Without "No More Hesitation", Controversial Targets are Dropped

[XLFD]

 

With all the crazy things in this country going on, somedays it is difficult to figure out whether you're reading satires like the National Lampoon, The Onion, and Mad Magazine or actually getting the real news.  Thus when you take a look at this latest product and the people who are/were ordering the material, you might laugh and look at the calendar to check out that it's not April First.  But it's not All Fool's Day, its not a lampooning, and it's not a misprint. 

 

Law Enforcement Targets Inc. (LET), a Minneapolis based company has received almost $2 million dollars in contracts from the Department of Homeland Security over the last three years.  Recently, they began selling cardboard cut-out targets designed to desensitize police to “non-traditional threats,” including pregnant women, mothers in school playgrounds, and little boys, as well as elderly gun owners in their homes. 

 

The company’s tie-in with the DHS, along with thousands of law enforcement agencies, had many believing that the targets could be connected with Homeland Security’s purchase of roughly 2 billion rounds of ammunition over the last year for purposes as yet unknown, but highly speculated on.

 

On the Company's website, LET posted the apology (left) after the news was broadcast by numerous agencies, receiving derision and disgust by the majority of the population.  Earlier,the company had defensively countered that the targets were designed to combat, “hesitation on the part of cops when deadly force is required on subjects with atypical age, frailty or condition.”  Being that the images were all of armed individuals termed “non-traditional threats,” designed to ensure “no more hesitation” from police officers encountering them, makes their excuse to help police prevent “unnecessary loss of life” dubious at best.

 

Thankfully, the outrage by many,including many law enforcement officers who were repulsed by the desensitizing effect of shooting such targets and the potential of this training aide to make unwarranted use of the officer's gun against someone.  Rather than to use their head in such confrontations; the product should have been more in the line of "No More Thinking", shoot first and ask questions later.  

 

For those officers and DHS agents who are disappointed about the fact that these target may no longer be available (as being 'taken offline' does not necessarily mean they are not doing it covertly) I offer the following images that they can blow up to life-size proportions and place on cardboard for their shooting pleasure.  Enjoy prying the guns from the cold dead hands of these non-traditional targets, agents and officers.  And unlike those racists at LET, I include one that actually has a non-white person portrayed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Read more:  http://reason.com/blog/2013/02/19/is-your-local-police-department-u...

[Willy]

X. I personally don't see anything wrong with those type of targets because they help a shooter make quick decisions as to who their target is. Heck I use a life size poster of my mother in law not only for target practice but also for warding off zombies and vampires.

I have to let you know that you made me choke on my coffee again. I was scrolling down the pictures and as soon as the last one popped up I started laughing so hard coffee came out of my nose. Thanks.

[XLFD]

That last picture made me think of our old friends from Lakeshore Soup, but part of the health plan from the Ludington Torch involves a random check to see whether your oral-nasal passages are cleared of obstruction, so coffee coming out through your nose means you pass.

I can see the possible desensitization that could occur using these targets, making the police more likely to shoot innocents who may wield nothing more than a cell phone, and whereas I can see the value of having targets with a bad 'guy' and a hostage that could use non-traditional models, I think it's best to use a neutral silhouette figure if there is only one target.  The manhunt for Chris Dorner showed that sometimes hesitation winds up saving lives of innocent people.