Germany May Seek Ban on Paintball

[[R_H]]

Spiegel Online

In response to the Winnenden school shooting in March, the German government is moving ahead with a plan to ban paintball, which politicians describe as a game that glorifies murder and teaches people to kill.Two months after the deadly school shooting in the southern German town of Winnenden, the German government is planning to ban paintball. The tragic March event saw a young man named Tim K. shoot 15 people before turning his gun on himself.

According to reports in the Berliner Zeitung and Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung newspapers on Friday, games like paint ball and laser tag are to be banned in Germany in the future, and people who violate the law could be fined up to €5,000.

"These games simulate murder," Wolfgang Bosbach, who heads the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) in the German parliament, told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung. He said a deal had also been reached with German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble.

The German Paintball League claims about 1,000 people in the country are active in the sport and there are more than 200 facilities where it is played. The organization has sought for years to portray the sport as a safe one. At tournaments, players even eschew red paint because of its optical similarities to blood and the guns used in the sport are referred to as "markers."

The head of the league said he was surprised by the plan to ban what he called a "tactical team sport." But "during an election campaign," he said, "politicians are always looking for a fall guy." Supporters of the ban argue that the shooting of paint cartridges at speeds of up to 60 meters per second, reduce a person's inhibition to committing real crimes. "There's a risk that these so-called games will play down the danger of violence and that it will erode barriers to committing violence," said Dieter Wiefelspütz, the domestic policy point man in parliament for the center-left Social Democrats (SPD).

The government has been under pressure to act since the mass killings two months ago. A German Interior Ministry spokesman said Thursday that the government hoped to pass new weapons control legislation before the end of the current term. A political agreement is expected next week and legislation would have to be introduced by the end of May in order for it to be voted on in both of Germany's federal legislative chambers before the summer break in July.

"Teaching People to Kill"

The interior minister of the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, Holger Hölvelmann, welcomed the government's plans. He argued that the game was tantamount to "teaching people to kill" or "playing war." "Our society," he said, "should outlaw such cynical games that glorify violence."

Meanwhile, Claudia Roth, the chairwoman of the Green Party, described the proposed tightening of weapons laws as a "courage-less concession to the gun lobby." Instead of banning large calibre guns in general, the coalition government has only managed to agree on a token ban on paintball." By doing so, she said, "the coalition is tightening weapons laws in areas that are the least painful to the gun lobby."

Her party's legal affairs expert, Jerzy Montag, said that while he is no fan of such games ("Do you really need to shoot paint at other people?"), he didn't see any advantage in banning them. "The real issue is the millions of guns kept in peoples homes and at sporting clubs," he told SPIEGEL ONLINE.

During the debate over Tim K., his passion for paintball was much-discussed. But it was soft-air guns that were found in his bedroom. They can also be used to shoot paint-filled pellets, but they are far more similar to actual weapons than paint guns.

The debate over paintball is not new. The German company "Mydays.de," markets paintball as the "ultimate nerve game and the latest sporting trend." But again and again, paintball makes the headlines because it is played at events in Europe held by right-wing extremists or military freaks. In 2007, photos circulated of the head of Austria's right-wing FPÖ party, Heinz-Christian Strache, playing paintball in uniform with a group of right-wing extremists. Press reports spoke of Wehrmacht-like exercises, a reference to Hitler's military, but Strache played the event down, saying he had just been playing paintball. Childish, maybe. But criminal? No.

Konrad Freiberg, chairman of the Germany police union GdP, said he doesn't think much of banning simulated fighting games. "People may consider this type of extracurricular activity childish or dumb, but I would dare to doubt that it has any criminological connection to serious crimes," he told SPIEGEL ONLINE.

For his part, Rainer Wendt, the head of the German Police Union (DPolG), says it would be difficult to implement the plans. "Politicians are the only people who think they can alter reality by filling up so much paper," he told SPIEGEL ONLINE. He said a ban would make no sense if it could not be enforced. "It has to be made clear to everyone that police in Germany have no time to go out chasing paintball players in forests and fields."

Paintball fans have also up in arms over the plan. "In my opinion, it's just a fun sport that anyone can play, " said Ramona Ruth of Berlin, who opened a paintball field in the town of Angermünde just one month ago. "Twenty to 30 percent of the people who come to us are women."

She said politicians also like to play. Recently, she claims, a group of politicians from the CDU played paintball at her facility.

What a bunch of kneejerk BS. First FPS games, now paintball and lasertag. How about banning driving games next, in light of that Dutch guy that went on a killing rampage with his car.

[Starglider]

This is idiotic, of course. Paintball is nothing like actual combat - for one thing the balls travel so slowly and are affected by gravity and wind so much that aiming one is nothing like aiming a real firearm. There are a few macho pretend soldiers playing but >95% of paintball players are just having fun. German gun control is already tight enough, IMHO, but this is utterly irrelevant to real gun control and only the most superficial morons could mistake it for such. Of course Germany has the highest concentration of screaming delusional anti-nuclear whiners in Europe, so rationality is not exactly a strongpoint of their politics.

[Julhelm]

Is there any realistic chance for this to pass? And why paintball and not airsoft instead?

