Paintball - Shooting Sport - Recreational Activity?

The Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Tradeshow (SHOT) is the worldwide annual trade show that unites the industry to trade and learn about the latest products, innovations and trends in the shooting sports industry. 

The fact that paintball is now represented at this show is cause for speculation about how the paintball industry itself is represented to the mainstream.  In the past, paintball has distanced itself from the general shooting industry.  Leaders in the paintball field even go so far as to distinguish a paintball gun from an actual firearm by calling it a paintball marker. 

A paintball gun is not going to kill anyone.  Paintball has placed itself within the recreation and/or sports industry, not the shooting industry.

Doug Painter has said:  "First of all, paintball markers are not guns." Second, the game of paintball is actually a very broad range effort. In fact, the paintball people tell me there's probably more paintball target shooting than what we think of as paintball 'war games.' Target shooting is a very large part of the paintball business.”