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AK47 wielding idiot on Sky News
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well here goes...
1. The IAA
Like it or not this is the only show in town to organise a response and a rational organised response is the only way to counteract this. If we run around screaming how unfair it is we are destined for failure. I think it is a very smart move to be ready for these types of issues. waiting for it to happen or worse, hoping it wont, will mean we are unprepared and destined to react in a way that will leave us vulnerable to what the press is trying to do, namely, create news and hype on a slow news day. if we fall into the trap of over reacting we will only add to the problem rather then defuse it.
2. The Hype
Obviously the person is breaking the law, and we should support the gardai in the response. Now this area is where the first attack will come: why are people allowed to buy replicas so realistic blah blah blah. The issue is not the replica but the person wielding it and we should take a the position that the person using the replica (or is it?) should be arrested for breaking a number of existing laws. Our second stance should be that we do not need further laws as it is already a serious offence. The addition of more laws will not arrest the person. We need to focus on the illegal activity not the implement. The shops who sell these illegal aegs should be outed by each of us. They are the vulnerable point for thugs getting access to our toys.
3. The tool of illegal activity
Criminals, and we should call them this, will use anything. Fighting criminal activity should be the sole focus of the gardia, fighting implements used in that activity is a side show. As we know (but the public wont) an aeg is actually far far less dangerous then, say a knife. The only difference is ours look more impressive. Fighting criminal activity on the look of an implement is failing to attack the source of the problem, namely, the commission of a crime.
4. big scary guns
Ireland, like a lot of Europe has been programmed that weapons (and we will be bundled in with this) have some strange evil magical properties whereby they seem to want to hurt law abiding people. Now this is such a low level genetic response by Europeans at this stage (it is used as part of the anti US propaganda by the way as well), led by the press and followed by bottom feeding politicians that anyone who wants to own a weapon, or in our case, one looking like it, is some criminal mastermind in waiting, a secret racist, a militia forming, post apocalypse preparing knuckle dragger. Our counteract to this already exists and this is where we need the help of the non national teams or non nationals. Like me, i have never heard one racist taunt at airsoft, with the odd exception to quotes from movies, which i will be honest i am prone to doing. So our strongest response is one we have and thats the game. I think we should ask the leaders of the teams who were on this board to assist here. The recent post (were they from Thailand?) should be used as an example of how we should all behave. In fact they are probably one of the best organised teams and i would like if they could even present the benefits of airsoft to us all. That whole honour and code ethic is the basis for our response. By way of example, would you like your children to understand fair play, honour, a code of ethics based on friendship and trust and truth or would you like them run wild with people who have few morals, waiting for a drink related incident? One of the best organised organisations in the country is the GAA. That is what they do. They take a violent physical game and teach an honour code around it (well every team except Dublin obviously
). As usual, the press and ministers (we know who they are) will focus on the implement...we need to focus on our strong points, the game. Have you ever actually met anyone who played a really good game of airsoft, not come away liking it? I have only met a few who didnt continue to play after a good game but they would have a positive view and can patently see its just another game people can play like golf or rugby or soccer. I think it is imperative that we all start exercising the honour code in airsoft. Anyone who does not - we should see as an attack on the very fundamentals of our game. It is our strongest response to the inevitable anti airsoft brigade. Before on this board,some people expressed the view (he was a chap from the UK as i recall) about aeg safety, how to play, aeg management in a game. That is the person who should help us and the sites on the strict rules for play. I am in no way suggesting, by the way, that the sites do not comply already or that players dont comply, what i am saying is we need a published, simple countrywide response on rules and regulations. As a recall we have some gardai and indeed that chap was in the UK police so we can follow their strict rules on safety. THis should form part of our response. We have a countrywide formal, managed, set of rules we as airsofters comply with. We should be able to point to this as how we play. Again this has been done, by the IAA, but i wonder could each and everyone one of us point out EXACTLY where that is on OUR IAA website? Now before you go finger pointing, that is YOUR job. The IAA will never be any more then a coordinator of these, we cannot expect any more and should not, unless you want to pay support for a team to take that on full time. The issue is people have expected the IAA to do this, to spoon feed people and that is destined for a disastrous failure bordering on the catastrophic. Why?, if we purport to follow a set of rules and blag about how we do, some unscrupulous tv station will go undercover to prove we are not following safety procedures, not following our guidelines and we will be dropped in shark infested waters at that point. So the way we fight this, is each an every airsofter is responsible for the game, responsible for the players left and right of them in the game, BUT more importantly for the game countrywide. An example was the m4 klub (club is the correct spelling) thread. what we saw there to me was horrific, we had a non aisofter thinking the game was some type of realistic counter strike game where he could take a box mag and fire indiscriminately in a cqb game. That feeds the anti airsoft propaganda machine to a point that it would be almost unrecoverable from. If we point to honour, that example would prove its nothing more then talk, and as we all know Irish people in general are very good at talk, but not so hot on implementation. A person adopting that approach to airsoft is spelling doom for our adventure. The impact of a box mag in a cqb game or a game generally points to someone hitting an opponent hundreds of times like some mad laughing psycho. I am not saying they are, but it feeds that impression. THe same incidently could be used on the picture on this thread of someones ass. Add that image and the box mag and you get my message. We need to start viewing posts from the outside in and not the inside out. Now we can go all defensive and angry and disagree, fine, that is your right in this democratic republic, but it still wont change how OTHERS will view it. So think, do you want a picture of your ass on SKY News about how dangerous airsoft is, followed by an image of a box mag firing, because thats what they will do. THe news reporter is not paid for the truth, they are paid for a story. They dont care about the actual facts of airsoft, that is irrelevant and would take longer then the 4 minutes they have to present, so far better to show an ass and a box mag firing. If you think you can control that response, we will fall into the trap of many actors who though they too could control them. It is simply not possible.
