Amusing firing range targets
Last March, while in Vegas I took my first trip to a firing range (it's the kind of thing that really complements a day in LV, believe me). It being Vegas, we booked into the kind of firing range out in the desert that lets you rip loose with fully automatic weapons. My companion, a deadly former professional Quake player, was given an Uzi because "it's a ladies' machine-gun," and proceeded to fire short, accurate bursts into the right eye, left eye, and crotch of her target, causing our jarhead instructor to give her a very admiring look indeed. (I was a lot less impressive with my AK-47 -- I explained that I was Canadian and the jarhead nodded knowingly)
For an extra five bucks, you could opt to replace your standard black silhouette target with one of these. I called them "Ron Jeremy threatens McCauley Culkin" and "We told you to stop dating your junkie boyfriend, dear! Our sort doesn't swap fluids with the laboring classes!" You could also opt for Saddam or Osama.
There's a licensing opportunity going begging here -- why aren't Disney and Warners offering a wide selection of toons for target duty? Link
the latest
latest episodes
I'm not sure those companies would want people shooting their cartoon characters, villainous or not. Maybe some of the more grownup movie bad guys? But I can't think of any good ones at the moment..maybe the Terminator?
Yeah, the Terminator. Because assassinating a governor is hip, it's edgy; it's marketing!
We've got those hanging up here at the office.
My favorite one is the pregnant woman. They don't have a separate halo for the tiny fetus.
Looks to me like Napoleon Dynamite and Pedro, +20 years. I wonder what went wrong?
So wait, are you supposed to shoot the home alone clone in the head or the Ron Jeremy dude?
Because, well, the kid looks like he pissed the wrong guy off. And well, what is my motivation here? Did he call the guy names and maybe steal his lunch out of the fridge at work? Details needed.
Cory, do you by chance remember if they had old west guns there too? I'm thinkin' Colt Peacemakers and Winchesters. I've been off-and-on toying with finding a range that's got some so I can have a bit of practical experience.
(I'll do anything for research)
Mitch,
I think the motivation is that as a person with a weapon of destruction in your hands, you should pull the trigger and cause as much carnage as possible. I'm guessing this item is on Boing Boing because guns and murderous mayhem are supposed to be fun in North America. I can't wait for the next mass shooting in the US - I like a good laugh.
I hate to be a wet blanket on all the cute gun fun, but shooting high-powered guns at goofy depictions of people (oh, I mean harmless targets) is fairly perverse...and very sad.
Sure I suppose there's some sort of pleasure to be found at target ranges (like if you're planning to appear on "COPS" in the near future), but it's almost 2008 and when is violence going to stop being post-modernly funny? Killing and dying in violent ways was never funny, folks.
I live in LA and we have dozens of gun-related shootings and killings every week. Again, it's sad...especially when most are young adults.
This target practice "FUNNY HA HA" stuff doesn't belong in BoingBoing. I'm very disappointed.
I hate to say it, Cory, but my respect for you has diminished somewhat. Stick to Quake, old boy.
I find it quite amusing you can shoot at a human looking target in real life, but they won't let you do it in computer games. Shouldn't Jack Thompson be cracking down on this sort of thing? THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!
Cory,
Much respect to your lady friend. An Uzi in full auto is VERY hard to hit anything but the ceiling with. (Even three-round bursts tend to hit the target in an upward arc.)
Moribus,
Murderous mayhem is NOT fun. Guns (responsibly used) can be a lot of fun. I also sincerely hope that you get to see a mass shooting firsthand, we'll see how funny you find being shot by a psychotic moron, who has the only gun for a mile because law-abiding citizens are not allowed to have them at that place (school, church, post office, etc...).
Father Brown,
Gun control means hitting your intended target with no collateral damage. Shooting high-powered guns at "harmless targets" isn't perverse, or sad. It's called practice.
