Top Gun Trial Legalizes Paintball Guns in NJ - Range Demo

During the 1988 trial to determine that paintball guns were not firearms, Judge Milberg asked for a demo of the paintball guns. We went to the Monmouth County Police Target Range for test firing of the .68 Nelspot pistol and the .50 WGP Sniper rifle. First, the Range Officer shoots a styrofoam head with the Sniper. The impact knocks the head off the stand and imbeds the paintball about an inch deep without bursting. Then both .68 and .50 caliber paintballs are shot at white hardboard leaving nice splats. The officer proceeds to shoot paper targets with human "perps" painted on them. The paintballs punch right thru the paper targets without breaking. Judge Milberg asks what impact the paintballs would have on a human being. Russell Maynard, a paintball expert witness from the International Paintball Players Association and editor of Action Pursuit Magazine, volunteers to be the human test dummy. However, the police officer defers on shooting Russell. Bud Orr, the owner of Worr Game Products and maker of the Sniper, steps up to shoot Russell. Since Russell has yet to testify, we find a plastic garbage can liner and try to cover him up. Russell then stands down range and Bud proceeds to shoot him seven time before getting a paintball to burst on impact. Turns out that plastic makes great stealth material which kept deflecting the paintballs. However, the plastic was so thin that the paintballs punched holes in the plastic. Of course, the .50 paintball that burst left a "blood red" stain on Russell's dress shirt just under his heart. I remember staring at that "stain" while he testified later that afternoon. Judge Milberg later ruled that paintball guns were not firearms and the rest is history. This is the edited short version. A full version of the range demo is also available and runs about 10 minutes.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Legalize
• Paintball
• Guns
• NJ
• Top
• Gun
• Trial
• Ray
• Gong
• Bud
• Orr
• Russell
• Maynard

[ODMSys]

Living history :)

[hokalee]

I wonder if my uncle remembers doing this, I am going to have to show him this and see if he remembers shooting the gun at the guy...

thanks for posting this!