Legality of a Paintball Marker (Gun)

[FourPoints]

So the other night I was out sailing with a buddy when a large powerboat came closer than I would like and threw a rather large wake for us to deal with. We were joking about things to throw at them when they get even closer to deter them from doing it again. Ideas such as eggs, oranges, waterbaloons with launcher, lead fishing weights, etc... came up, but then the idea of carrying a paintball gun onboard came up.

They are nonleathal, yet accurate and powerfull enough to give you a good chance you'd hit the guys hull from a couple hundred feet away. Any hits would leave the owner of the powerboat with a few minutes of extra work required to get the hull to polish again for every hit you score.

You could hit a windscreen and still not cause any damage to the powerboat.

The question is what is the legality of fireing a non-lethal paintball marker gun at a powerboat that refuses to steer clear of you? With a maximum range of little beyond 200 feet, and a maxumum effective range of around 150 feet anyone close enough to shoot at has already violated your 200 feet of clearance at minimum they are supposed to give you.

The thought of leaving half a dozen bright orange splatter marks for the owner to clean off the side of his big shiny fishing boat the next time he passes in front of my bow only 100 feet away, doing 20kts and throwing a 6 foot wake is really appealing to me.... I just don't want to try it if it could land me in jail or get me a ticket...

 

[Don12364]

You are speaking of gun crazy America. Anyone seen firing a gun, any type of gun, is likely to be repulsed by the victim firing a real gun in retaliation.
Even here in the UK, anyone pointing a toy pistol anywhere near a policeman is likely to end up dead.

 

[rpwillia]

Speaking of dumb

3 sailboats coming down the Potomac just outside the channel markers in 12
of water and a big old powerboat cuts between all three of us with less than 50' to spare. At one point we were thinking he was on a collision course and then at the last moment he veered.

 

[MJWarner]

I have given this subject some tongue-in-cheek thought here: http://www.sailblogs.com/member/svjourney/?xjMsgID=116066

 

[FourPoints]

3 sailboats coming down the Potomac just outside the channel markers in 12
of water and a big old powerboat cuts between all three of us with less than 50' to spare. At one point we were thinking he was on a collision course and then at the last moment he veered.

It's situations like this that I am thinking about... if one or more of those sailboats opened fire with paintball guns, and left the powerboater a ugly mess of gelatin and water soluble, biodegradable "paint" to clean off his boat, he would probably think twice before passing 50 feet away from another boat again...

 

[Billbeard]

While I applaud your thinking and sometimes would like something to retaliate with- and it is a lot of fun to toy with what ifs posibly pointing gun any gun at any one at any time might leave you dead. I have a concealed carry permit and carry most of the time and I guess what I’m saying is the world being what it is today your actions and others reactions can have dire consequences. Have fun be safe

 

[Freedom77]

It doesn't take any brains to drive a powerboat or a jet ski. You'll have to deal with the idiots. I've had a whiskey bottle broken on my deck. Caught the bastard and he was arrested for DUI. If you can get bow numbers report them to the coast guard or Harbor Master. You'd be amazed at what these folks can do to give the motorheads religion. Fair Winds...

 

[Ross]

I always have time to turn my boat so that I don't take a wake on my beam. I learn when i was young and fishing from a row boat to was the power boats and pick up the oars and take the waves on the pointy end of the boat and go back to my fishing

 

[FourPoints]

If you can get bow numbers report them to the coast guard or Harbor Master.

That works great on lakes (had a guy arrested for DUI who drove into our anchored ski boat with his aluminum john boat around dusk one year at the family lake house in Indiana, he nearly knocked my 2yr old niece out of the boat (she was wearing a life jacket), and then tried to run away... I was easily able to keep on his stern until the local police caught up to us following my directions via cell phone)

Unfortunately out on Long Island Sound (and to a lessor degree most coastal areas) that does not always work as the coast guard will not respond unless the boat is damaged or people are injured (I've tried). They refer you to the local police department.

The problem is that there is no single local police department here (there are different ones every 5-10 miles), so by the time you get the local authorities on the phone or radio to report them, they are already out of that department's jurisdiction. Adding to that is the state line running down the middle of the sound. Since many boaters here are frequently crossing between the New York and the Connecticut side of the sound, you can nearly get swamped in New York, and 5 minutes later the offending boat is now in Connecticut's waters... The local authorities cannot take action as the offender is now in another state, so they can't even go and give him a Breathalyzer. And since you have no way of knowing where the guy is heading to, you have no way to know what town police to even try and alert that they have a guy coming in to port possibly drunk at the wheel.

A real world example of this, Back in June I was coming back from Huntington harbor, NY, and about a mile outside of the harbor when a ~50 foot powerboat overtakes me and passes me doing about 25 kts, and less than 75 feet to starboard throwing a 10 foot wake. One of the guys on the flying bridge were standing there with a bottle of Jack Daniels, they were close enough I could make out the bottle and hear them laughing while they pointed "at the little boat"... Ahead about a quarter of a mile was a daysailor, didn't make a note of the make, but I'd estimate it was between 20 and 25 feet in length. The powerboat turned and headed right for them, did the same thing passing them as when passing me, but the daysailor got knocked side to side with over 45 degrees each way of tilt and nearly got swamped. They were lucky no one got injured or knocked overboard, or worse.

