Paintball about to hit legal battle in Wisconsin

[Tyger]

I know this is more a Euro board, but I think you all mght find this intresting. All this to protect a fish.

-begin

Wisconsin law to outlaw paintball on public land

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 17, 2001
Paintball Product Manufacturer's Association

Media Contact: Jonathan Bernstein, (877) 993-9944 - jonathan@paintballassociation.com


MEDIA ALERT: WISCONSIN BAN ON PAINTBALL IS 1 STEP AWAY

[From the State of Wisconsin -- Proposed: NR 45.04(3)(q) Paint balls. No person may use paint balls, paint ball guns or any other type of paint ball equipment on department lands.]

Wisconsin is about to ban paintball totally on more than 1,000,000 acres of forests and lands administered by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. A paintball industry rep has contacted the chairperson of the State Natural Resources Committee, who refuses to set a hearing for the paintball community to educate the lawmakers, to try to get the wording modified so that it's less restrictive. There is no exception to this ban, no way to get a permit, this is a total ban.

The hearing has to be set now - tomorrow - or paintball will be banned on the lands.

The only thing that stands a chance of changing this would be a flood of calls or emails from Wisconsin residents. Paintball players or business owners in Wisconsin, and paintball supporters, can use the list below to tell the legislators to set a hearing so the paintball community can be heard:

¤ You're asking the committee to set a hearing, so they can learn why the paintball community wants them to block or make major changes to NR 45.04(3)(q), which is unfairly restrictive to the sport of paintball and does not reflect input from the paintball community.

¤ You're a Wisconsin resident -voter -businessperson (whichever is true).

¤ You may suggest that the committee members, at a minimum, confer with representatives of the Paintball Products Manufacturers Association on this regulation.

If you know anyone who's a paintball player and/or business owner in Wisconsin, please pass this on to them.

And if you're not in Wisconsin yourself, you can write or call - let them know where you are from, and that the paintball community wants and deserves to be heard.

If you don't act, not only does this have a strong negative impact in Wisconsin, but it sets a precedent that could be followed by other states.

Below is the list of people to contact -- and remember, be polite, but be firm.

You have power. Use it wisely.


State of Wisconsin, House of Representatives, Natural Resources Committee

Chairperson DuWayne Johnsrud

Vicechairperson Scott Gunderson

Representatives on the Committee:

Neal J. Kedzie;
Judy Krawczyk;
Dan Meyer;
Alvin Ott;
Mark Pettis;
Michael Powers;
Barbara Gronemus;
John Lehman;
John P. Steinbrink;
Mark Miller;
Martin Reynolds

Phone numbers, for their capital and their home office district, are on the web - http://www.legis.state.wi.us/assembly/asmhomepages.html - look up the person to find the phone numbers and addresses. Best bet is to both
write and call.

Rep.Johnsrud@legis.state.wi.us
Rep.Gunderson@legis.state.wi.us
Rep.Kedzie@legis.state.wi.us
Rep.Krawczyk@legis.state.wi.us
Rep.Meyer@legis.state.wi.us
Rep.Ott@legis.state.wi.us
Rep.Pettis@legis.state.wi.us
Rep.Powers@legis.state.wi.us
Rep.Gronemus@legis.state.wi.us
Rep.LehmanJ@legis.state.wi.us
Rep.Steinbrink@legis.state.wi.us
Rep.Miller@legis.state.wi.us
Rep.Reynolds@legis.state.wi.us

 

[tb-303]

on what grounds ae they trying to ban paintballing in wisconsin? you say its about protecting a fish.i'm just curious in what way do fish get harmed playing ball. or is this really as crazy as it soundz?
tb-303

 

[Inferno]

I don't mean to sound like I'm second-guessing you, but I found no mention of it on the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources site: http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/ .

And the statute that was quoted looks like it deals with grants:

45.04(3)
(3) Notice; application process. The secretary shall publicize the grant program under this section and the availability of grants. Eligible persons may apply for grants in accordance with the rules promulgated under sub. (6). The secretary shall develop and make available grant application forms.

Here's the Wisconsin Legislature site
http://www.legis.state.wi.us/

Like I said, I don't mean to call you out. I just want to get as much information as I can before writing, so I don't sound like some mindless baboon with a paintgun, thus strengthening their case.

 

[rockon_1]

I'm not sure

inferno-when the thing about making paintball in canada pretty much illeagal came up there were multiple bills of teh same name so maybe its happening .

 

[Tyger]

Ok, in order :

The fish thing. My impression is that the law is being passed to protect naturla resources and water critters from the damagin g effects of paintball. The problem is that it's a blanket policy.

I've looked up the law on the books as it is. What's being voted on is an addendum to that existing law. So what is on the WI DNR site is not the law being voted on, but the law that already exists.

If you go to http://www.wisconsin.gov and do a search on NR 45.03, you'll find a PDF file with the existing law. A lot of it makes sense, but the problem is the wording of the proposed addendum of the new law.

Proposed: NR 45.04(3)(q) Paint balls. No
person may use paint balls, paint ball guns or any other type of paint ball equipment on department lands

Ok, so wording wise this prevents anyone from using paintball guns, gear, or equipment on land regulated by the DNR. I know a few fields in Wisconsin that happens to be leased from the DNR directly or indirectly. These legit fields would be gone.

Now simply adding a few words to this law would fix everything.

Proposed: NR 45.04(3)(q) Paint balls. No
person may use paint balls, paint ball guns or any other type of paint ball equipment on department lands without written permit issued by the property superintendant

Legal wording is everything here. A few added words could make it NICE and LEGAL for EVERYONE to play ball. And that's the whole argument here, and this is why we want our say in comittee.

It's the same thing that happened back in the 90's in California. The right people did lunch with the right people, and changed two words on a bill that eventually passed through the legislature. And becasue an "and" was changed to an "or" on a sheet of paper, you can buy paintball guns manufactured in California (Autocockers, Spyders... you know...)

And we did manage to get the bill slowed down so we can talk to people now. So it's all good.

-Tyger