Its easy to be in a rush and forget about safety. When you stop and think about it, a paintball gun on a school campus should be a fairly obvious no-no. But then again, people who play paintball realize that a marker looks very dissimilar to an actual gun. That difference doesn’t matter to concerned onlookers though as they notice a trigger, barrel, and handle all resembling a firearm.

A recent Oakland incident highlights the level of reaction that can occur from a simple paintball gun in the wrong place at the wrong time:

A report of what turned out to be a paintball gun on campus forced a lockdown at Claremont Middle School for nearly two hours on Tuesday morning.

Just before 8:30 a.m., BART police received an anonymous tip from someone who noticed a group of three students walking toward the school as one of them placed what appeared to be an assault weapon into a green backpack, according to a letter to parents from Oakland Unified School District spokesman Troy Flint…

Eventually the investigation led officers to an area near a portable where an unloaded paintball gun was buried. The imitation gun was a model used for paintball and it was empty, but it could have been mistaken for a real gun, Flint said. – San Jose Mercury News

AC Paintball is home to a lot of student players as well as birthday/bachelor party-goers. We want to alert all of our valued community members to play it safe and avoid a situation like this. If you decide to purchase your own gear either leave it at home or come hang out with us. All areas in between should be considered non-paintball-gear zones.