Did you ever notice that when these pathetic insecure lonely people decide to get some attention by shooting a lot of people and then themselves, they go to a place where law-abiding citizens with concealed-carry permits are not allowed to bring their guns? So EVERYBODY at the scene with a gun is a criminal (until the swat team shows up)? Sure makes it easy to shoot your way to glory and choose your own ending, doesn't it?
such a thing can only remind me of the late Hunter Thompson (especially in Vegas)... all I can ask is, when the shit breaks the tide, will you be ready?
There's a long and somewhat strange tradition of photo silhouettes for firing ranges. I've seen photos of cowboys, 70s thugs with mullets and denim, cartoon thugs, variations on the theme of "mustachoied guy using woman as human shield", a cartoon floozy pulling a Saturday Night Special out of her handbag, turkeys, prairie dogs, and obviously the Osama Bin Laden photo (almost none of it to be found on the web I'm afraid). Strangely, no Klansmen or hippies.
These photo targets are all very cute novelties but no serious shooter ever practices with them; there's just too much visual noise and you have no good means of measuring how close your groups are and which way they're drifting. The real pros are the ones shooting at the unassuming pages of five 4" circles. I hate shooting at human-photo targets, because it makes me feel like just the kind of trigger-happy jackass that Father Brown portrays.
There is a certain training necessity in shooting human-form silhouettes: studies have shown that your reaction time in a real emergency will be worse if you don't; so occasionally when exercising my defensive sidearm I'll use one of the plain black head-and-shoulders silhouettes, but for my target guns -- never. They're just not good for practice, they're more expensive, and they make the 70-year-old guy teaching his grandkid how to work her .22 in the next lane over look at you like you're some kind of psycho.
Still, I'm glad that Cory took the time to enjoy this pastime on his visit to Vegas. If Americans can go to Holland to smoke up, then Europeans ought to have the chance to squeeze off a few.
Zak: most indoor ranges will have some old-fashioned revolvers to shoot, but for the real Old West experience you ought to find some place that's doing classes in muzzle-loading pistols -- caploaders, like they had in the Civil War. Surprisingly, they're still made and used for hunting and competition.
Father Brown nobody said shooting and killing people is funny. But I have to ask have you ever actually been to a range and shot a gun? It is quite an enjoyable experience. My friends and I often go the range and fire off lots of ammo; pistols, rifles and shotguns, it is an absolute great stress relief. The number of responsible gun owners far outweighs the few wack-jobs who go on shooting sprees. Not to mention I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of the gun crimes in LA involve gangs, so before you automatically blame the guns maybe you need to look the underlying cause, ie the gangs indoctrinating their members.
Don't forget that the right to own a gun is a fundamental one in America and there are plenty of people willing to die to defend that right.
I am deathly afraid of guns. I hate them. Just being in the room with someone else who has a gun puts me on edge. I have a mini-panic-attack when the armored car guy comes to my work to pick up the deposit.
However, this is not a rational fear, and it's something that is caused by ignorance. I don't know anything about guns other than what I've seen on TV. I don't know how much they weigh, I don't know how easy they are to shoot, I don't even know what they really sound like.
I've asked my bf to take me to the range with his 2 guns so that we can fire off a few shots, just so that I won't be so afraid of them anymore.
That's not to say I won't respect them as much, I just won't be irrationally afraid of seeing one on someone's hip. That's a good thing.
deejayqueue: In what area of the world do you live? I know lots of folks who will teach you gun safety and take you to the range for free. There is no point in living in fear of inanimate objects. Learn to use a gun, and if you decide you still don't like them, that's fine. But at least you'll have the skills that could save your life one day!
What is the name of the range?
Next time I'm in Vegas I'll go. It sounds like a blast.
DTPhantom -- I understand the preference for the plain silhouette in a sporting context, but I would think that distraction and visual clutter would be appropriate to introduce in a self-defense training context.
Though granted, vainglorious hero fantasies aside, picking off a hostage taker isn't a very likely self-defense scenario...
