03-09-2012, 02:52 PM
bwaites Wrote:Back 10-15 years ago I played a lot of paintball, and one injury that we all were scared to death of were eye injuries. However, the eye and the testicle actually are very similar in density and toughness. While we only allowed players to play who played with full face masks, some players chose to go without cups.
Well, they did until a guy posted his story online, including pictures, of his testicular injury. 300 FPS doesn't sound fast when you are used to discussing 2-3000 FPS, but when a paintball hits at close to that velocity, tremendous trauma ensues. Its a testament to how well designed we are that sometimes there isn't even a welt or bruise.
Sims, paintballs, even airsoft pellets can do tremendous damage, especially at the ranges that most hits happen.
They are good training if used properly. At one point, there were enough of us playing competitively that we tried to talk the local sherriffs and PD's into using us as a hostage taker/terrorists aggressors. I wasn't available, but the guys that played said that the poor cops took a serious beating, and wouldn't try it again. The regular paintballers were MUCH more aggressive and focused than the cops, who simply hadn't had that kind of experience previously. Some of them began playing competetive paintball because of the experience, while others bad mouthed the paintball group as cheaters.
LRRPF and I have discussed this previously, but it comes down to being willing to keep going, period. Most cops have to work hard to develop that mentality in the face of fire, and its not natural to those who have not been soldiers previously, especially.
Schwag173 Wrote:Exactly; train as you fight, fight as you train. Years ago, I arranged for my local LE training program to be held at a rural rifle club that let us drive our patrol-cars right out onto the range. It was best for the guys I was training because that's 95% of our shooting incidents - in and around patrol-cars. Anyway, things went great for a couple of years until one guy accidentally put a nice clean .40" hole through his passenger-door mirror (didn't notice it until the next day). The pencil-pushers then put the halt on my training and put us back on the centuries-old static firing-line paper-target routine. Instead of chalking up a rare $100 repair expense as an accident and the price of effective, possibly life-saving training .... they'd rather mandate training that was valuable only on paper. Gotta love office-dwellers ...
This is a sad testament to how most people, even LEOs, don't live in the real world.