Out of Pod Experience

This has turned out to be a hot topic in the paintball comunity and I wanted to see what EVE players thought about this.

Original forums and thread: http://www.pbnation.com/showthread.php?t=3721705

Original Story

"Lawyers representing a non-profit Maryland group are suing a White Marsh paintball park for not letting them play.

Why? Because they’re blind.

Paintball is a visual sport. But it’s doubtful that’s what lawyers for Blind Industries and Services of Maryland, a non-profit whose stated “purpose is to positively change people's attitudes about blindness,” were thinking when they filed the first-of-its-kind lawsuit against Route 40 Paintball Park in U.S. District Court.

The 11-year old park, which features four tournament-size fields, is owned by former “professional” paintballer Tom Maliszewski. Rules for patrons of the paintball park, which are posted one its website, states: “Blind shooting is not allowed. Look at what you are shooting.” With flying projectiles, this is only common sense.

This is an obvious reference to careless behavior by sighted players, but since it could equally apply to the sightless as well, making it difficult to prove that any blind would-be paintball players are victims of discrimination.

This is an obvious payday ploy intended to pressure Maliszewski, who had no comment, into some sort of financial settlement to avoid spending even more money on legal fees. But it may backfire on Blind Industries. This suit isn't goiing to change people's attitudes about blindness "positively." And in this Christmas season, it’s difficult to feel philanthropic toward people who will use the money to abuse the legal system this way, harming small business owners in the process.

Even if they are blind."
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Would blind people think it was a good idea to play paintball.

Or its run by the stupid

i live in maryland, hell i been to whitemarsh mall..
this would be a terrible idea if its the same paintball field i'm thinking of... blind people would be falling over stuff and getting hurt all the time.

This isn't only about the "no blind firing" rule in place at 90% of paintball fields, it's also about other liabilities- paintball fields have several items which people could slip on, run into at full speed (because you don't ever walk in paintball unless you've been marked out), etc. This is even more dangerous if they're playing a "woods" field instead of a standard "tournament" field (one is more natural and meant to sort of simulate hunting/warfare/whatever, the other is a formal field with even amounts of cover on both sides, etc.)

This is ******* ******** and to be perfectly honest, if I were the judge presiding over this case I'd toss it out. Paintball is not a blind-friendly sport. It never has been, and never will be.

Also, OP, you're on PBN? Do you post in the Eve-Online thread there?

They can't read your text, please redo in braille

Blind shooting in paintball is also unfair, considering almost no one carries grenades and using frozen paintballs to break down defenses is illegal. Yet you can still shut down an attack doing that. No risk, all reward.

Blind people can go **** themselves

why not let them play paintball?



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saDZFvKOOe0 blind football

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZELzVCvaHI&feature=related blind tennis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORHulVuz5cY blind golf

doing fun things despite a disabilty

That's what's happening where I work, and because of it the company I work for may end up out of business.

With this I can understand both sides the the argument, but a full lawsuit about this is way over the top.

Here in the UK, disabled people have to be accommodated in all things, and have to have a means to be able to do things that normal people can, that's why public building have ramps etc etc.

But there has to be an element of Health and Safety, although myself have seen that the health and safety people can be over the top at times, I would let them have this one, blind firing projectiles is never a good thing, people will get hurt.

Golf - Is fine because it is a largely isolated sport, you hit the ball down a large open area, in a general direction, if people get hit, its likely they would of got hit by anyone.

Football - Again similar to above in that you have a specific goal, and it is generally a flat, level, surface, and is safe for people with a variety of disabilities.

Sorry but this is a very good case as to why the lawsuit culture will destroy all common sense!

This is not about discriminating, and MUST be motivated by other means. If I were a judge, I would say it is in the public interest for this lawsuit to FAIL