And I do nowadays find Ron Jeremy measurably less creepy than Macaulay Culkin...
hmm... this reminds me of when i was little and my brother and i would take our crude drawings of army men, strap ketchup packets behind them and place them on soda cans for bb gun shooting practice.
sadly, our mother, who was usually very supportive of our creativity, wasn't too fond of our bloody targets...
If I had kids, I'd just want to hang up the dude and child hostage one just as a daily reminder. "Look, it could be worse. So get those dishes clean!"
And that's why I don't have kids.
As an avid hunter and shooter, I agree that shooting is one of the best stress relievers ever. And while I enjoy shooting at realistic targets such as these, I never do so in public, just because of people getting the wrong impression. But I firmly believe in being prepared. I spend most of my time on standard regulation targets, but targets like these round out a good practice.
I picked this up from one of my favorite blogs...
•••••••••••••••••••••••••
I don’t carry a gun to kill people. I carry a gun to keep from being killed.
I don’t carry a gun to scare people. I carry a gun because sometimes this world can be a scary place.
I don’t carry a gun because I’m paranoid. I carry a gun because there are real threats in the world.
I don’t carry a gun because I’m evil. I carry a gun because I have lived long enough to see the evil in the world.
I don’t carry a gun because I hate the government. I carry a gun because I understand the limitations of government.
I don’t carry a gun because I’m angry. I carry a gun so that I don’t have to spend the rest of my life hating myself for failing to be prepared.
I don’t carry a gun because my sex organs are too small. I carry a gun because I want to continue to use those sex organs for the purpose for which they were intended for a good long time to come.
I don’t carry a gun because I want to shoot someone. I carry a gun because I want to die at a ripe old age in my bed, and not on a sidewalk somewhere tomorrow afternoon.
I don’t carry a gun because I’m a cowboy. I carry a gun because, when I die and go to heaven, I want to be a cowboy.
I don’t carry a gun to make me feel like a man. I carry a gun because men know how to take care of themselves and the ones they love.
I don’t carry a gun because I feel inadequate. I carry a gun because unarmed and facing three armed thugs, I am inadequate.
I don’t carry a gun because I love it. I carry a gun because I love life and the people who make it meaningful to me.
You went all the way out to the desert to shoot automatics in Vegas?
There's a great gun range right off the strip just up from the Flamingo. You can shoot full auto there.
The point of those targets...which some folks seem to miss...is to hone your aim. It's no different than a silhouette or the cartoon man ones.
"Much respect to your lady friend. An Uzi in full auto is VERY hard to hit anything but the ceiling with. (Even three-round bursts tend to hit the target in an upward arc.)"
Depends if she was using the shoulder stock or not.
And, if you've used the weapon before, then you know what it does and how to compensate for the muzzle rise.
Like this:
http://web.newsguy.com/christucker/images/range1.jpg
Cory, do try some handguns next time.
If possible, and time and money allow, begin with something like the .25 semi auto pocket gun. And work your way up to something like the .445 Casul (If I recall the name and caliber correctly).
And yes, if possible, do try a caplock revolver and a Peacemaker.
Those larger caliber guns are like cherry bombs you can hold in your hand and not lose any fingers!
A lot of ranges won't let you use human-image targets, actually, so the licensing opportunities aren't that fantastic. The NRA range attached to their HQ here in Northern Virginia forbids pictorial representations, even.
Those larger caliber guns are like cherry bombs you can hold in your hand and not lose any fingers!
As long as you remember the slide. Always remember the slide.
I have a ton of fun a few times a month with my pistols at a public range. I don't carry or practice combat shooting for safety, though I may eventually.
I just find it very satisfying to get really good at something, shooting included. It's a wonderful feeling to go from occasionally hitting the target with a .22 to being able to consistently hit the center with a range calibers.
Oh, man and skeet shooting? Whoo! Blowing a moving target out of the sky is enormous fun. You can see the clay fly out and rise in the sky, then you blow it into a hundred pieces! You did that! Awesome fun.