I immeaditly called the coast guard on 16 to report this, they told me to contact the local police, and I asked them which one, they offered 4 different police departments I could try on monday as all the local marine police departments were off duty for the evening!

 

[BobM]

The paintball paint is too easy to clean off to make it worthwhile. Use a camera instead and provide the photo to the local authorities and the CG. The best local authorities to provide it to is probably the local masters.

 

[chewy352]

Shooting a paintball marker at someone who is not playing paintball with you can be considered assault in most circumstances. While paintball markers are not normally considered lethal, they can be with a solid hit to the temple or eye. Also if you start shooting/throwing stuff at someone they very well might start shooting back with something bigger. I know, after I look into the laws, I will most likely be carrying a 12 gauge shotgun loaded with slugs on my boat.

Very bad Idea IMO

 

[Steve Dion]

CG is not going to do anything. He said, you said. Unless there is an accident they are not going to bother. This was just discussed in the last couple of weeks.

The problem with a sailboat doing something like this to a powerboat is you always take the chance of a crazy ramming you or maybe worse that they have a "Real" gun.

 

[Stu Jackson]

The ridiculous behavior of some boaters is truly unfortunate. It would be unwise to retaliate. Two wrongs don't make a right. Guns or not.

Many years ago, after having boated for some quarter of my current experience in years, we were motoring out of our estuary, a 40+ minute trip. We always have motorboats going by us, in both directions, because for the last half of the estuary it's an area that doesn't require speed limits. There was a large ferry going by, followed closely by a big motor yacht. My friend was on the helm. Since the wakes were from boats passing us, they were the worst of the wakes, 'cuz they hit you on the quarter and rock the heck out of you in 3 planes: fore and aft, side by side and at 45 degrees to each! I usually would turn 90 degrees into those wakes and try to take them on the nose, which isn't a whole lotta fun either.

All my friend did was to turn about 30 degrees to PARALLEL the wakes. All our boat did was to ride the wakes with a small amount of side by side motion, and it was a huge improvement over my earlier response.

I've been using it ever since. know we can't teach every (new or old) sailor these tricks, but you can certainly share them with everyone you know.

We have major shipping, ferries, and a**holes barreling through a long and narrow waterway where were sail every time we go out.

We, admittedly, don't have the yahoos in the estuary although there are sometime the jet skis.

Don't lower yourself to their level, it's not like sailors to do so. Heck, we always anchor better than they do, don't we? Not worth getting stupid about it.

The best way to deal with it is to show the a88holes that it doesn't bother you. Like a bully in a schoolyard, eventually, they'll stop.

I wrote recently on this topic about following two different a88holes back to their slips. In neither case did it make me feel any better.

A camera's better than a paintball. Last a lot longer, too!

 

[txtowman]

I agree with STU!!!

 

[txtowman]

And come to think of it I might put a shot across your bow!

 

[txtowman]

I am thinking about building a small cannon!

 

[Joe]

You are way off base my brother.... throwing or shooting something at someone who may or may not have irritated you intentionally is beyond stupid.... Rather than buy a paintball gun and risk further consquences.... why don't you spend the money on a bull horn and simply tell the guy how you feel.

As I said, the other boater's action could have been the result of stupidity, ignorance or some other compelling reason, you just don't know (unless they're laughing and pointing at you)... but your reaction is conscious and malicious... and serves absolutely no purpose.... in fact... he could report you to the authorities much more successfully because your paint ball would leave evidence of the act.

Find another way to voice your complaint.

 

[Billbeard]

The bull horn is a good idea add to that a general broadcast on CH16 giving the boat name direction of travel, description and offence for the rest of the hapless boaters that he may encounter.
And who knows some one might have time to prepare a Surprise for the SOB’s

 

[alexco38]

In WWII the british used to float steel wires into the air to foul propeller of invading air plane. Wonder if trailing a steel wire like a fishermen is legal or not. Fruit for thought ;-)

 

[FourPoints]

In WWII the british used to float steel wires into the air to foul propeller of invading air plane. Wonder if trailing a steel wire like a fishermen is legal or not. Fruit for thought ;-)

I watched a few episodes of the show Whale Watch, they use hauser lines stretched in front of the whaling ships to foul their props, and as a defence against the protesters, the whalers trail a thousand feet of line off their stern to keep the protesters from raming their ships...

the guys on the show are pretty nuts (in a padded room / straight jacket kind of way), but watching them ram a whaling vessel with a ~125 foot vessel is kinda interresting to watch.


as for the horn, I do use one, the common reaction from the power boats is a one finger salute back at me.