Posted on 05/07/2009 5:25:04 PM PDT by Mount Athos
The German government wants to tighten gun laws and ban paintball games in response to a school shooting in which 16 people were killed in March, coalition sources said on Thursday.
Experts from Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and her Social Democrat (SPD) coalition partners had agreed to ban paintball games, in which players shoot at each other with pellets containing paint, the sources said.
The governing parties say games like paintball trivialise violence and risk lowering the threshold for committing violent acts, the sources said.
Infringements to the new rules, which the cabinet hopes to pass before a general election in September, could incur fines of up to €5 000, the sources said.
Previous incidents
A 17-year-old shot dead 15 people in the southwestern town of Winnenden, before killing himself in March, stunning many Germans and leading politicians to call for tighter gun rules.
The teenager had shot many of his victims in the head with his father's legally registered pistol. His father, a member of a shooting club, had 15 guns at home - fourteen were locked in a gun closet as required by law but the pistol was in the bedroom, officials have said.
Germany toughened its gun laws in 2002 after 19-year-old Robert Steinhauser shot dead 16 people, mainly teachers, and himself at a high school in the eastern German city of Erfurt.
The changes raised the minimum age for gun ownership to 21 from 18 and required gun buyers under 25 to present a certificate of medical and psychological health. Gun laws already required applicants to pass rigorous exams that can take up to a year.
The new rules would also grant authorities more rights in conducting checks with people owning guns, the sources said.
Sources in the SPD said the parties were also moving towards on agreement on the creation of a nationwide weapons register and were considering setting up biometric security locks for weapons stores.
oh you never played...it’s good clean fun
I would NOT even play. He took three head shots!
I avoid bees so no thanks. Enjoy your fun! It is good exercise but I’d rather hike, canoe, or do about anything but this. And I do think bee stings are painful so don’t be attempting to go into marketing anytime soon.
I agree with the poster that said if you can’t take the hits, then don’t paintball. Its considered a full contact sport.
I have a battery powered machine gun paintball gun and love to play - just don’t think you expressed your self properly.
Europe is dead of leftist, silly, stupid PC.
Let them expire.
dunno.. what could I have said better?
“Uh. Okay. I wonder if that girl is still your friend. I wouldn’t be”
Just to clear things up.. a head shot at 50 yards doesn’t hurt at all. It would be like a thump. Paint ball guns are measured to shoot 220 ft per second...at 50 yards..you’re basically lobbing them in.
You’re not supposed to shoot anyone up close.
On cold days, when the paint is dense..it could sting.
What another poster said was true. If ya can’t take the pain, don’t play. My daughter asked me if she could come so I said let’s go out back and I’ll shoot you. If you don’t cry, you can come.
She loves paintball too.
Not sure, I admitted my fault.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. All I can say is I hope you guys wear goggles and I hope nobody ever gets shot in the mouth - you might want to make sure you have very good dental insurance.
Oh, no. I hear there is a move to have teachers teach little boys that the correct way for them to pee is sitting. Is that the “law” in Germany now?
Have you ever seen/used a German made pot? It's all about the "splash"
http://asecular.com/~scott/misc/toilet.htm for photos and illustrations.
I had no idea how German toilets worked! Thanks for the info.
“All I can say is I hope you guys wear goggles “
Supervised paint ball games are pretty safe. Masks are mandatory.
You need to hang out with some doctors more:
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/113/1/e15
http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2009/01/19/Paintball-can-cause-serious-eye-injury/UPI-17171232408033/
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/135656.php
My mom used to work for the Society for the Blind and I spent many a summer at the blind camp. Don’t be a dummy. You can’t turn back the clock. If you like this sport, that’s fine, but if you let your kids play, you need to protect them. I assume you do though.
Spent a lot of time with ER docs!
God keep you and yours safe.
Just sent you links and now I see that you said “masks are mandatory.” I misread and thought you said they are not. Thank God. That’s good to know.
Makes
no
sense
at
all.
What will they ban next?The finger?
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