I'm not much of a poster, but I must say, those targets are well over-priced. I know it's Vegas and all, but in Tacoma, WA, my lady and I have gone to the Bulleye's range and gotten those same targets for $1.95. Have one hanging on my shop wall riddled with holes right now.
Zak,
Check with the Single Action Shooting Society for a club in your area. I've found that Cowboy Action Shooters are very willing to loan out guns at club matches to let people try them out and get involved in the sport.
Cory,
Neat! I've never had a chance to fire an AK-47, other than semi-auto ones. I had an opportunity to fire an Uzi once, but it was broken. :( However I got to shoot a Thompson and an MP5 that day instead, so the day was far from wasted. Next time you go, see if they have suppressed firearms to rent. They're also a blast to shoot. They don't sound at all like Hollywood silencers. And the physics behind them are nice and geeky.
From time to time I've had the chance to take Brits shooting, most of them for the first time in their lives. Usually we have them shoot at white poster board with a colored paper plate stapled in the middle. Gives them a nice big target to hit. They always like to finish the day by shooting at an Osama target, though.
I'm not into guns but I have no problem with people shooting at a target range. It's a controlled environment where safety measures are taken into consideration. There's nothing "sick" or "perverse" about shooting paper targets. It's really not much different than when I shot beer cans with a BB gun as a kid, except that the target range is a safer place to shoot than my back yard was.
"Did you ever notice that when these pathetic insecure lonely people decide to get some attention by shooting a lot of people and then themselves"
They have access to a frikkin GUN! There is something deeply sick and wrong with America if this arse for tit reasoning is how you define any concept of "security" or "Safety" .Wise up nonny moose boyo
because your you kind are not helping the discussion and/or dialogue.I speak as someone who has lived in the States,Canada,Israel(occupied Palestine!)Columbia,Brazil,Sweden
Holland,Belgium,Portugal.....Icould go on but anyhoo the only country I have ever been shot in is the good ol' USA ............
mibbe the shooter wudda thought thought twice if he thought that I had a bigger gun than he did,but to be serious I doubt it
Going in to any "situation"Armed and fearing the worst does not good relations make!
Who would've thought there were so many obsessed and misguided gun freaks visiting BoingBoing! Wow!
How utterly illuminating!
Since 1962, more than one million Americans have died in firearm homicides, suicides, and unintentional shootings (Violence Policy Center)
How utterly illuminating!!!
No. But acknowledging that the worst can happen, and being prepared for it can keep you alive to go enjoy the good relations you've already made with people you care about.
In college me and a roommate had similar targets up on our walls as decoration. Ours were huge black-and-white photos of (apparent) terrorists in ski masks holding small children and aiming menacingly back at you with handguns. A dark alternative to beer and rock band posters.
Our resident assistant was not amused. "You guys are SICK!" she exclaimed.
Father Brown: in the United Kingdom, they have banned not only guns, but also swords and are working on knives as well. Perhaps you will feel safe if you move there.
Damn, every time I start feeling good about being a liberal, the smug antigunners start pissing me off.
It's the same as abortion.
Don't want one? Don't get one.
I live in Baltimore City. I have my reasons....
I'm going to have to agree with Father Brown here. "Who would've thought there were so many obsessed and misguided gun freaks visiting BoingBoing!" Indeed, this discussion page looks like an NRA convention.
I also don't think the original post was funny. Really, unless you're laughing at the kind of people who think shooting pictures of kids is cool.
Here's an entrepreneurial idea:
how about a gun shooting range where customers can bring their own photos to be printed out and pasted out onto the targets??
maybe this is legal or maybe not.
if it is legal (surely in Texas and Mexico), then you will make $$$$ and so please credit anon poster "boinkboink3000" in the advertising blurb at least
if it turns out to be not so legal, I know nothings, what is "boinkboink3000?)
PECES: Thankfully for the rest of us, you are in the minority not only in this discussion, but in the real world. Most people can understand our right to bear arms and they respect that even if they choose not to own any themselves. And by the way, the idea of the targets isn't to shoot at the kid.
