Winnipeg Free Press Article

[jaymz1911]

Originally Posted by Zekk05

theres a defeatist attitude.
people will believe what they want to believe, but what they read can influence what they believe. look at this way, right now theyre already thinking "omg, para military freaks training to do evil things", so if you dont do anything, nothing will change.

Yup... And fuel the fires for the bible thumpers in this country who would love to see all guns and military stuff band out of the country, so as to keep there freakish way of lives free of violance! ???

[ScottMcLeod]

On a related note:

New Zealand sounds very much like Canada with regard to airsoft laws:

YouTube - airsoft on closeup

NZTV Close-up on : "Airsoft"

Some press as well executed as this could probably help us. It presents the topic in a fair way, and offers professional (police) representation that states the rules and that airsoft poses in no way a threat to society as long as it's players respect the law and play in clearly defined areas.

[Styrak]

Semi-only in New Zealand? Man, that sucks even worse than Canada.

[Death March]

The two teams that were there are Wolfpack & Team C.A.M. it was better than we though,but the turnout was lower than we thought uh,yeh! I'm thinking about that one lol.

[Cushak]

Originally Posted by jaymz1911

Yup... And fuel the fires for the bible thumpers in this country who would love to see all guns and military stuff band out of the country, so as to keep there freakish way of lives free of violance! ???

Uhhh, excuse me?

[Amos]

Originally Posted by Styrak

Semi-only in New Zealand? Man, that sucks even worse than Canada.

I could live with Semi only (That's all I use anyways!)

[Sergeantmajor]

bolt-action M14 rifles.

wtf?

[Moderate]

Originally Posted by jaymz1911

Yup... And fuel the fires for the bible thumpers in this country who would love to see all guns and military stuff band out of the country, so as to keep there freakish way of lives free of violance! ???

What are you on?

[Ducky]

Originally Posted by Endymion

Unfortunately for Ontario, the vast majority of the population is focused around urban centres and thus so is the media. You'd have to get through to the journalist and the editor and even then, the populace would see and hear only what they want to - i.e. "oh my gawd, people running around with realistic looking guns in the area shooting each other - we need to ban!"

Umm Winnipeg free press is in an urban center; 650,000 people is pretty sizable. Most of which have never worked on a farm. What I meant by my original post was that Ontario is generally considered at least the political center of Canada; therefore it would be nice to see stuff like that there where in theory it would do the greatest good.

Don't get me wrong I am not trying to come off arrogant over the changes, and direction we have here. What I am getting at is that this type of positive coverage could be much more influential in your "urban center" than in Winnipeg.

[Endymion]

Originally Posted by Ducky

Umm Winnipeg free press is in an urban center; 650,000 people is pretty sizable. Most of which have never worked on a farm. What I meant by my original post was that Ontario is generally considered at least the political center of Canada; therefore it would be nice to see stuff like that there where in theory it would do the greatest good.

Don't get me wrong I am not trying to come off arrogant over the changes, and direction we have here. What I am getting at is that this type of positive coverage could be much more influential in your "urban center" than in Winnipeg.

Perhaps I should have chosen my words more carefully. I didn't mean to knock Winnipeg or imply anything regarding its size or location. What I meant to illustrate was the disparity within Ontario given its population distribution.

Among other issues and political leanings, there's a markedly different outlook regarding firearms between city centres and those as nearby as 50km out. Several of our own forum members here are legal firearms owners within the province - for those out of the cities, ask them how their neighbours feel about firearms possession vs. "the rest of Ontario."

While I agree that such positive coverage could indeed be influential and beneficial, one would first have to break through the anti-gun mindset predominant in those for whom firearms have never been a part of their lives save for the negative associations with crime brought about by the media and political maneuvering. Until then, it's more likely that even such a positive story would somehow be used against the sport to further the agendas of those moving to ban firearms and their replicas outright.

[Blackthorne]

A writer who actually came out and played before writing the piece.

The only bit of journalism I have seen in years.

Impressive. X2 on the scotch. A bloody good year as well.

[Gunman]

Originally Posted by ScottMcLeod

That's impressive though. Did she say what sparked her into the idea of writing the article?

The reporter had a co-work come into our facility for a bachelor party. And since he had such a great time he started to spread the word at his work (The Winnipeg Free Press). Shortly after that the reported did some research on our facility and she contacted our office to set up an appointment.

I then contacted our local Manitoba Airsoft Association to see if they were interested in participation along with other airsoft friends and fellow customers. That way the press would have comments from different “levels” of airsofters.

Prior to the meeting I had a prep talk to those being interviewed about our purpose of this interview and how we need to use it to bring up the positive “healthy living & active lifestyle” of this sport.

The interview started off at our indoor facility (Located inside of the city). Then later migrated to our outdoor facility. The more we talked about outdoor airsoft/Milsim, the more worked up the reporter got about it.

We later decided to have a friendly scrim with some local players. We provided the reporter with some rental equipment so she can join the game. All in all everyone had a good time. Unfortunately I cannot provide any further details about the second portion of the interview at our outdoor location as I was not present at the time. But by reading the final result everything turned out well.

I apologize for not giving an earlier response to this topic as I rarely frequent these boards.


I hope that answers some of your questions.


Gordon Lai
www.xtreme-tactics.com
www.xtreme-tactics.com/store
www.xtreme-tactics.com/forums

[mopic]

Well written, It was done in a way that avoids the controversy. I think the next big game we should do a media invite. Anyone in corporate communications will tell you that you have to control the message. I can guarantee that as soon as there is a negative incident the media will seek us out. By having some positive press it will soften the blow when there will be a less than positive incident.