[Dracheous]

Though, KoAz, I must admit that talking to another member here in private that there is one problem for your approach. You're in journalism ((you stated this in another thread)) and that can really detour peoples trust for you.

Also, there is only a limited assistance the petition itself would get you. I think you'd spawned this off an earlier post by me, however I think you missed something. The petition would be helpful, because it would show the size of this sub-culture that is airsoft. Not Soft-air which is a counter-culture aimed at using the guns for unsafe and possible illegal actions. There has to be many changes made to the image of airsoft, however these are not meant to be made so that we present this to the general public. Jumping in their faces armed to the teeth with guns that look real is just going to make someone loose control of their bowels, and not open their ears. Those changes are meant to be made for when people come looking in. The PAL would give the airsoft group validity to their care for the responsibility to these guns, making it a viable idea. People need to let go of the idea that we would need to register these things if we got a PAL subsection; perhaps even open such a sub-section as BB so that even those Cross-man "Nighthawks" that someone mentioned earlier would require a PAL to purchase. A PAL only permits a fire arms owner to "possess" and "Acquire" fire-arms, you can't just go start blasting deer with it; there are channels for that as there are channels for bird hunting. If we did get a sub-class labled "BB" under the PAL, then one would need that, meaning police would no longer have NEARLY as much trouble with minors using these things for unsafe and possibly illegal actions. Instead you'd be getting parents to HAVE to take their part in the safe handling of these guns.

Also, some newer people to airsoft get mixed up on what the real danger to this sport is and thats the appearance of these guns. The airsoft gun is far to real for anyone to decide between the real and fake from any distance or with out cracking open the actions or bodies. The BB itself is only the second most danger. We can fix the danger of the BB using goggles for games, but we can't fix the appearance with out sacrificing the point to this sport.

The petition as I said is good, but ONLY to show the size of this sub-culture as that is what it is. However it can't get us anywhere in making this sub-culture NOT appear as a counter-culture as the general public will see a machine gun as a BAD thing. The PAL is a good idea, and next the idea is to figure out where to go with that. However, it seems to draw more lines in our group than anything else at this point. Who does what?

ASC is a great forum, but thats what it is a forum. The mods here are great at keeping the forum under control, but they do not represent everyone and all their veiws neither. That is why we have other forums, there are regional, and provincial forums set up as well. And since everyone wants to jump into the clash here and get their fist up for the "saving" of airsoft its not going to get us anywhere. No one person here could stand up and say "I'll save it!" ((Sit down Greylocks :P)) Because someone else will stand up and say "No, that won't work." Just like it has been here. One person stands up and tries to make a new petition, gets negative response and joksters signing the petition; and that just gets us nothing. Where as we have others saying "Well this group has it under control and are working for it!" Well I understand that and am cool with that. But, who are these people and what route are they taking? How come I can't get more info into this? How can I help them? And please don't give me the damned "Just stay quite and try not to waive your gun around." Because we know this. The secrecy of it being handled "sort of" away from the group itself, leaves the rest of the group fearful and wanting to do something different because there is no glue between it any longer this way.

Perhaps we could look possibility into a committee? With representation from all areas. Regional, to Provincial to Canada wide to bring all this up? I do know that there are many groups out there that are like this, indeed called "Lobby groups." Now we don't need protests and gong shows that get nothing but bad publicity, but rather a group of people that are put together by the group as a whole. This way the entire group can have a say, and get more information quicker from whats going on.

Now I've been told that Hojo is in on doing things like this, but I do not know what the situation is because he is to busy to let us know how its going, what routes are being taking or what he's being told. And I'm not saying we need to forget what he's doing, but the thing is really, do any of you know whats happening with this "fight" for airsoft?

Perhaps, thats why we have so much trouble agreeing on what to be doing here. Perhaps thats why no one seems to be able to get their voices out ((as it seems)). And Perhaps thats why so many of these petition threads appear.