Okay smarty pants, whats the answer?
well if i had one, i would have written a book and i would be presenting that best seller across the globe, spending my nights with playboy models, impressing them with my linguistic skills. Instead, i am here. THe answer to this conundrum, lies with each of us. We need to take all the work that exists and become aware of it so that anyone who asks, we know EXACTLY where to go. Each game should be treated like it is our last. Each new player should be schooled in how to play to avoid the muppetry that can so easily slip into each game. People not playing with honour should be outed and made a pariah by their own players. We need to do all of these things ourselves, stop expecting someone else to do it. If you disagree with a point or wish it changed, PROPOSE why it should be changed. Ranting and raving here or elsewhere feeds the image we are not in control and that ranting mixed with an aeg is one that will be used against us. We have come along way in airsoft, we have a long way to go, but it is now time for each and everyone of us to own our sport. There is always loads to do, there always will be...but we have to start using what we have now. The answer to this issue is we are not gun wielding morons. We have a game with rules we play religiously by. We have a lot of fun doing it like any other game. We take our game very seriously, each and everyone. We are very friendly to new joiners and show them how to play. We have a huge membership in the airsoft fraternity and have international integration as well. We have a coordinating group we all own. the emphasis there, in case you missed it is...WE....did you see what i did there...WE -- we own the response to this problem, it is what we do each week, its how we play, its how we conduct ourselves, from how we store our aegs to how we get there to how we play the game, to supporting fellow players. I cannot emphasise how strong a response that is. However it is vulnerable in one area...the word WE. If we fail to understand one person cheating, one person going off message is somehow not important and treat it as a bit of a laugh, we will gutted like a fish. Aegs are toys, the way they will remain so, is if we threat them as if they are not, with a respect to fellow citizens, and to show we deserve the right to play because there is no risk. Doing this creates a chasm between us and THEM. The person on the street is nothing to do with us, they are a criminal. By us creating a polar opposite, shows they are demonising a large group of players unfairly.
So what do you have to do? its simple...WE all have to open our eyes a little bit more, we need to mature up quite a bit IMHO and stop sniping at gaps that in your opinion may exist and realise a formal approach to solving problems is the only way. anything else, is feeding the frenzy.
however thats all just my opinion obviously.....0 -
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I'm going to be honest here and say that ive skipped over most posts, cause no doubt its the same we have read week in week out.
CrazyRabbit, I might have heard your point a few weeks ago when you mentioned it about advertisement, but I am now completely totally against it.
Since the Herald front pager...I've noticed a steady increase of people walking into our store, and believe me some of them you just know are not buying to go have a skirmish or to collect, and they get refused.
But luckily enough, most dirtbags in the local area probably dont buy the herald, although most of them saw the huge front page and came to us.
Imagine you made a whopper national TV programme, intending to be educational? What you will have is every arsehole and scumbag in the country... ****ing hounding our website or other shops, buying stuff....knowing theres little we can do...since your programme is going to say " yeah there totally legal once your over 18 you dont really need anything" (which is untrue anyways)
I've already made my views public, and I know Ronan disagrees with them...but I just do not see any logical way, of how you think you can educate, govern and stop someone from performing a numpty act like that England scenario, here in Ireland. Theres just people who are gonig to do it, besides the information I give them over the counter, besides the leaflet I give them with the donts of airsoft, and beside anything else. They have intentions and they are going to use it for it.
The important thing is that are WE, the proper airsofters of the country, protected enough, are we stable. I really cant see airsoft being banned overnight.... it would be extremely illogical.
But anyways....pubic education, not going to work in my opinion. And I'd also like to point out to something that was mentioned earlier in a post about being active etc.
To be totally blunt, I'm not interested in runnning anything, helping anything or doing anything constructive. I want to go out on a sunday/saturday or whenever or play. I dont want to give up my time to chrono,marshal safety briefings and ****. I'll gladly help a noob with a one to one should they ask, but other then that I'm not interested. I've done enough time in stints with boards and councils and **** and I just wanna enjoy my games of skirmishing
So in effect, you can easily critic my points and views, since I'm not going to be arsed enforcing them or "try" to make a difference
As a very wise man once said to me about organising a huge golf event.." The man who wants to be in the powerful position of making change, is the completely wrong man to take control of that change, its the poor bastard whose forced into it, when he doesnt want it, that makes the good change"0 -
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