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Paintball: Innocent Sport Labeled Morally Wrong The adrenaline is coursing though your body as you dive to the next bunker, sliding toward the flag, and eliminating your opponent in the very last seconds of the game. Those who do not know the sport of paintball may not appreciate the excitement of the preceding incident. But those who have experienced this type of situation first-hand know the exhilarating feeling. There are a great number of people who see this activity, not as a sport, but as a malicious game that brings nothing but destruction. The decision to ban such an enjoyable and proven safe sport like paintball is an unreasonable act to those who participate. The sport has become more popular over a course of three years. The number of frequent participants in paintball in 1998 was approximately 793,000 people. By the year 2001 the quantity of frequent players rose to about 1.414 million people – a 78% increase (www.nfiniteedge.com). Those numbers for the United States don’t compare to worldwide numbers recorded in 1999 as more than 11,600,000 players (www.paint-ball.org). Locally the sport has grown in reputation, and more and more fields and paintball businesses are starting to appear. The sum of money brought in by paintball is an outstanding amount for any sport. In 2002 the recorded amount brought in by paintball is $382,800,000. This means that 8,700,000 people played at least once in 2002 and on average spent about $44 every time they went. Then the frequent players who have played at least 15 times or more in 2002, approximately 793,000 players, spent $34,892,000 together for playing all season. In total paintball made approx. $417,692,000 in the year 2002. (www.paint-ball.org)Almost half a billion dollars! The point is, paintball is a very successful industry. Along with the number of sales in 2002, the number of stores providing those numbers is also a vast amount. The approximate number of paintball stores in the U.S. is about 1,160. That doesn’t count those stores who have Paintball sections in them, but only those who sell strictly paintball equipment only. (www.paint-ball.org). Even superstores like K-Mart have gotten on the paintball bandwagon. The approx. number of paintball related items they carry is 172 items (www.paint-ball.org). Also large companies such as E-Bay have begun to sell paintball products. The average number of paintball equipment for sale on the site is 3,267 items (www.paint-ball.org). SPORT Yearly injuries per 1000 Participants Water Skiing 260.84 Lacrosse 223.79 Wrestling 36.46 Rugby 31.21 Football 30.17 Baseball 28.42 Hockey 21.92 Basketball 19.76 Soccer 12.59 Boxing 11.34 Bicycle Riding 11.71 Gymnastics 10.49 Volleyball 4.03 Ice Skating 3.83 Snowmobile 3.52 Snow Skiing 2.99 Racquetball 2.77 Tennis 2.77 Handball 1.92 Fishing 1.43 Swimming 1.34 Golf 1.22 Archery 0.85 Boating 0.75 Bowling 0.47 Paintball 0.24 One of the big controversies of paintball is the number of injuries it inflicts. Being hit with a marble sized paintball traveling at 300 feet per second may indeed sound dangerous and painful yet the following chart shows otherwise (http://ithacapaintball.com). The amounts of injuries in paintball are slim to none compared to this evidence, and are even more uncommon than injuries in sports considered injury-proof. Sports such as golf, boating, archery and even bowling have a greater risk of injury per 1000 participants compared to paintball. All in all this sport is all around safe.
Approximate Word count = 2191
Approximate Pages = 8.8
(250 words per page double spaced)
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