And now, another cliche:
An armed society is a polite society.
"But acknowledging that the worst can happen, and being prepared for it can keep you alive to go enjoy the good relations you've already made with people you care about."
So you need a gun to defend yourself from people with guns. Do you see ANY irony there? No? All right, carry on. And good luck surviving the next school/shopping mall 'incident'. I'm sure your Bruce Willis gun-skills will save the day.
Since 1962, more than one million Americans have died in firearm homicides, suicides, and unintentional shootings (Violence Policy Center)
Ummm...I'm gonna call shenanigans on that number. I can't find anything on by firearm 1962 to the present, but I did find that the Dept of Justice says that in the five year period of 1993 to 1997 there were 78,620 homicides. If that's average then there should be less than one million gun related deaths in the 45 years from 1962 to 2007.
I did find this while wandering about the internets:
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration there were 491,200 fatalities in traffic accidents from 1994 to 2006.
How utterly illuminating!!!
Anyway, I carry a handgun for the same reason I carry a spare tire. I used my spare tire for the first time the other day in 20 years of driving. Glad I had it. I would love to carry around my pistol and never ever need it. But if I ever do, it's nice to have it as an option. As a choice.
"Since 1962, more than one million Americans have died in firearm homicides, suicides, and unintentional shootings (Violence Policy Center)"
Wow! It's taken over 40 years for one million Americans to die via firearms.
It only took 20 years to kill that many Americans via automobile accidents (assuming an average of 50K deaths a year)
WOOT!
So, you're going to want to ban the private ownership of cars, right?
Look, you misuse anything and a death can result. I could beat you to death with my Apple Extended Keyboard. I could strangle you to death with a necktie. I could suffocate you with the sponge in the kitchen or the loofah in the bathroom.
The misuse and/or illegal use of a firearm is bad. Punish those who misuse or illegally use them.
You can be scared of the firearm boogieman 24/7 or you can choose to not be scared of the firearm boogieman.
I choose not to be scared.
I live in Boston. I have far more lethal things to concern myself with.
Have you SEEN how people drive in this city?
Man, it's like a MMPLARP of "Deathrace 2000"!
Being shot is WAY down on list of how to get killed in Boston.
More cliches:
* When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.
* A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Ok, that last one was the Second Amendment. The point of that comma is that, "because a nation needs an army, citizens also need to protect themselves from that army in case it becomes a junta." So citizens need access to the same tools of war as the military has.
GRAHAM: So you need a gun to defend yourself from people with guns. Do you see ANY irony there? No? All right, carry on. And good luck surviving the next school/shopping mall 'incident'. I'm sure your Bruce Willis gun-skills will save the day.
No. As I've already stated, I do not carry. I have carefully chosen to live in a place that is very safe. I do not feel the need to carry a firearm for my safety, but I know that not everyone is able to so carefully choose where they live or work or shop or travel. I will never fully understand another's situation or fears so I will not presume to know the best way for them to keep themselves safe.
And no, there is no irony in keeping a firearm to defend against others using firearms, don't belive me? Look up the definition of irony.
@ #21:
"I don’t carry a gun to kill people. I carry a gun to keep from being killed."
Guns aren't notably effective for swatting bullets out of the air.
"I don’t carry a gun to scare people. I carry a gun because sometimes this world can be a scary place."
Mostly because of people carrying guns.
"I don’t carry a gun because I’m paranoid. I carry a gun because there are real threats in the world."
And you can't stop thinking about these real threats, every minute of every day, until they consume all your other thoughts and drive you to do something stupid. Good thing you've got a gun.
"I don’t carry a gun because I’m evil. I carry a gun because I have lived long enough to see the evil in the world."
And you're now ready to call it quits.
"I don’t carry a gun because I hate the government. I carry a gun because I understand the limitations of government."
And because you want to BE one of the limitations of government.
