'Parents should know better'

Erik Pakieser, the association's safety officer, said that with paintball parks and other private places to play Airsoft, "there's no excuse to go and play in your back yard or in a park."

"I really have to take parents to task on this," he said. "Parents should know better. ... I don't know what they're thinking, giving kids the guns as gifts and saying, 'Here, go play in the street' and thinking nothing will happen."