Is airsoft safe?+other questions.?

im 16 and i play paintbal and it is way to ******* expensive for me. airsoft looks cool cuz the guns are basically replicas of real guns. also the bbs are inexpensive. So i wanna know if it hurts more or less than paintball and how to convince my mom to let me play cuz she thinks the guns look too vicious lol.what a *****.