Paintball

[d4rksabre]

Here in Rochester there is an abundance of Disc Golf courses. If you don't know what disc golf is, it's exactly how it sounds. You throw rubber discs (like frisbees) at a chain basket on a pole. 18 "holes", played with the same rules as golf. (read more here)

Anyways, today my friends and I decided to play at the course in Chili, NY. It's a very large and nice course set on an old farm. Lots of hills and trees with some streams and a lot of natural boundaries. We tend to play 3-4 days per week in the afternoons when everyone is out of work.

As we were making our way up hole 11, we heard the sound of paintball markers firing in the woods line at the end of the fairway. We decided to play on, assuming that it was probably a group of paintballers playing in the woods. We played hole 11, then hole 12 along the woods line, then back down hole 13 paralleling hole 11. About this time we started hearing paintball shots and the sounds of young kids yelling in the woods. As we set to tee off on hole 14 we saw some kids run out of the woods in camo, with paintball markers, not wearing goggles. They wandered around a bit, shot their markers in the air and made their way away from us.

At this point I'm not happy these kids aren't wearing masks and are shooting up in the air. I had heard a couple balls land nearby and had become a little irritated. We played our way back towards the woods line and hole 14. Upon completion of hole 14 we walked along the woods line to the tee for hole 15 which extends the length of the woods line and down a hill. Very fun hole!

One of my buddies tees off and at this point we hear shooting from the woods; the damn kids are shooting at his disc as it's sailing through the air. Another friend tees off and a kid runs out of the woods to try and get the disc; he trips on a piece of twine the owners use to mark the boundaries and falls on his face. We laugh but it's a little uneasy. These kids are right in the woods shooting paintballs.

I tee off, and we all proceed to walk down the hill. At this point I am greeted by the sound of paint breaking on the brush of the woods line no more than 5 feet from me. The damn kids are shooting at me.

I stop, and in my boomingly loud voice announce that if they continued to shoot at fellow paintball players who are not wearing goggles, that I would come in to the woods and drag them out by their jackets. They fired a few more shots and ran off through the woods.

We managed to play the rest of our game without interruption. We could hear them playing in the other woods line in an area we had played already so we left it alone. Some other players were teeing off at hole 1 by the parking spot when we were leaving and we warned them to be careful.

I'm furious though. What the hell are these kids doing? Where are their parents? Where are the older brothers or parents who bought them this stuff? Obviously they haven't been taught anything about how dangerous this stuff is! Shooting at people wearing no eye protection! While not wearing any yourself?!

What the HELL.

We play at this course quite often. I'm not going to let a few brats ruin my recreational fun after work. The next time we go back, a pair of goggles are coming in my disc/waterbottle bag with me. If I have to chase these kids down and call their parents or the cops, I am. They should never have done what they did today and obviously they don't know any better. What if one of my friends had gotten hurt? What if I had gotten hurt? What would this have done to the disc golf course? This is a free place where a growing number of people come to play a game that is growing rapidly in popularity. What if someone had been playing who DIDN'T know what they were hearing?

All these thoughts are going through my head, and I want to know what the heck I can do about it? What can I do about a bunch of little kids in the woods on a farm in the middle of the country? Am I allowed to restrain them and call the police? What are my rights as a 21 year old adult? What should I do if this happens again?

~Carter

[c6quad]

you should take your gun with you and shoot back. lol...

[RatFink]

Originally Posted by c6quad

you should take your gun with you and shoot back. lol...

My thoughts exactly.

[Mayvik]

Uh..why didn't you just cell phone 5-O? A nice visit from Officer Friendly will teach kids not to shoot paintball guns in an unsafe manner in an unsafe place.

[squee!]

It sounds like they were around for quite some time. Use the cell phone, call the cops. I doubt it is legal to discharge airguns on public property not zoned for it. That is a huge accident waiting to happen.

[HurtCow]

Originally Posted by c6quad

you should take your gun with you and shoot back. lol...

Originally Posted by RatFink

My thoughts exactly.

Yeah great ideas guys. That'll teach em.

The cops'll totally take your side when the kids are in the hospital with missing eyeballs.

[Amoryl]

call the cops, experienced players know what a paintball can do to an unprotected eye at "safe" velocities. lord knows what speed these tards are shooting at. I've noticed quite a few of the wally world guns shoot hot out of the box. especially if it's hot out.

legally you've got the right to detain them while they're endagering your life and well being, however since they're young (punks) it often gets kinda messed up as the useless moms start screaming "MAH BAYBAY!!!!" and all of a sudden it's like YOU are the psycho running around trying to kill people. best thing to do is call the cops, I'd do it subtly, as I'd much rather the cops catch them and scare the crap out of them than settle for spooking the kids for a minute or two and letting them run off before the authorities get a chance to arrive. better the bad press for cops catching unsafe paintballers before they hurt someone, than the really bad press on the evening news when they blind someone.

[Walking_Target]

I'm with Amoryl on this one.

If you get the opportunity though, don't hesitate to hold one of them for cops. Make sure to get the media involved in that case too... You're an older person who plays and can explain why these kids are at the height of douchebaggery.

[foughtwolf]

Its pretty simple what you should have done, call the cops, now for the fun one, that I would not suggest in actuallity.

Let your pants hang around your ankles and run out into the woods after them, screaming, screaming loud and incoherently, waving a club over your head.

[BigOldSkool]

At that point I would just suscribe to my holloween theory around by me..

" Shoot illegally... I get free gear "

Long story short... my whole team was at my house for a beer bash on the week end before holloween and some kids decided to shoot up one of our team mates car who also is a corrections officer.... Well.. we all donned our masks... (BTW we were playing the next day too and all had our gear on hand) He pulled out his dash light and we chased them down......... cornered them and threatened to call the cops and have them all arrested.... or they give us all of their gear......

And thats the story of how my team got a free matrix.