Went to my local range last night. I printed some Bin Laden targets. One of the range guys who signs you in. Tapped me on the shoulder. He said I could not use that target or any other face target. He told me it may offend someone. I said he is a Terrorist. Who would kill you or me just by looking at us. He told me knew. So we have PC at the range.
Ghey:rolleyes:
thats pretty common, they all have their own reasons- a local indoor range in Portland claims they dont allow binladen targets because someone put up a Bill Clinton target and the Secret Service was called.
how we can compare the world’s most wanted shoot-on-sight man to the President of the United States, i dont know… but thats their line.
How much is he worth? 20 Mil if you can find him.
it’s at least $50 mil… they doubled it from $25 back in like 06
i wonder what the conditions are… dead or alive? maybe i should be rethinking my career choices…
That’s IF you could get any where near him.
since he’s either chillin with mad bitches in an arabian palace, or buried deep within the Tribal Areas between a’stan and p’stan… he might as well be on the moon, to the mercenary.
wow…
my range sells bin ladin and saddam targets. i think the saddams are out of production though.
i guess if some al quada cell was training at your range they might be offended by people shooting at bin laden targets 
dont call it MY range, partner. i dont even go into Portland unless i have to.
haha sorry…
“a” range?
i think the saddams are out of production though.
Does seem kind of pointless to shoot a guy who’s already dead, doesn’t it?
Ah the offense principle strikes again. You’re not harming anyone if you use a picture of Bin Laden, George Bush, Barack Obama, Brad Pitt, Wayne LaPierre, etc. Personally I think using a target with human features makes it more practical. I mean, people have facial features, not just some off-white empty face and a blue outline of their head.
It’s all about someone in power saying that they wouldn’t do it themselves so anyone lower than them can’t do it.
Thats some BS. I guess there is ups and downs to a unpoliced range. Just go early, idiots dont get out at the crack of dawn on a saturday to shoot usually
My father is convinced that he’s really driving a cab in NYC and laughing at all of us.
The whole target business is ridiculous. Some states - like Massachusetts - have even tried to enact laws prohibiting shooting at human or human-shaped targets. Louis Awerbuck recounted a story one time about how he went to teach a class of LEOs in (I think) California and the brass initially freaked out and wouldn’t let him use his usual targets because they were human-shaped. Go figure on that one. What did they think he’d be teaching them to do? Hunt wild pigs with their service pistols? He told off the brass in a manner that only Louis could do and then ran the class with his evil humanoid targets.
I think this poor guy has been shot in the face more than any person in history.
First let me say that’s dumb. There are a few people in history that have earned their mug on a target (bin Laden, Hitler, Stalin, etc.). But that makes as much sense as PETA rolling in and telling you that you can’t shoot at varmint targets.
Nevertheless, I’ve been wracking my brain all morning trying to come up with a rationale behind this. It’s flimsy but this is all I’ve got:
With some of the rhetoric floating around about the last two presidents, if you allow bin Laden or Hitler or Stalin targets, it’s only a matter of time before some jackass shows up with a target in the likeness of Bush or Obama and says, “hey, they’re basically the same!” And as bkb0000’s story illustrates, a visit from the Secret Service is bad news for everyone involved.
And as anyone who has ever managed something open to the public knows, it’s 100% easier to place a blanket ban on something (i.e. “no photo-realistic targets” or “no targets that look like specific people”) than it is to make specific exceptions. After all, it’s a lot easier to point to a sign and say, “look, that’s just range policy” than it is to explain why a target of the President is not allowed. Because face it, anyone who walks in with that kind of target isn’t going to be amenable to the logic or reason you’ve got to back up your decision.
Not the strongest of rationales, but it’s no surprise that the “lowest common denominator” (read: some jackass) ruins all the fun for the rest of us.
I’d bargain it’s more for the fear that a guy shows up with pics of his ex, boss or (insert names of who he’s going to kill here) and later on actually carries it out. In this day, that’s a multi-million dollar lawsuit waiting to happen because you “knew” he was going to do “something” and didn’t call the cops.
Where does this come from? The NRA.
Most outdoor ranges are organized as “clubs” and most are associated with the NRA.
The NRA has a set of “model safety rules” - one of those is “no human or human-torso shaped targets.”
Others include:
-no rapid fire ie no more than one aimed shot per second
-no more than 5 rounds / 8 rounds loaded in a magazine
-no shooting from a holster
Most commercial indoor ranges are not so associated. And those are the ranges where I have seen UBL targets used, Saddam targets, etc.
BTW - NRA actuall has their own torso shaped target called the B27. It is designed for and used in NRA “PPC” competition.
YOU are banned from competing in PPC, even if you are a life member of the NRA (unless you are a police officer that is). NO amount of money donated to the NRA will get you into a PPC championship (even though PPC is supported with YOUR NRA dollars).
As a civilian , you can go shoot in “Action Pistol” - but the NRA targets they give you are a round bullseye on a tombstone-shaped target. 
If you do not like this sort of PC crap, tell it to the NRA (but don’t expect them to listen).
PS - I am not “anti-NRA” in the big picture at all. Yes, I KNOW that they are on our side; yes I KNOW that they are the largest organization, yes I KNOW that "if it weren’t for the NRA . … . " OK? Please limit comments to the scope of THIS thread & don’t try to turn my comments into general NRA bashing which THEY ARE NOT. I simply think the NRA could change the way they do certain things - starting with their “model range safety rules.”
I get comments regularly on my realistic targets. The only people that give me any grief are the range workers. I just tell them I don’t anticipate being attacked by circles, so why train for it?
Kinda reminded me of that scene in JFK where the guy at the range hollered at Oswald for shooting at his target and he said “I thought I was shooting at that SOB Kennedy”.
That probably locks in peoples head and they don’t want to chance it.