Marcello Margott posted a video with Nazi insignia on a paintball weapon -the striker

By Hannah Feuer
May 14, 2025

Paintball players usually take online forums to discuss the game tactics and compare the equipment. But this week the niche sub -dit R/paintball was overtaken through the discourse on another topic: moral outrage over Nazi hate symbols.

The controversy began when Marcello Margott, Paintball World Champion and Author of Paintball IQPublished an Instagram story last week and showed the huge collection of paintball devices by Dan Bilzerian Dan Bilzerian. Smart viewers noticed a paintball weapon decorated with Nazi insignia -including the Nazi eagle, the SS -Bolzen and the Celtic Cross.

The reaction was quick. On Tuesday, the National Paintball League, known as NXL, created a new rule that prohibited “offensive, inappropriate or discriminatory content during an NXL sanctioned event. And Margott, who played for the professional paintball team Edmonton Impact, started from his team's roster.

In an explanation on Instagram, Margott wrote that he only noticed the paintball weapon in his video until it was pointed out the next day. “I don't tolerate a symbol of hate, the time,” he wrote, adding that he believed that he has “to have friends with different worldviews”.

But Margott did not undertake to train Bilzerian, a poker player who plays the Social Media Influencer for the Las Vegas Paintball Team Protocol. It is not the first time that Bilzerian has been under fire due to anti -Semitism. The 44-year-old said that “most of the problems are caused by Jewish dominance today,” claimed John F. Kennedy and Libyan Dictator Muammar Gaddafi killed and said that Jews staged the attacks of September 11th among other anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

But the paintball weapon with SS topics seems to have triggered new effects and satire through paintball players on social media. Many condemned the hate symbols and made fun of the idea of ​​fighting a real Nazi on the paintball field.

The Custom Gear Company Ugly Paintball published a Meme title name “Updated plans in the start box”, in which a paintball player was asked: “Do you know what we are doing?” The answer: “Yes, shoot Nazis.”

“F – Paintball Nazis, all my homies hate paintball Nazis,” wrote Evan Horton next to a photo of him who wears paintball protection glasses, and a Yarmulke with a Davidstern.

Horton is not Jewish, but it is his wife and children. He told that Forward He posted the photo to show other paintball players that “there are actually Jewish people who play the game.”

Other non -Jews also speak out. John Moran, who sells custom -made paintball jerseys in Birmingham, Alabama, commented on Margott's statement as to whether he is “really okay when he is besides people who are open to hatred”. Moran said he loves the adrenaline boost that he plays from paintball – and does not want the sport to be ruined by a few bad apples.

“Many of us put our foot off as if this is completely inappropriate. It doesn't have to happen,” said Moran. “We don't want it in our community.”

Horton added that paintball was already fighting with the call to attract right-wing extremists-and do not help. Some players call it to describe the devices as “markers” instead of “paintball weapons” in order to emphasize the non -violent spirit of the game.

Horton also noticed that the paintball community had dealt with another controversy of the Nazis last December when the paintball equipment HK Army sold forehead bands with symbols that resembled SS bolts and the Nazi eagle. After the HK army had thrown the product back on Reddit, he wrote in a explanation that the company did not identify the offensive symbol during the design and production phase, and took steps to “ensure that nothing happens again”.

While Horton said that the incidents with Nazi symbols were worrying, he was also encouraged by the answer on social media.

“The support was surprising,” he said. “On my bingo card 2025, there were definitely no rally on paintball community for the Jews.”