i think the funniest thing i find about paintball is when our local site was running paintball and airsoft on the same day, and in the safe zone at lunch they were chatting about "it's a marker not a gun" meanwhile all the airsofters are dandering around fully kitted out.
‘Marker’ as a term is one of my gripes
The majority of people I experience using it don’t know why - it’s a politically correct term in America, due to their Victorian style mixed values
It’s used to avoid saying ‘gun’, which in America is for the parents who will be scared off from letting their kids play Paintball because of ‘guns’
They also do it as advice to not tell airport staff or the police when stopped that “I’ve got a gun” but as “marker”. Ideally phrase it in a better way, and with the police save it until they want to search or ask what’s in your bag —- it’s your Paintball gear, Paintball gun etc. Tell them you have a “marker” and they probably have no idea what you are on about - then they look and see a gun
When ‘marker’ is used as a piece of special language outside Paintball we give the impression of covering up a secret
Ive had 14 year old kids tell me that I don’t know my Paintball history and Paintball has called them markers not guns from the outset
Whereas the originals were “Paintball marking pistols” and “Paintball marking guns”
”Marking” comes from the permanent oil based paint in the original pellets used in forestry and farming, which were adopted by the game, and changed to non permanent gels. This change occurred before the Americans wanted to change the image and dissasociate from the southern gun nut image
Unlike America which tends to be vocally pro or anti gun, here in the UK guns aren’t as illegal as some think, and our pro/anti guns aren’t as extreme as the US
Paintball is embedded well in the British mindset as a game to play on a stag, hen, birthday and shoot your mates with guns before heading to the pub