"I don’t carry a gun because I’m angry. I carry a gun so that I don’t have to spend the rest of my life hating myself for failing to be prepared."
So carrying a gun is an act of self-love.
"I don’t carry a gun because my sex organs are too small. I carry a gun because I want to continue to use those sex organs for the purpose for which they were intended for a good long time to come."
Whether she wants you to or not. After all, you've got a gun.
"I don’t carry a gun because I want to shoot someone. I carry a gun because I want to die at a ripe old age in my bed, and not on a sidewalk somewhere tomorrow afternoon."
...By making sure it's the other guy who dies on a sidewalk somewhere tomorrow afternoon.
"I don’t carry a gun because I’m a cowboy. I carry a gun because, when I die and go to heaven, I want to be a cowboy."
Huh?
"I don’t carry a gun to make me feel like a man. I carry a gun because men know how to take care of themselves and the ones they love."
And the rest carry guns.
"I don’t carry a gun because I feel inadequate. I carry a gun because unarmed and facing three armed thugs, I am inadequate."
It's three to one. You're still inadequate.
"I don’t carry a gun because I love it. I carry a gun because I love life and the people who make it meaningful to me."
But it seems you don't exactly hate carrying a gun either...
This is not amusing in the slightest. Shame on you, Cory; what's gotten into you?
Um... longest sniper shot was a canadian in Afghanistan Cory.... and IVEEXA... this was bloody hilarious!
A flickr tool to turn your photos to target posters would be great!
It's funny how I've never seen a gun owner actually shoot at a photo target, only gun renters. I wonder if that means anything (or if it's just a sampling glitch).
@#45 How well do you see through those nostrils?
"The point of that comma is that, "because a nation needs an army, citizens also need to protect themselves from that army in case it becomes a junta." So citizens need access to the same tools of war as the military has."
Of all the lame-duck justifications on this thread, this is my favourite. Because, know what? When/if the army DOES become an instrument of repression within the borders of the United States, your junior MAC-10 or penis-enhancing .45 will be more than enough to hold off a battalion of Marines.
Good luck.
I'm with you buddy.
I'd also like to know how many of the people disgusted at the targets enjoy playing [insert popular FPS]? I guess shooting fake guns at digital representations of humans is somehow morally superior to firing real guns at photographic representations of humans? The appeal is the same -- both allow you to indulge a fantasy in a safe and controlled environment.
Of all the lame-duck justifications on this thread, this is my favourite. Because, know what? When/if the army DOES become an instrument of repression within the borders of the United States, your junior MAC-10 or penis-enhancing .45 will be more than enough to hold off a battalion of Marines.
Right. As we all know, especially after studying our own nation's history, there is no way a rag tag bunch of barely trained yokels can best the greatest military power in the world, or at least cause the greater force enough trouble that they eventually give up and go away.
Wait... How exactly did we manage to separate from Britain? What's happened in most of our wars this century? What's happening right now?
Here's another cliche: It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.
Another revolution or civil war, like those we've had, won't be quick, it won't be easy, but it will never be forgotten.
Guernican: can you think of any places in the world today where a population of local insurgents equipped with small arms and improvised explosives are able to resist occupation by the United States Army?
"(I was a lot less impressive with my AK-47 -- I explained that I was Canadian and the jarhead nodded knowingly)"
I laughed.
Father Brown:
Americans are violent by nature. You go ahead and get rid of all those guns buddy and enjoy your stabbing/fatal beating/etc.
"Guernican: can you think of any places in the world today where a population of local insurgents equipped with small arms and improvised explosives are able to resist occupation by the United States Army?"
Yes. Yes of course, it hadn't occurred to me until now. You're not talking about your own hide. You're talking about being part of a desperate, outgunned, our-freedom-or-death insurgency. Everything I've read on this thread convinces me that that's the case. I can feel the waves of self-sacrifice just billowing off the page.
Please. Sit down and shut up before you embarrass yourself any more.