Ever since the first archer painted a series of concentric rings on a bale of hay, targets for hunting, recreation and protection have been a part of improving your skills. And while that original target is still viable, silhouette targets have recently become the rage for shooting enthusiasts. First made popular on televised law enforcement programs, silhouette targets now come in wide variety of hostile bad guy versions.
One version that caused a recent upset in the world of motorcycles was the Bad Biker Target sold by Baker Targets. While Baker carries a large assortment of traditional gun targets including standard military-style silhouettes, Bad Thug, Turkey Day targets and even an arcade game target, they also wander into the weird side of the business, offering zombie targets (both male and female), Frankenstein, the Rocky Road (raccoon with a gun), caveman and creepy clown targets. But when they launched their line of “Bad Biker Targets,” they instantly received the attention of two-wheel enthusiasts across the country.
With two targets depicting bad bikers, one showed a helmeted biker brandishing a handgun while a second was a cowboy hat-wearing rider aboard a motorcycle aiming a pistol with his right hand with red impact dots indicating high-value marks across his body and the front tire of the motorcycle. Along with these images, an ad on their website read, “Bad bikers need to be terminated.”
David “Double D” Devereaux is a spokesperson for the Washington State Council of Clubs, founder of the Motorcycle Profiling Project (MPP) and works with motorcyclists on the national level. He wrote an interesting piece on www.motorcycleprofilingproject.com condemning these targets as discriminatory and noting a report by the University of Chicago that concluded, “Stereotypes in targeting training create a bias influencing the decision to shoot a target, even an unarmed target.”
The MPP received an e-mail from Baker Targets the first part of November 2016 informing them that Bad Biker Targets had been removed from their website within 12 hours after Baker received the first complaint, scoring a bullseye for the bikers. No word yet on how the International Fraternity of Zombies or the Consortium of Creepy Clowns will proceed.
What a bunch of pussies.. Both the whiny “bikers” and the target manufacturers for taking them down. What the fuck has this country come to? Where are the real men?
The “real men” are off somewhere shooting at “real” targets. Where are you again?
E-MAIL Baker targets and let them know that we are a group whose large numbers shoot and/or carry weapons.That being said we can have a direct impact on their sales.Possibly then they will re-think although I doubt if much thought went into the decision.
I was born a biker, 65 YO. and could care less what kinda targets they have. Hell I have targets I bought at a gun show with president Obama on them.