Should a guy get upset when he sees Muslim women targets? MrColionNoir investigates:
My answer to the guy (which is basically the same as MrColionNoir’s)… spend your time doing something more important that trying to find things to be offended by.
This reminds me I’m almost out of the Trayvon Martin shooting targets I ordered a while back. Just kidding… get a shop vac for and take care of that sand in your tactical panties before it leaves a rash.
As a last note, I’d classify the bleeding Obama zombie shooting target as one that is just plain tacky. I’m not “offended” by it, but I sure wouldn’t spend my money on it or feel comfortable telling everyone how awesome it was to shoot at. Sure they don’t call it the Obama target, but that is undeniably what it is supposed to represent.
Comments
14 responses to “Should We Cry Over What’s Depicted On Certain Shooting Targets?”
Always great comments from Noir…
The problem with issues like this is there are two sides to it. On one side yeah you could argue that in many places a Muslim woman might be a threat. And you can correctly argue that any *person*, regardless of gender or race or religion, who holds a gun is a threat.
On the other hand, put yourself in the shoes of a Muslim woman who sees people shooting at that target. They’re definitely not going to like that, because the image in the target is partially identified onto them. Much like if a local range took a picture of you and started printing it out large format onto target paper.
However this whole issue is somewhat pointless because the offensive targets are a symptom, not the problem. Doesn’t matter if the target is of armed Muslim women, or black hoodies holding Skittles, or whatever. They are all just symptoms of the larger problem. The larger problem is racism, intolerence, and xenophobia. And those are much harder problems to solve.
Until they are solved, I think every shooter should consider how they represent the sport of shooting. Gun owners as a group want to be taken seriously, but things like Muslim woman targets and black hoodie skittles targets do a lot to just reinforce the stereotype of shooters as dumbass inbred racist xenophobic hicks who think all brown-skinned people are terrorists.
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Something I notice too is that serious and or competitive shooters in my area are literally never buying or shooting targets like those, it is the casual shooters or worse yet, the ones that come to the range and rent a gun for an hour ( yes, that is legal in Idaho)
BUT my local range has far more whites dudes holding knives and guns and every freaking zombie target you can imagine – and those seem to be the most popular anyway
I agree with the first poster. If we are going to get gun control laws loosened, then having people messing up our public image is only going to make them more against loosening the laws. Gun owners need to understand that when they do something like this, it reflects on the whole community. Honestly, I don’t feel comfortable knowing this guy has the right to bear arms!
Exactly. Gun Reform isn’t the issue. Social reform is.
The saddest thing in the world for me is thinking back to my military/combat days where “race” didn’t exist, and then snapping back into the society i reside in now.
Some folks say I’ve grown apathetic to such touchy issues- I just say there are more important things to focus on.
When I was younger the only armed target that the range I went to sold was a white dude holding a revolver. I’m guessing that exactly nobody was offended that we were all blasting away at a white guy. The selection is larger now and every race is represented in the target selection… but it is still the white guy that seems to get shot at the most, and I still don’t know of anybody that is upset about it.
There are things to worry about and things to just let go. If you get offended because of the target someone chooses you’re trying too hard. I admit I’m far from the most sensitive/PC guy around, but if I know you’re upset I may just go get that exact target to use… except for the black guy holding watermelon and chicken that he mentions. Even I would feel that one was probably a step too far.
Another great video by one of Youtube’s best.
A target is a target. Don’t be racist, hate on everyone!
When i was younger ‘racism’ was much less significant. But now, along with the word getting used for everything, instead of all being just being folks with different things in common, we are divided into African American, Hispanic Americans, Muslim Americans, homo Americans, Capricorn Americans, Vegetarian Americans. I means seriously, when will trying to divide us against ourselves stop?
Remember when you were just American?
Maybe the Muslim woman targets are simply a way the Muslin fathers can practice honor killing, in case one day their daughter does something awful (examples include speaking, learning, not wearing a burka, etc etc).
Also, cant find any muslim women targets anywhere, except for one photo of a seal training house, which cause a fuss and got taken down. navy seas may no longer train to shoot muslim women targets.
and by navy seas, i mean navy seals
I do not have the right to NOT be offended. The idiot at the range does have the right to be a racist, bigoted, sexist moron. Don’t associate with those kind of people. And if you don’t like the target then don’t buy them.
I think a better question to ask would be whether one has the initiative to consider what realistically constitutes a threat that they need to train against, or are attack dogs waiting for their pro-shooting organisation or leader of choice to tell them.
Example #1: You are a Muslim woman who encounters members of the armed forces about to be deployed to fight the Taliban in a zone where female suicide bombers have attacked before. Maybe you’d feel a little uncomfortable, but well, its justified.
Example #2: You are a Muslim woman taking a stroll in the park and you encounter the local nutjob militia training against a row of fifteen of these targets and learn from their website that its their personal mission is to rid America of all Muslims. You start taking defensive handgun classes too…
Oh come on! Targets representing certain groups arent racist, they’re made to serve a tactical purpose. Increasingly many Muslim women are being recruited for suicide bombings and other missions, our troops need to have that instinctive ability to fire upon ANYONE threatening them or others, be it a man, woman, or child. Also, consider the fact that regular criminals can be women and children too, but if they pose a threat they need to be dealt as well. blank targets are fine for sighting weapons in, but tactical training practically REQUIRES depiction of the hostiles you will, or could be facing. Funny enough, the Taliban doesnt have too many mustached white guys with revolvers in their ranks.