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So my nephew was at the park playing (not sure what but it wasn't paintball) and a 20ish year old in a car drove buy and shot at him with a paintball gun, he got hit in the face not sure if he got caught or not, I didn't get that many details, just venting.

Sorry about your nephew. I hope he's okay.

Those things do hurt, especially when hit on skin. I remember a few years back there was a rash of punks driving around and shooting those things at random pedestrians and bicyclists and recording the attack and posting them on youtube. I don't remember if any of them were ever caught and punished. I also don't know exactly what type of crime this would be. It's got to be some type of assault I would think.

My non-legal opinion (IANAL):

Paintball hits unprotected eye can cause permanent blindness (serious bodily injury)

Paintball hits unprotected temple could conceivably cause death

I can see an argument that this kind of intentional action is an aggravated assault, and it could certainly be argued (as above) that this action is an unlawful use of deadly force.

Definitely assault to some degree.

austinrealtor wrote:My non-legal opinion (IANAL):

Paintball hits unprotected eye can cause permanent blindness (serious bodily injury)

Paintball hits unprotected temple could conceivably cause death

I can see an argument that this kind of intentional action is an aggravated assault, and it could certainly be argued (as above) that this action is an unlawful use of deadly force.

I don't remember details, but there was a verbal confrontation between a pair of guys and one was shouting so energetically that some spittle landed from one to the other. I believe the spitter was a Tea Party member and the Spittee was a member of a minority. This ended up in the news because the spittee tried to have assault charges brought up on the spitter. I'm pretty sure the race card was pulled. Details are not important..........

My point is this: If a serious argument can be made that unintentially landing a luggee on someone is assault, then intentionally shooting someone with a paintball gun certainly is assault. Trying to call it attempted murder is a bit of a silly stretch but it's well documented that paint ball guns can injure. Using anything that can leave the bruises like a paintball gun without consent of both parties is assault.

Of course, I'm not a lawyer but my ex-wife married one.

Hit with a paintball, or with the gun? Both can cause some serious harm, but a paintball can knock out teeth or put out an eye. That definitely meets the definition of assault, "bodily injury", and IMO aggravated assault, "serious bodily injury".

That appears to be justification of the use of deadly force to prevent further assault. Kid needs to know that he could legally be shot dead for trying that garbage again.

jordanmills wrote:Hit with a paintball, or with the gun? Both can cause some serious harm, but a paintball can knock out teeth or put out an eye. That definitely meets the definition of assault, "bodily injury", and IMO aggravated assault, "serious bodily injury".

That appears to be justification of the use of deadly force to prevent further assault. Kid needs to know that he could legally be shot dead for trying that garbage again.

I wouldnt want to be on the defending end of a trial that involves killing some one for shooting you with a paint ball

Played paintball a bit when I was younger...
Liked to wear a "Jason" style hockey mask... Like this one..



Got hit in the face once... right in the mouth.
There was enough energy in the exploded paint to give me a fat lip, through the small holes in the mask.

Not to mention the awful taste

Assault, minimum... IMHO.

zero4o3 wrote:

jordanmills wrote:Hit with a paintball, or with the gun? Both can cause some serious harm, but a paintball can knock out teeth or put out an eye. That definitely meets the definition of assault, "bodily injury", and IMO aggravated assault, "serious bodily injury".

That appears to be justification of the use of deadly force to prevent further assault. Kid needs to know that he could legally be shot dead for trying that garbage again.

I wouldnt want to be on the defending end of a trial that involves killing some one for shooting you with a paint ball

I wouldn't either. But if it came down to a choice of losing an eye or defending myself, I'll keep my eye.

zero4o3 wrote:

jordanmills wrote:Hit with a paintball, or with the gun? Both can cause some serious harm, but a paintball can knock out teeth or put out an eye. That definitely meets the definition of assault, "bodily injury", and IMO aggravated assault, "serious bodily injury".

That appears to be justification of the use of deadly force to prevent further assault. Kid needs to know that he could legally be shot dead for trying that garbage again.

I wouldnt want to be on the defending end of a trial that involves killing some one for shooting you with a paint ball

I'm not a paintball player, so I'm not sure how real some of the paintball guns may look, but it seems like if trained LEO's can mistake a garden hose nozzle for a gun, someone just might mistake a paintball gun for a real gun, before getting hit by a paintball tells them something different. Seems like pointing something that looks like a gun from inside a car could result in a deadly mistake.

VMI77 wrote:

zero4o3 wrote:

jordanmills wrote:Hit with a paintball, or with the gun? Both can cause some serious harm, but a paintball can knock out teeth or put out an eye. That definitely meets the definition of assault, "bodily injury", and IMO aggravated assault, "serious bodily injury".

That appears to be justification of the use of deadly force to prevent further assault. Kid needs to know that he could legally be shot dead for trying that garbage again.

I wouldnt want to be on the defending end of a trial that involves killing some one for shooting you with a paint ball

I'm not a paintball player, so I'm not sure how real some of the paintball guns may look, but it seems like if trained LEO's can mistake a garden hose nozzle for a gun, someone just might mistake a paintball gun for a real gun, before getting hit by a paintball tells them something different. Seems like pointing something that looks like a gun from inside a car could result in a deadly mistake.

That is a very fair way to look at it. if a car pulled up up and some one rolled down the window and pointed the barrol of "something" at you, I could totaly understand fear for your life / use of force

but that being said, if you know its a paintball gun, I think you would be hard pressed to get away with gunning some one down if you KNOW what they have is a paintball gun

I wouldn't either. But if it came down to a choice of losing an eye or defending myself, I'll keep my eye.

not to say I wouldnt be very angry with some peopleshooting a paintball gun at me. and I agree a paintbaill could do very real damage to your eye, what would most likely be pointed out to you in court, is that you had the option to turn around

"you had the option to turn around"

They also had the option of not shooting at you in the first place...

VMI77 wrote:

zero4o3 wrote:

jordanmills wrote:Hit with a paintball, or with the gun? Both can cause some serious harm, but a paintball can knock out teeth or put out an eye. That definitely meets the definition of assault, "bodily injury", and IMO aggravated assault, "serious bodily injury".

That appears to be justification of the use of deadly force to prevent further assault. Kid needs to know that he could legally be shot dead for trying that garbage again.

I wouldnt want to be on the defending end of a trial that involves killing some one for shooting you with a paint ball

I'm not a paintball player, so I'm not sure how real some of the paintball guns may look, but it seems like if trained LEO's can mistake a garden hose nozzle for a gun, someone just might mistake a paintball gun for a real gun, before getting hit by a paintball tells them something different. Seems like pointing something that looks like a gun from inside a car could result in a deadly mistake.

I have a few, and I've played for years. Some of them look a LOT like firearms. Once I was driving to work with my old VM Magnum in the back seat, and a few minutes after I arrived, the cops came and asked for the owner of my car. I came out and was told that they got a report of a man with a gun driving down the interstate. We all had a good laugh, I let the cop squeeze off a few rounds into the dumpster, and we agreed that I'd just leave it in the trunk so the problem would go away quietly.

My paintball sidearms look even more like real firearms.

I'd say in Texas it would be very dangerous to point a paint ball gun at anyone on the street.

VMI77 wrote:I'm not a paintball player, so I'm not sure how real some of the paintball guns may look,

...and knowing is half the battle. Anyone pointing that thing at me in public gets the much messier half of the battle directed at them.