What Does the Aurora Shooter Have to do with Paintball?
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Officially out of straws to grasp earlier this week, Inside Edition ran a story that blamed the violence in an Aurora, CO movie theater on paintball.
Their shred of evidence? A paintball poster that hung in the shooter's apartment was apparently the clue to his total snap from reality and the motivation behind his shooting of more than 70 people.
The paintball community, to which I have belonged for nearly a decade, is NON-violent. We promote team-based play with equipment that you must approach responsibly.
Every paintball player knows his or her paintball marker is NOT a toy and can be dangerous when improperly handled. This nutcase didn't shoot up a theater with a paintball gun, he used a real gun—something we tend to frown upon.
The clips Inside Edition chose to feature depict tournament paintball, which does not use smoke grenades. Tournament paintball and scenario-style paintball are totally different games. Holmes was apparently fan of tournament paintball; usually, people who support one style of play don't participate in the other very often.
Even if Holmes decided to purchase smoke grenades because he saw someone use something similar in a paintball match, that doesn't mean the game told him to massacre people in a darkened theater. The poster in his room isn't for a film about paintball warfare, it showed a sport often featured on ESPN.
Hey Inside Edition, let's drag another struggling industry through the mud. Your sorry excuse for news has just taken a run at a sport that's used for corporate team-building and bachelor party weekends. Wanna see if the shooter had a skateboard or a BMX bike too, so you can blame those industries next?
Gabe Fletcher is the owner of 1GeekMedia.com - Experts in Social Media Management, SEO Marketing & Web Design.
Find him online at http://www.1GeekMedia.com or on Facebook @facebook.com/1GeekMedia or on Twitter @1geekmedia.
Gabe Fletcher is also the lead paintball marker technician for FixMyGat.com - a popular online based paintball marker repair service center.
tim cotrone
8:02 am on Friday, July 27, 2012
Well said like I said if they wanta blame game it blame the movie the nut case thought he was the joker not a paintballer u gotta love how they see one lil thing and start the blame this pisses me off
Gabe Fletcher
8:25 am on Friday, July 27, 2012
it makes me rage... ::smashes face on desk::
Paul J. DiBartolo
8:24 am on Friday, July 27, 2012
What more could you expect from a total bunch of mindless morons such as those who give us 'Inside Edition'? I guess the CatDog, or DogCat, or, what is it, oh, the TomKat affair was growing old. Hey, there's always the Kristin Stewart issue to bloviate about.
Porterincollingswood
8:48 am on Friday, July 27, 2012
Don't get worked up. They had this story in the can for 15 years and were just waiting for an excuse to use it.
Gabe Fletcher
8:59 am on Friday, July 27, 2012
The entire paintball industry is in total up roar over this, myself included.
Ric
11:39 am on Friday, July 27, 2012
Excuse me but shooting a projectile to strike another person is violent, just like football is a violent sport. You could not classify either sport as sedate, nor would I call them extremely violent and I would support banning them because they aren’t extreme.
Corey Alpago
6:43 pm on Friday, July 27, 2012
Striking another person either physically or with an inanimate object acted upon by an external force (ie paintballs) is NON violent. It is when your intent to be malicious, hateful, and hurting turns it into a violent sport which is where many players, teams, leagues, and organizations draw the line and condemn those players for those types of behaviors. You're right... either sport is not sedate. That is why they ARE classified as an extreme sport because the method they are practiced are both positive and portray sportsmanship like conduct. You should go out with some friends and play SEVERAL times as I am sure you have not had extensive experience with the sport like.myself and Gabe have had... don't be close minded you're only robbing yourself from a life experience.
Morgan Davis
11:32 pm on Tuesday, August 14, 2012
They are just looking for something to blame it on, and that was th best they could do. It pisses me off because un-educated people are making assumptions (like always) and it is in turn, hurting a great sport in the process. And FYI, paintball is one of the safest sports you can play, according to insurance companies. Far from violent.