Paintball Guns, The Menace in Rhode Island

Do folks run for office for the sole purpose of writing laws? All the good laws were written a few thousand years ago, so now they come up with piddly crud like the following:

From the Pawtucket Times:

By: David Casey

Paintball gun bill modeled after C.F. law

...Doyle's bill, S-204, is designed to exert more state control over the use of paintball guns by including them in the state's "Weapons Law."

According to the bill: "Paintball guns shall only be used in areas designated for recreational paintball use...Protective clothing and eyewear shall be worn...Paintball guns shall not be transported at any time in the passenger compartments of motor vehicles...(and) shall be unloaded, with the gas cylinder separated from the gun...and carried in closed cases when being transported by an individual on foot."

Why is such a bill necessary?

"A lot of paintball injuries occur outside of the safe paintball arena, (when the guns are used) with criminal intent," said Policastro.

According to a fact sheet provided by RISNA, there were 1,200 paintball-related eye injuries in 2000 (nationally), almost double the amount reported in 1998.

Just for the record, it is already illegal to shoot someone maliciously with a paintball gun. Every state in the union, including Rhode Island have laws against assault.

The RISNA (Rhode Island State Nurses Association) is behind this bill, supposedly because of 1200 paintball-related eye injuries. I have some potentially shocking news for the fine nurses of Rhode Island. If you are a Rhode Island nurse, please take a seat. I would hate for you to faint and crack your head open when you read the next statistic I have to offer.

Ready?

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), there were more than 547,000 ladder-related injuries, nearly 12,000 raking-related injuries and approximately 221,000 lawn mowing-related injuries treated in hospital emergency rooms, doctors’ offices and clinics in 2004. Frequent injuries include cuts, bruises and fractured bones.

That's right folks. Ladders, rakes and lawnmowers accounted for almost three quarters of a million injuries in 2004. I am a bit surprised that these nurses who work in "hospital emergency rooms, doctors’ offices and clinics" did not notice that injuries caused by tools sold by Home Depot and other hardware stores are much more prevalent than those caused by paintball guns. I am sure that once they have this information, the good folks of Rhode Island will be protected by laws criminalizing the use and sale of these household tools.

The above quote on ladder, rake and lawnmower injuries was found here.