Well, I just spent part of an evening scrubbing paint off windows and such.  On my way home from work tonight I spotted several windows that had been shot up with paintballs.  Three businesses and a car on a used car lot.  Really ticks me off.  The most aggravating part is that I just missed seeing them do it.  The paint had not even begun to run yet.  Believe me, had I seen them do it I would have made sure that the police got every bit of information they needed to charge the perps.  I don't like seeing the sport get a black eye just because a bunch of hormonally challenged losers can get their hands on cheap paintguns.  I just don't know how I feel about the fact that anybody can walk into a chain store with $30 in their wallet and walk out with a paintball gun now.  I have yet to see a single player who can honestly say that a Talon brought them into the sport.  Heck, if a Talon is all you can afford, you can't even pay the paint bills and field fees you'll incur playing.  I know what I saw tonight had to be the work of a cheap pump gun.  The shots were way strung out.   Even a Stingray would have put a lot more paint in a lot shorter distance.   The thing is, there are non players out there who will pay $30-$50 for a cheap paintgun to 'have some fun with.'  I've heard people say so.  They don't worry if it is confiscated, lost, or broken.  But pay $150 and people are a bit more hesitant.  This is not to say that driveby's aren't committed with $1500 tourney guns, but then again, I think the player with a more significant investment in the sport is going to be more conscientious.  Anyway, I'm seeing a lot more of these incidents around.  This is the second one in a week.  We have to do our part to keep this from becoming a major issue.  I'm going to keep that bottle of windex and those paper towels in my car from now on, and I'm going to clean up every splat I see.  I think that I'm also going to contact the highway department in the morning, explain myself, and get written permission to clean any street signs I see vandalized by paintguns.  I'll make sure to let them know that I am a player and I respect my equipment and the property of others.

      Here's something else to ponder.  Every one of the windows I cleaned had already been shot, often repeatedly, with BB guns.  In fact, this was how I noticed the splats, I was counting BB holes for some oddball reason.  Paintball vandalism makes the front page around here. (Podunkville, USA)  BB gun vandalism MIGHT make the police reports if its widespread enough.  And BB's do permanent damage!   Why is this? Because people know paintball players shoot their guns at other paintball players.  They have a negative idea about paintball.  They still think we are all just a bunch of Rambo wannabe's.  And they think that the world would be better off without us.  We can turn this around with a little elbow grease, a few paper towels, and a sincere apology to the owners of property vandalized by these juvenile punks.  I'm going to start taking a few steps out of my way to do just that.  Any of you out there got the backbone to do the same?  Maybe you got a way to go me one better?

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        The message I intended to get across was this.  You don't need to buy a $30-$50 gun to play.  For the same money or less you can travel to a field and rent a gun.  You will probably get a better gun to use and some safety lessons as well.  Any place that has a retail establishment that stocks Talons and their ilk, is going to have a paintball field somewhere nearby.  Money spent on a cheap pump gun is money lost.  No one who gets serious about the game uses a Talon or Splatmaster or any other of the budget guns more than a couple of times.  The really bad thing about the buy first then play approach is that a lot of people buy, play once, and decide that they don't like the game enough to get serious.  Probably because they bought a crappy $50 paintball gun that won't compete with even the most modest of field rentals.  They get out of the sport and are left with a paintball gun that they don't want just laying around.  Probably in the back seat of their car.  Then some night later, they are driving around with their buddies and somebody fishes the old Talon out from under the seat.  Trouble ensues.   In addition to this, the low cost and on the shelf availability of these guns makes them too accessible to persons who would misuse them deliberately.  We all saw the videotape of the boys in Colorado who used Talons for a 'driveby' which cost a young woman her eye.  I stand firm in my belief that had there been nothing cheaper than a $89.00 Stingray available at the store this event would never have transpired.  It is a matter of price point.  There are people out there in the world who will spend $50 to do something that is stupid and wrong if they think it would be fun.  Even if they know there is a good chance that they will loose their $50 paintgun.  But raise that price to $90-$100 and they become much more hesitant.  Talons can only compete fairly with other Talons.  They have no place on the field.  Any rental gun will run circles around the Talon.  This disillusions new players who bought Talons thinking they would have a fair chance and drives them from the sport.  Had the same person spent his money on a field rental gun they may have had a more enjoyable experience at the field and stayed with the game.