Earlier this year I noticed that Glenn Pennsinger, of Hole in the Wall Paintball in Michigan, and Guns of Paradise, had a few items listed on ebay. In the past I’ve purchased paintguns and parts from Glenn and was excited to talk to him about what he was planning on selling. Glenn explained he was trying to clean out some of his shop and I eventually purchased several paintguns, loaders and patches off him.
Two of these paintguns were Sheridan PMI pumps modified for the Lords of Discipline. Glenn’s shop was located in close proximity to the Lords and Glenn’s team, the Guns of Paradise played the Lords regularly.
Glenn gave me a brief run down on the Lord’s history up until they merged with Scream to form Aftershock in 1991 (?). For history beyond that point read Aftershock’s team history page (link at bottom of article).
Ryan Northrup, Rob Northrup and Tim Brown formed the Lords of Discipline in the mid 80s, (Glenn thinks either 1985 or 86?). He describes Ryan, Rob and Tim as “aggressive loggers who took extreme sports very seriously.” They were based out of the Ann Arbor, Michigan area.
The Lords started out with side cocking Splatmasters and eventually moved to PG pistols after they picked up a sponsorship from PMI (they weren’t too far from PMI in Chicago, IL).
After receiving their bolt action PG pistols, Glenn remembers the Lords placed BBs behind the hammer spring to increase velocity. This came at a price, since the Michigan cold weather combined with the extreme velocity equated to a horrible efficiency.
Shortly after this time the Lords merged with the Kings Knights, out of the Benton Harbor, whose captains / main players were Joe “Spud” Jackson, Steve “Cope” Copeland (captain) and Tom Klein.
Klein and Spud took over as captains on the Lords.
In 1989 the Lords of Discipline took first in both the Line SI Master 5 man and 15 man events.
Around 1990 (1990 Line SI Masters?), Ryan, Rob and Tim were involved in a fight with the Crow Warriors and the Lords received a lifetime ban from the Lively series. For the 1991 season, the Lords merged with Scream and played as Aftershock with Renick Miller, Michael Karmin, Gary Noblett and others. Love and Vu were not likely with Aftershock at this time and were likely still in the Bay Area of California until a little later, maybe 1993?
Glenn remembers that the Guns of Paradise beat Aftershock the following year (1991-2?) at the Music City open and Lively thought there was going to be another brawl. Luckily “there wasn’t,” says Glenn.
Glenn writes, “My team, Guns of Paradise practiced with those guys often about 1990” and that “Spud and Cope” remained on Aftershock with Renick the longest from the early Lords days.
Glenn received this Lords of Discipline Piranha Long Barrel along with several other markers from Steve “Cope” Copeland. Glenn recalls that Cope called him “and said he had a lot of old markers he wanted to get rid of.” These included this “Piranha LB that was done by AGD for Cope and team, [and were] laser etched “Lords of Dicipline” and “Air Gun Design” as team sponsors with PMI.”
For more on the Lords, Scream and Aftershock check out Aftershock’s website at:
http://www.teamaftershock.com/history.htm
And this brief article I posted in March:
https://paintballhistory.com/lords-of-discipline-piranha-long-barrel
Edit – 2015-10-9- corrected spelling on Tom Klein’s name. Corrected 1989 Line SI Masters to 5 and 15 man events.
Great article, I like to see all that wear on that gun. Cope taught me many thing about Paintball and is a great person.
[…] Find more history on this Lords of Discipline PMI Piranha Long Barrel here. […]
Love the Michigan History !!! Thanks Dan for all you do!!
-Detroit Paintball LLC