Announced earlier today on the Save Paintball in California Facebook page, SB-798, the California legislation that would have required all “look-a-like air guns” to have bright colors has been amended to specifically EXCLUDE anything shooting a projectile over 11mm in diameter.
Which means the bill does not include paintball markers. 11mm is .43 inches, or .43 caliber, meaning that paintball guns shooting 43, 50, 60, 62 and 68 caliber paintballs are not covered by the bill.
However, 6mm is under 11mm and 6mm is the preferred airsoft projectile side, so it looks as if (pending further amendments), air soft is going to be taking a big hit.
Here’s the language of the amended bill:
BILL NUMBER: SB 798 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 13, 2011
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 13, 2011
AMENDED IN SENATE MARCH 24, 2011
INTRODUCED BY Senator De León
FEBRUARY 18, 2011
An act to amend Section 16700 of the Penal Code, relating to
firearms.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 798, as amended, De León. Firearms: BB devices: imitation
firearms.
Existing law defines "BB device" to mean any instrument that
expels a projectile, such as a BB or a pellet, through the force of
air pressure, gas pressure, or spring action, or any spot marker gun.
Existing law defines "imitation firearm" to mean any BB device, toy
gun, replica of a firearm, or other device that is so substantially
similar in coloration and overall appearance to an existing firearm
as to lead a reasonable person to perceive that the device is a
firearm but provides that a BB device is not an imitation firearm in
regard to a provision imposing a civil fine on the sale, manufacture,
transportation, receipt, or distribution of imitation firearms for
commercial purposes.
This bill would make the provision imposing a civil fine on the
sale, manufacture, transportation, receipt, or distribution of
imitation firearms for commercial purposes applicable to BB devices.
The bill would also provide that a spot marker gun that expels a
projectile of greater than 10 mm caliber would not be an imitation
firearm in regard to the provision imposing a civil fine on the sale,
manufacture, transportation, receipt, or distribution of imitation
firearms for commercial purposes.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 16700 of the Penal Code is amended to read:
16700. (a) As used in this part, "imitation firearm" means any BB
device, toy gun, replica of a firearm, or other device that is so
substantially similar in coloration and overall appearance to an
existing firearm as to lead a reasonable person to perceive that the
device is a firearm.
(b) As used in Section 20165, "imitation firearm" does not include
any of the following:
(1) A nonfiring collector's replica that is historically
significant, and is offered for sale in conjunction with a wall
plaque or presentation case.
(2) A spot marker gun which expels a projectile that is greater
than 10 mm caliber.
(2)
(3) A device where the entire exterior
surface of the device is white, bright red, bright orange, bright
yellow, bright green, bright blue, bright pink, or bright purple,
either singly or as the predominant color in combination with other
colors in any pattern, as provided by federal regulations governing
imitation firearms, or where the entire device is constructed of
transparent or translucent materials which permits unmistakable
observation of the device's complete contents, as provided by federal
regulations governing imitation firearms.
Someone commented; the address resolves to a ‘guerrilla marketing’ website – perhaps one hired by the consultants?
Anyway, the poster chose to use a fake name – which is NA here on 68 – which was a not-very-professional expression of their feelings about the CA law.
So here’s what they actually wrote:
I actually think the way the bill has been split works very well for paintball: any caliber 43 and above remains legal, paintballers don’t have to use bright colors and the upstart airsoft industry (which many paintball companies have been engaging with in order to survive) gets a big kick in the pants.
One of my old time playing buddies reminded me the other night of just exactly how much HARD work each and everyone of us did to divorce the public from the idea that paintball was ‘war games’ or ‘terrorist training’ or ‘neo-nazi survivalists’.
We changed the nature of the game; we changed out clothing, we changed our equipment, we even changed the name of what we were doing to “paintball”.
And now we are seeing the consequences of not sticking to that strategy. By re-embracing the “war-thing” and offering look-a-like products, we’re telling the general public (and the law makers) that paintball IS a war game, that we ARE playing army in the woods and gee, look what happened. A state senator from CA tried to shut us down.
Like – big surprise – folks.
One thing we can be thankful for though is, if the bill passes as amended, you will A: see more of the same in other states and B: maybe re-capture ten percent of our lost brethren who went over to the airsoft (dark) side. Which in this economy is a good thing for paintball. Paintball does not need external competitors – it already has enough on the inside.