06/06/2017
You asked if any state criminalizes the misuse of paintball guns.
No state expressly outlaws the misuse of paintball guns, which use air or pressurized carbon dioxide to fire small balls of brightly colored gelatin. In fact, only three states, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina, have laws addressing paintball guns.
Although no states expressly prohibit the misuse of paintball guns, these guns fit most states' definition of a “weapon” and as such laws regulating the sale, possession, use, or transportation of weapons apply to paintball guns. In two recent cases where minors improperly used paintball guns to cause damage to persons and property, respectively, courts held that paintball guns are weapons. A New York Supreme Court judge ruled that a paintball gun that used a carbon dioxide cartridge was an “air-gun” within the meaning of the state's Penal Law, and held a teen and his parents liable for injuries to another child caused by the gun's misuse (Danielle A. v. Christopher P., 776 N.Y. S. 2d 226 (2/13/04)). In State of New Jersey, in the Interest of G.C., 846 A. 2d 1222 (2004), the court found that a paintball gun used to damage an unoccupied parked car was a weapon under that state's law making it illegal for minors to possess weapons.
A person who injures or damages another person or his property with a paintball gun in Connecticut could be charged with a number of crimes depending on the facts, including assault with a firearm (e.g., CGS § 53a-60a), manslaughter with a firearm (CGS § 53a-55a or 56a), or criminal use of a firearm (CGS § 53a-216). A “firearm” is any weapon that fires a shot (CGS § 53a-3 (19)).
Virginia (Va. Code Ann. § 15.2-915.4) leaves it to its counties, cities, and towns to regulate “pneumatic” guns, which include paintball guns. A “pneumatic” gun uses pneumatic pressure to expel an object (e.g., BBs, pellets, or paintballs). Pennsylvania (18 PCSA § 2702.2) prohibits anyone from carrying a paintball gun in a vehicle on a highway unless it is (1) disassembled so that the propellant canister is separated from the rest of it or (2) empty of paintballs and air or gas. Users of paintball guns that emit a laser beam are expressly excluded from a North Carolina law (NCGSA § 14-34.8) that makes it an infraction for anyone to intentionally point a laser device that is emitting a laser beam at a law enforcement officer or at the head or face of another person.
