<p>[Germany</a> to ban paintball after massacre | World news | guardian.co.uk](<a href=“http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/08/germany-paintball-school-massacre]Germany”>Germany to ban paintball after massacre | Germany | The Guardian)</p>
<p>How interesting that Germany can see a reason to ban paintball, and others can’t.</p>
<p>Lots of articles online about Germany and this issue.</p>
<p>Maybe try two layers of thick sweatpants for the padding. We had a paintball party for our girls when they turned 13. One thing I did was look at online reviews of the places. Some are quite serious, and others are more casual, and/or more safety conscious. </p>
<p>It was fine, and H ended up being the target of most of the ammo. One girl had a bruise on her back from “friendly fire” and it was the talk of the car trip home. She was fine with it but there was a lot of ribbing going on.</p>
<p>My son loves paintball. His weekends are spent trying to round up friends who have time, paintballs, and the gas they need to play. My BIL sent a gun when I thought he was too young and made him take it back. I think it just increased the desire to play. Let him go. It is fun.</p>
<p>Oh come on. The worst a paintball gun is realistically going to do is leave a bruise or two. I used to paintball (yes, even from the young age of 13) before there were waivers and such (it wasn’t as organized nearly 10 years ago). I got some nasty bruises, but mostly because I was dumb. </p>
<p>Playing basketball, I broke my knee cap and I now permanently have one leg a little bit shorter than the other causing me pain sometimes. From go-carting, I have a lot of nice scars on one side of my body due to an accident. From ballet, I have Osgood-Schlatter. From softball, half of my front tooth is fake. </p>
<p>Injuries happen. Anyone who freaks out about a paintball gun, under reasonable circumstances, needs to get out more IMO. Paintballs and video games do NOT cause violent kids. Here’s a thought- why don’t you (in the Germany case) blame the parent for allowing him to have access to that REAL gun? Or instead of banning paintball guns, which can’t kill anyone far as I know, and ban REAL guns which ACTUALLY kill people (note: I am not necessarily in favor of this, it would just be a more logical solution)?</p>
<p>Millions of kids play paintball and video games. Only a few, VERY few, go out and kill someone. Do we REALLY think that it’s because of paintball and video games if only an EXTREMELY small minority of kids do anything? Let’s use some logic here. Violent people have always existed. Now we just have something to blame rather than just accepting the fact that some people are just plain screwed up in the head.</p>
<p>ETA: The plan failed by the way. <a href=“http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,4254686,00.html[/url]”>http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,4254686,00.html</a></p>
<p>Though, OP, if your son really doesn’t want to go, I wouldn’t force him. It’s really not that bad but I don’t believe in making kids do something they don’t want to do. </p>
<p>He will be safe though :).</p>
<p>parent-
Did you read that article about the 17 yo kid in germany who took his fathers REAL gun (not paintball marker) and killed 15 people? He just happened to also like video games and paintball. So they ban paintball? Really? They should go after the REAL guns, like the one he used to kill all those people, not paintball markers. Misdirected response, IMO. Did they ban the video games too?? He liked them as well as paintball.</p>
<p>** ant btw they never did ban paintball in Germany after all. Silly idea, and misdirected. They dropped the idea a week after it was proposed. <a href=“http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,4254686,00.html[/url]”>http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,4254686,00.html</a> </p>
<p><a href=“GamePolitics News | GamePolitics”>GamePolitics News | GamePolitics;
<p>
This sort of preempts my advice, but I’ll post it anyway. If he wants to go (and he seems to), I’d let him go. If he doesn’t want to go, I’d offer to forbid him to go. That way he can blame you in front of his friends. We’ve found this to be a useful technique for a number of situations with our kids.</p>
<p>
Hunt this is great advice.</p>
<p>Wouldnt it just be simpler to apologize and say you have a scheduling conflict if he doesnt want to go? No need to be a heavy.</p>
<p>Agree.</p>
<p>It all depends whether you S wants to go or not. Waiver is all over, skiing kills a lot of ppl and injures more, but we “live” on the montains every day. Any sports will have injuries, so should you avoid sports altogether?</p>
<p>How about telling the truth? I’d prefer not to play a game whose primary goal is to hurt somebody. I don’t want to hurt someone and I don’t want to be hurt. It goes both ways.</p>
<p>One can ski and mountain bike without hurting another person and without being hurt.</p>
<p>Because the primary goal is NOT to hurt somebody. Its like a grown up version of dodgeball. Yes you have to tag someone to get them out. But your goal is not to hurt them. Thats silly. You must have them confused with the New Orleans Saints playbook :)</p>
<p>Parent, the goal is not to hurt someone.</p>
<p>The kid wants to go.</p>
<p>If the parent has an ethical objection, that’s one thing. But as others have pointed out, the danger of harm is minimal if the kid takes proper precautions. A party at a friend’s house with a trampoline is probably more dangerous.</p>
<p>My older son (a non-athlete) loved paintball and regularly played starting around age 12 with his cousins. They always wore protective equipment. The camaraderie was wonderful and no one ever had serious injuries. A few bruises at most. Ten years later, they still laugh about funny things that happened during their paintball scenarios. I’m basically a pacifist but have zero problem with paintball.</p>
<p>Trampolines are a hazard!!
I think paintball is more like capture the flag than dodgeball, now that I think of it, since the goal is to capture the opponents flag.</p>
<p>Another opinion, FWIW.</p>
<p>My son has played paintball since approx age 15. Even with all protective gear, he comes home with welts all over his body and has trouble walking and moving for 24 - 48 hrs afterward. Welts take the better part of a week to resolve.We live in an area with a serious, massive paintball facility that sponsors “battles”. It does not look like fun to me; it is very violent.</p>
<p>Would only have my 13 yr old attend a party if it was time-limited - 2 hrs would be ok - all day is too long. Also, would have to be a more low-key "fun"environment. Some of these facilities have mainly 20-something yr old participants who drink in the parking lot before and in between the battles. Would not want my 13 yr old in that situation.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>