Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire End the use of the “Human Black Target” at shooting ranges

Just when I think that the 'other side' has hit rock bottom....

https://www.change.org/p/internatio...ranges?utm_source=embedded_petition_view

Young black men are three times more likely to be shot by trained shooters than their white peers. There’s a disturbing potential correlation -- the most popular target for shooters to learn to use their firearm is a black silhouette.

An academic study published by University of Illinois researchers drew together findings from 42 different studies on trigger bias to examine whether race affects how likely a target is to be shot. The study’s principal researcher, Yara Mekawi, found that people were “quicker to shoot black targets with a gun relative to white targets with a gun. And...people were more trigger-happy when shooting black targets compared to shooting white targets.”

Shooters weren't just faster to fire at black targets; they were also more likely to fire at a black target.

We are calling on the International Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors to update and modernize the instruction and teaching techniques being used to train the majority of law enforcement officers by taking into account recent research on trigger bias.

Our end goal is to eliminate the use of the most popular target for shooters when learning to use their firearm: a black silhouette. There should be #NoMoreBlackTargets in shooting ranges, permitting, and instruction environments, or anywhere someone is learning to use a firearm.

Unconscious bias can be deadly, and we need to fight the deadly epidemic of gun violence towards black people. Getting rid of black targets at shooting ranges and replacing them with variations of of more diverse target designs, changing from the negative stimulus shown in the study above.

“No More Black Targets” -- a collective of artists, diverse in backgrounds, ethnicities and nationalities, working in paint, digital media, pattern making and also physical installations to bring new artwork to life -- stand for a world where there is more paint and less hate.

Visit nomoreblacktargets.com to create your own artwork and share.

That is insane.

How about target with a beard and a . . .

I think it's funny.

Won't change a thing as far as statistics go.

Maybe if they want less of their race shot and killed, their efforts would be better spent on teaching them them not to do crimes they could be shot for.

Good practice is as realistic as possible.

I have two boxes of Black human targets, Thinking there 100 in a box. Ya I'm good.

I've never paid much attention, but if memory serves I see just as many of these


As I do these

White paint for silhouette shooters?

Go ahead and reverse the colors, black outer and white silhouette.

So what are you going to whine about now?

OH!!!! So ALL targets matter??!!??

Gonna have to do something about all those "black rifles" we have...

How do they know who the intended targets are?

"An academic study published by University of Illinois"

Our educational system is soooo ffucked up.

In 20 years of law enforcement, I have yet to shoot at a black target. The backers of these studies can blow me.

Is this an Onion piece?

Nope.

Real deal.

http://www.nomoreblacktargets.com/

I've been using green targets for a while. Given their sophisticated study, do you suppose that will cause me to shoot a crazy environmentalist?

The comments at change. org are just mind-blowing:

"I'm signing this because I am tired of black people being killed. Won't concentric circles work for a Target sheet?"

"I am white and stand with my black brothers and sisters. The higher likelihood that young black men are shot more often than young white men is just wrong!! Let's do whatever we can to stop this inequality."

"I'm signing because I think the author of this petition is right about the danger of human black targets at shooting ranges. Having those there contributes to dehumanizing blacks, and thus endangers them further."

Pure unadulterated horse chit.

You can bet your ass that your hard earned tax dollars went to a government grant to conduct this "scientific" study too.

Yep.

Contrived and completed by emotional, white guilt snowflakes.

Reminds me of the great General's words, "You can't fix stupid. "