To my friends, family and colleagues:

I was doing reasearch today on the internet in preparation for a lesson about the 5 year anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings.  I was very disturbed to find the following hit on my browser when I typed in “Columbine High School”

www.columbinepaintball.com

This is apparantly a Canadian small business that relocated to Wyoming because most of their patrons were from the US.  I trust that you will visit the website and then send your comments to them.  Their email address is:

funpaint@columbinepaintball.com

This business is a disgrace to our system of democracy.

I really hate mass emails that have the warm fuzzy line at the bottom that reads, “Pass this along if you care.”  but I think we have a responsibility as parents and citizens to voice our opinion about heinous business practices that trivialize people’s loss, suffering and pain for the sake of the almighty buck.

Enclosed is a copy of the e-mail I sent to them this morning.  Many of you who receive this will view it as an emotional guilt trip.  To some extent, it is, but at what point does our Constituional right of freedom become a violation of someone else’s rights to peace and security?  Condoning the things that Columbine Paintball does flies in the face of everything President bush and former President Clinton have done to combat violence and terrorism.

I believe that Columbine Paintball has crossed the line into a violation of an unwritten moral code that we take by agreeing to be Americans.  Being an American is just as much a choice as being a Christian or a Muslim, or a Republican or a Democrat.  Clearly, the founders of Columbine Paintball missed the memo about being loyal to your country and upholding its values and its code of ethics.

Below is my email to Columbine Paintball:

To whom it may concern:

I am a youth pastor in Michigan who was on the internet doing some research about the 5th anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings.

I was absolutely disgusted to find the website about your business.  What kind of sick and twisted person finds it acceptable to not only capitalize on murder, but finds it acceptable to promote the glorification of violence and the heroism of two criminal mass-murderers who weren’t even heroic enough to stick around to justify their actions?

Be assured that I will be forwarding this e-mail as well as your web address to my address book of well respected, upstanding, moral colleagues and I trust that they will forward it to their colleagues as well.  I promise you that this email as well as your web address is being sent to people who will have no reservations about dragging you name and reputation through the muck and mud that will hopefully put you out of business on the grounds of moral vagrancy.

Sirs, you apparantly have no idea or regard for the pain and anguish suffered by thousands of people because of events like the Columbine shootings.  It is people like you that make it almost impossible for people like me to explain why this world is going to hell.

You are a disgrace to columbine High School, our country, and to the human race.

May God have mercy on your filthy souls.

With utter sincerity,

Kenneth E. Proctor, III
Lansing, MI

We hope you realize that you are in a democratic republic, not a democray.

You celebrate the anniversary of a massacre? Isn’t that disturbing already? You should be ashamed to celebrate the death of innocent teens and teachers. As a pastor, should know better.

Well, how the fuck are we supposed to get the memo about  an UNWRITTEN moral code? As you say, we probably missed it because we are in fact NOT American. Although we enjoy their business!

-TeamPaint