Yellowknife (May 31/06) - Two city councillors are calling for limits on where paintballers can practice their sport after two horseback-riding teens were ambushed on the outskirts of Yellowknife last week.

"I was a little perturbed. It was gross," councillor Wendy Bisaro said of the attack.

"If this is what we're getting into, we need to identify an area for this particular activity."

The call for restrictions comes after two masked paintballers dressed in camouflage shot at 16-year-old rider Sienna Hart and her friend. Their horses bolted from the sandpits, across Highway 3 and almost ran over a toddler. Hart, who desperately grabbed onto her horse's mane after losing hold of the reins, was left with a painful case of whiplash.

There are no municipal bylaws that limit where paintballers can play, according to city officials.

And while Bisaro and fellow councillor Blake Lyons said new laws weren't yet necessary, there should be areas designated for the war games.

"(Paintball) can be dangerous. It's almost like using a BB gun. Let's look at a place for them," Lyons said.

Meanwhile, one member of the paintball community said the masked assailants have given the entire sport a bad name.

"I hate it," Jennifer Horton said. "It doesn't reflect what is really happening."

There are about 35 dedicated paintballers in Yellowknife, she said.

They travel to tournaments across the NWT and Northern Alberta, making sure they follow the sport's strict safety guidelines.

Some of those include:

- putting up netting around combat zones

- placing socks over their barrels when outside the playing field

- limiting their gun's rate of fire

Horton suspects the gunmen were teens who are not part of her loose organization. "I would like to know who they are," she said.

Councillor Doug Witty said it wouldn't be fair to penalize the entire paintball community for the actions of a few. "We have to be wary of a knee-jerk reaction," he said.

But horse owner Tom Pisz, who confronted several paintballers after Hart and her horse came barrelling back to his stables, told Yellowknifer he wants to see a bylaw banning the sport from popular recreation areas.

"I don't mind, it's a hobby," Pisz said. "(But) you cannot put other people's lives in danger."

As of Tuesday, RCMP Const. Roxanne Dreilich said suspects have been identified, but no arrests have yet been made.