evil violent video games?

What about Laser Tag or arcade games with light guns?
 

Dudemeister

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Come to think of it, have you ever noticed how all of these gun nuts were born on days ending in a Y?
That letter is evil!
 

Tech Team FTW!

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Malygris said:
"trivializes violence and risks lowering the threshold for committing violent acts."
These... people... they believe there is a reasonable, measurable threshold at which violence is acceptable...

They need to regulate the German government more heavily to avoid outright anarchy in the spirit of "an eye for an eye".
 

fix-the-spade

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It seems to be lost on the Germans that despite having the tightest censorship of any european country, they're the one with the school massacre on their hands. Perhaps they should be looking at that and questioning their priorities.


Melancholy_Ocelot said:
What about Laser Tag or arcade games with light guns?
From what I undrestand Laser tage sets will be covered by the same ban as paintball and airsoft guns, although I can't for the life of me remember where I read it (Saturday Telegraph I think).
 

kawligia

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Paintball is, in essence, a glorified game of "tag." Will they ban that next? What about contact sports?
 

Dalisclock

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Malygris said:
Germany Wants to Ban Paintball
Germany may still be a bit over-anxious about keeping a lid on some of its less-admirable national instincts - starting two world wars less than a half-century apart will have that effect - but how far can a government go in regulating fantasy before it topples over into outright paranoia?


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Correction: Germany only started World War 2. They got scapegoated for World War 1 by the allies, even though pretty much all of Europe had a hand in starting that one.
 

Abedeus

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Skizle said:
isnt airsoft bigger than paintball in Europe? and if so is airsoft next?
Nope, it's actually smaller. Not many people know what airsoft is, but everyone knows paintball.