[General Zod]

Is there any realistic chance for this to pass? And why paintball and not airsoft instead?

http://en.airsofteur.com/laws/

* Airsoft guns under 0.5 joule are considered toy guns and can be freely sold to all persons above 3 years of age. Distributors agreed to raise the limit to least 14 years of age. [This is realized and the limit is thus 14 years]
* All airsoft guns between 0.5 joule and 7.5 joule must be bolt-action or semiautomatic only and can only be sold to people 18 years or older. These are considered "free" firearms, as a result:
* Sales of guns of more than 0.5 joule are allowed only in weapon shops.
* Guns must be marked with the trader's weapon abbreviation and a F-in-a-pentagon mark as well as the airsoft gun caliber (such as 6 mm BB).
* Target illuminating devices and lasers may not be attached to guns but are legal otherwise. For example: possession of a flashlight is allowed, even shooting with the flashlight in one hand and the gun in the other; but attaching it via mount ring to the rail system of a gun is not. Devices made specifically for the purpose of being attached to a gun (like certain flashlights with integrated foregrip for mil-spec rail) are prohibited.
* While the possession of airsoft guns is allowed, the actual use in a game is (at least) hotly debated. For sure, most players using guns with more than 0.5 joule muzzle energy leave Germany to play in countries like France, Belgium, Denmark or the Czech Republic.
* More information can be found at Airsoft FAQ on laws in Germany, which covers more complicated issues like the "Kleiner Waffenschein", issues with the OWiG §118 in Bavaria and a definition of the term "combat shooting".

[Edi]

Spam removed. I don't want to see no-content +1 hurf-hurf bullshit.

[thejester]

Can German posters tell us if this is just the same 'Protect the children!' populist shit beloved of politicians needing to be seen doing something, or is it more reflective of Germany's violent past?

[Starglider]

Can German posters tell us if this is just the same 'Protect the children!' populist shit beloved of politicians needing to be seen doing something, or is it more reflective of Germany's violent past?

My wife (who is German) says that it's an election stunt to try and capture the votes of all the concerned parents outraged by the school shooting in March, without losing as many conservative votes as they would if they tightened actual gun control. So the first option, really - the current generation of legislators and the majority of the voters are too young to have any experience of wartime Germany.

[Dahak]

It is just a stunt, as Starglider said. Even though it is a new one; usually they go after computer games exclusively. It seems some of them learned that voters are not as daft as a lamp post, so they put a bit variation in their usual "don't stand around! ban something!" stance.

[Broomstick]

Today's typical German may be too young to have direct experience of WWII and the Nazis, but that doesn't mean it has no impact on their culture and thoughts. I've known a number of Germans who seem to bend over backward to prove they're not Nazis and things have changed to a sort of polar opposite.

I can see where, to someone uninformed, paintball does look extreme and perhaps like a "training ground" for shooting a real people with real guns. The problem is, there are a lot of ignorant people in the world, and most of them are nonetheless allowed to vote.

[thejester]

Yeah, I was getting that impression just from some of the language used:

The interior minister of the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, Holger Hölvelmann, welcomed the government's plans. He argued that the game was tantamount to "teaching people to kill" or "playing war." "Our society," he said, "should outlaw such cynical games that glorify violence."

The way he describes it suggests he's more concerned about the effects on society as a whole than the possibility of individuals snapping.

[Dahak]

Yeah, I was getting that impression just from some of the language used:

The interior minister of the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, Holger Hölvelmann, welcomed the government's plans. He argued that the game was tantamount to "teaching people to kill" or "playing war." "Our society," he said, "should outlaw such cynical games that glorify violence."

The way he describes it suggests he's more concerned about the effects on society as a whole than the possibility of individuals snapping.

That's normal. Politics here are far more concerned with society as a whole than individuals here.

[charlemagne]

That's normal. Politics here are far more concerned with society as a whole than individuals here.

Yeah. In my opinion and in response to Broomstick:

Today's typical German may be too young to have direct experience of WWII and the Nazis, but that doesn't mean it has no impact on their culture and thoughts. I've known a number of Germans who seem to bend over backward to prove they're not Nazis and things have changed to a sort of polar opposite.

That behavior exists, of course, but it's not really common among "normal people". I'm 29, and in my age group there's no feeling of "zomg WW2 we still have to make up for that".

The interior minister of the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, Holger Hölvelmann, welcomed the government's plans. He argued that the game was tantamount to "teaching people to kill" or "playing war." "Our society," he said, "should outlaw such cynical games that glorify violence."

This is a double standard so huge that it's kinda funny, so Germans aren't allowed to "play war" while German soldiers are killed in Afghanistan and the Bundeswehr goes out of it's way to advertise among children for a career in the army (link only in German I'm afraid). It's unbelievable bullshit, hoping to reel in votes, nothing else.

[[R_H]]

The idocy has spread. Some politicians here (Switzerland) are also calling for a paintball ban. Last time there was a school shooting, there were some that wanted to ban FPS games (like usual). It's interesting that right after German politicians call for a ban of this or that, there are some Swiss politicians that do the same. Because, let's be honest here, banning paintball will have reduce the number of mass killings.

[wautd]

Huh, I always assumed they started WW2 because they didn't had such things like paintball.