[Article] Coming in with a bang: Toronto’s secretive airsoft community gives a glimpse into increasingly popular sport

[Jimski]

some comments under the article are pretty dumb.

[Danke]

Any site that allows anonymous commentary garners that low IQ audience.

The only real fix is to tie it to a visible name like by Facebook. When that happens the bullshit trolling becomes negligible since people can't hide. It does not remove the idiots but it does force them show their face with their statement.

[Jimski]

yep.Anyway idiots should not discourage us.However I don't count on the press to make things any better for us.

[DrDoUm]

IMO the article and pictures would be pretty appealing to anyone who might have an interest in the sport. No matter the comments below the article...

Great initiative from those who accepted to be interviewed.

[tygr701]

Good article to shed some light on our sport in Canada finally.

[tygr701]

Originally Posted by Viperfish

Hey look my Tornado made the news!

Was fun having him there. Nothing like sliding down a hallway and almost shooting him just to hear the guy behind me pump rounds into him instead.

lol figured that was yours. The only person who wraps pink tape on everything.

[Viperfish]

Originally Posted by tygr701

lol figured that was yours. The only person who wraps pink tape on everything.

Yup and to date iv never lost a tornado!

[Janus]

All six of my Tornados have that same flamingly gay pink on them and I've never lost one either. I even go as far as tagging the spoons and pins with the tape as well and since I've done that, I've never lost a pin.

[Viperfish]

Originally Posted by Janus

All six of my Tornados have that same flamingly gay pink on them and I've never lost one either. I even go as far as tagging the spoons and pins with the tape as well and since I've done that, I've never lost a pin.

I do the same thing. As a matter of fact you can see the tape on the spoon in that picture.

[MaciekA]

The entire "secretive" angle to this article is bullshit. The journalist is trying to weave a web of mystique and exclusivity that simply isn't appropriate. I think that was just editorializing in action.

You couldn't possibly find a more welcoming, open and non-secretive community than this one, especially Brian and Frank who are excellent advocates for the game. Frank is understandably under-the-radar to some extent regarding his actual retail location, but the marketing, the Facebook groups, the contests, the YouTube channels, and everything else that goes on in this space is pretty much the complete opposite of secret/mysterious.

Perhaps the journalist was just excited to have discovered something genuinely interesting ...

[L473ncy]

Originally Posted by FirestormX

The secrecy and "rare interview" thing seemed kind of odd to me. I read through this overly-vocal forum daily, and seen plenty of interviews with Brian over the years, so I can't imagine that everyone is so quiet and secretive if someone were to actually ask questions.

There's a reason why you get a salesman to sell your widgets and not your Engineers.

I once read a story about how some company once got their lead technical engineer to come in and pitch a client their program (because he knew the program the best, line by line at the low level) and needless to say it went horribly because Engineers typically aren't good at that kind of stuff unless they have training in public speaking and such. I guess the same would go for Tech Support, IT, Sysadmins, BOFH's, etc.

EDIT: @ MaciekA

I personally tend to be secretive about playing airsoft. However once I find someone who probably isn't an asshat and genuinely interested they're welcomed with open arms. I'm just too adverse of the risks of putting it out there and having some soccer mom bitch me out (how I'm the devil incarnate, a baby killer, a mass murderer, etc.). Honestly, if someone asks me why I enjoy airsoft in a condescending tone, my answer will probably be "because fuck you, that's why" (also my go to answer; for why I like "loud" pipes, why my code works and yours doesn't, why someones computer is slow, etc.).

[Mordarski J.A.]

Originally Posted by L473ncy

I personally tend to be secretive about playing airsoft. However once I find someone who probably isn't an asshat and genuinely interested they're welcomed with open arms.

In some respects, I am the same way. I don't openly advertise every day that I play airsoft (then again, not having actually been out in over a year could mean I sort of don't LOL) but I do try to be open enough about the sport for information and as vocal as possible when it comes to discussing safety. I had a weapons call to one of our properties wherein it turned out was a couple of young kids playing with two clear-soft springers. There wasn't anything to actually pursue as there was no malice intended, however I did talk to the mother and "strongly urged" her to ensure they were wearing eye protection when playing. Just mentioning that I too played airsoft seemed to help a lot.

[SuperHog]

Well it is in print, National Post. Who reads newspapers these days?

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/10...popular-sport/

http://popularairsoft.com/news/toron...-national-post

"Secretive" = bad choice of words

"Main stream sport" would have been more positive

[parks3]

Good press on the sport is what helps sway public opinion just as it did with paintball many decades ago. And it also helps when pressuring law makers who would negatively affect the sport. Anyone stupid enough to walk around or display in public anything close to resembling a firearm, IMO deserves to spend face time with TRU officers.

Question regarding this quote from the article;

"Most airsoft guns now fall into the category of uncontrolled firearms, allowing regular citizens to bring them across Canada’s borders. "

From reading in other forums I was to believe there is no hope at all of individuals getting airsoft guns in or at the very least they'd be sent off for testing with the RCMP and lost in space for months?

[FirestormX]

Originally Posted by parks3

or at the very least they'd be sent off for testing with the RCMP and lost in space for months?

For years, is more accurate.

If you have the documentation for the weapon, that states the gun's FPS (and if the border agent believes it), then you should have no problem bringing the weapon across the border.