for the last year or so I have been meaning to create this petition, but due to something that happened at this mays expo I have finally decided to do it. for those of you that don't know, yaoi or yuri paddles look like this http://discountyaoi.com/images/104_1667.JPG they are a short paddle with yaoi/yuri/uke/seme/whatever written on both sides and are used to hit people with. If anyone has actually been hit with one of these you will know they are not to be taken lightly and can seriously hurt. In most American conventions these paddles have been banned, for quite obvious health and safety reasons, but at mcm they have not, in fact they have not even been mentioned in the weapons rules even though they should really be classed under hard wood weapon due to the fact in essence, they are a plank of wood. At this mcm they were being sold by "the yaoi guy" almost directly where you enter the dealers hall, many of you, myself included have complaints about the stallholder anyway, including his obnoxious manner of which he shoves his produce upon you. While at a meet on the sunday of the convention I and several others were threatened with said paddles, at one point my friend stepped in and actually stopped one person from hitting me. this is not an 18+ convention, many of the people in my group are 13, 14, 15 and generally UNDER 18, hitting someone without their permission is assault anyway and the selling of these paddles is making that out to be acceptable, which of course it isnt. I will be writing a letter to the convention staff and attaching this petition onto it, in hopes that they will either ban the paddles at cons entirely, ban the sale of them at cons or at the very least put them under hard wood weapons rules and enforce those rulings. if you could please pass this petition on, it would be great. thank-you