Paintball, Is it Dangerous?

Courtesy of wall.alphacoders.com

Courtesy of wall.alphacoders.com

Jonathan Armstrong, Staff Writer

    Is paintball dangerous? That is the age old question of parents when their kid wants to start playing. Of course, it is not always kids because there are a lot of adult players. Paintball is the sport of using HPA (High Power Air) guns to hurl little balls filled with paint at people on the enemy team.

 

    So, is paintball dangerous? Well, according to Liveabout.com, a study that took place in 2003 by the National Injury Information Clearinghouse states that “paintball is less dangerous than other sports like bowling and running”. It can only become dangerous if you are not wearing proper safety gear or if you take it off during a game. But to stop this from happening, most paintball fields require you to wear the proper equipment and enforce that you always wear eye protection.

Courtesy of Venicepaintball.com

    Even if you wear protection, you can still get hurt, but not by paintballs. Most injuries from paintball consist of running into obstacles or twisting an ankle in a trench. Severe injuries come from getting hit in the eye when eye protection is taken off during a game. But, if you don’t take off your gear, you will be fine and you won’t get majorly hurt.

 

    Welts and Bruises. That is what the most common injury left behind will be when you get hit by a paintball as said by Paintballpark.co.uk. You really can’t get hurt too badly while playing paintball. You may get a few bumps and scrapes but those can be taken care of easily. “It hurts like a punch,” said 8th grade student Deigo James Garcia when asked how much it hurts to be hit. But you can reduce the pain by wearing protective gear.

 

    Paintball against airsoft in terms of pain? As shared by 8th grader Seth Rogan, “It is like a wet airsoft pellet.” To compare that to airsoft pellets, a wet pellet feels like a long hard pinch. Because paintballs are larger than airsoft pellets, paintball hurts more because more mass hits you at the same speed as a pellet while airsoft pellets are smaller and don’t hurt as much. That information was shared by Hobbystrategy.com. So airsoft hurts less than paintball.

 

    So, is paintball dangerous? It is not as long as you wear the right equipment but you still can get hurt from everyday injuries. You will probably get welts and bruises but it hurts more than airsoft. To answer the question, no, paintball is not dangerous and it is safe for everyone as long as you wear equipment. . Thus, as long as you are safe, paintball is not dangerous.