Paintball guns

[Mack The Knife]

Someone I know wants to import them.

Are they considered to be toys, that is, no import restrictions or are they lumped in the same category as airguns or worse?

Thanks.

Mack The Knife

[penpusher]

Mack The Knife,

A friend imported one.This was before the import of Air rifles was allowed.Will find out how he got it into the country,after a couple of days.There has been a bereavement in his family.

penpusher

[Mack The Knife]

Thanks, penpusher.

Mack The Knife

[mehulkamdar]

A paintball gun is a toy. You couldn't kill more than a mosquito with it and that, too, might be difficult. Don't tell me their import into India is banned for some reason?

[Grumpy]

Mehul, paintball guns will easily kill a mosquito - you`ve obviously never been paintballing as you`ld know that being hit by one hurts like b*****y and leaves a heck of a welt.
An acquaintance ( the gunsmith who tried to blow up the Baikal as it happens ) has a paintball set-up adjacent to his property and absolutely detests the pastime. He makes a very good point: As responsible firearms users the first thing we are all taught is NEVER to point a gun at someone yet paintballers not only point a gun at others but shoot them as well.
An interesting observation and one with a great deal of merit.

[Sakobav]

Mehul

John is correct, the damn thing hurts, my ex boss and his wife worked for the same company. As part of team building effort the corporate sponsored a paint ball exercise. They were on opposite teams and she nailed and painted him at close quarters, the bruises were for all to see. They nearly separated ..
I wisely opted for rock climbing, didn’t fare much better.

[Mack The Knife]

Wasn't a child killed at his/her own b'day party during a paintballing session?

I do not recall if this was due to a hit to the temple or due to the pressure vessel failing.

It happened in the U.S. some years back as I recall.

Mack The Knife

[Krish]

It does indeed hurt. Can vouch from personal experience.

Grumpy, funnily enough I have had similar thoughts about this game but I guess the protective clothing the gamers wear could be an exception to the gun safety rules along with the fact that paint balls were primarily intended as a gaming equipment and not a serious weapon. Though saying all that, it still would be difficult for me to point it at anyone. No wonder I got shot

Krish

[penpusher]

Grumpy/Krish
What is a reponsible firearms user supposed to do when confronted with a situation when there is a threat to his own or somebody elses life or property. Here is a graduated response to such a situation.

Step one: Warn the potential threat that you have a gun and he should desist from any mischief.

Step two: Take out a gun, but not point it at him ,to show that you are not bluffing.

Step three:Fire the gun into the air

Step four: Fire the gun into the ground

Step five: Pray to your God and all the saints you can think of,as the miscreant snatches the gun from your hands and prepares to shoot you

As you would have noticed,at no point of time was the gun pointed at the miscreant and at all times you were behaving like a "responsible firearms user"

Moral :If you are not prepared to shoot somebody to protect yourself or somebody else,having a firearm is a potential threat to you and those around you.Get a paintball gun.

penpusher

[Grumpy]

Oooooooooh - Sarky penpusher ! Remind me not to be in your vicinity when hunting.
That you don`t point a gun at someone is basic training everywhere that I know of - even in the armed forces or, say, in the US where the rule is qualified as `Never point a gun at someone unless you intend to shoot him`.
I`m in the UK penpusher. When confronted by an assailant not only do you not point the gun at him you don`t shoot him either. Of course you could consider whacking him over the head with the butt of the gun......but not in a public place because you would be in trouble for carrying a gun in such a location.
No Firearms Certificate is issued for `self-protection` purposes in the UK.........except for a few politicians in N.Ireland that is.

[Sujay]

Mack The Knife,

Import of paintball gun and paintball cartridges through post is a grey area and nothing can be said with certainty.

They are not categorised as toys as the section of toys specifically mentions " This Chapter does not cover:Arms or other articles of Chapter 93.......". Chpater 93 specifically prohibits everything under the sun ( including sheaths ) and uses a word " projectile". The persons detailing the items were obviously not aware of " paintball gun" else it would have included also i.e by name.

This word " projectile" might be applied to the paintball cartridges by the customs.

[Krish]

Well said penpusher

But, didn't you know that UK is the most PC correct, nanny state in the world!? Atleast in my opinion. Here, criminals seem to have more rights in practice than law abiding sheep like myself. If I were to take my rifle out for self defense purpose, let alone point it at some one , I can just imagine the field day that the PC brigade will have and that basically includes the press and police. Furthermore, I'll be stripped of my FAC and whatnot.

It's really absurd what has happend to Great Britain. The rule of law is dying at an astonishing speed and what Orwell said in his book '1984' seems to happening right in front of my eyes.

Krish

[Grumpy]

Too right Krish. I`m sick of being nannied by Tony. The Tony Martin case of a few years ago did focus public attention on criminals rights and produced a ground swell of opinion against the over emphasis on the rights of criminals but the Government didn`t change the legislation maintaining that the current laws were adequate.......so how come he was gaoled ? Maybe a Conservative Government will change things........if the Tory Party ever sort themselves out enough to become electable.

[Krish]

Grumpy, whatever may be the debates about the Tony Martin case, apparantly he shot that burglar in the back as he was running away and that was construed by the courts as NOT using reasonable force. But then, reasonable force is a myth and there is no statute defining what constitutes as such . It depends on the government of the time to decide what they would like 'reasonable' force to be, if it merits their cause, especially if there is an election aound the corner.

I wouldn't hold my breath for the Tories either. Don't forget the pistol ban was not all TonyB's plan. It was initiated by the tories as a last ditch attempt to scavenge votes, but unlucky for them B got on the band wagon and won.

Future does indeed look bleak in the UK, especially if you care about civil liberties and such

Krish

[penpusher]

Kirk/Grumpy

In India you can get a license for self defence but getting one is time consuming for an ordinary citizen and there after,buying a gun is very expensive ,to say the least.The situation in UK is ridiculous .I hope that political change would bring about an improvement in the situation vis-a-vis gun ownership.

On televison I saw a programme in which a rep of an American company was shown demonstrating their product, basically small pellets that were shot ,out of what looked like a paintball gun, into the ground, that would then release cloud of a pepper to incapacitate an attacker.

penpusher