More from the Stoopid Files...

I just read something that both made me laugh and puzzled the crap out of me.

Apparently, in Minnesota, it’s illegal to shoot at a picture of a humanoid. If you’re shooting at paper, and the picture on that paper is person-shaped…you’re going to jail.

At first, it doesn’t sound too unreasonable, but when you think about it, shooting at a target is shooting at a target. There’s an area in that paper that you want to put your bullets into.

I can just imagine the police in Minnesota:

“Officer Bob, please be advised, the suspect is a well known target shooter and is capable of putting bullets in a half inch group at 200 yards.”

“Holy crap, Dispatch! Send me some backup! This sounds dangerous.”

“It’s ok, Bob, he can put bullets in a half inch group when shooting at a round target, but he’s never tried to shoot at a picture of a person.”

“Phew, that makes me feel a whole lot better!”

To be honest, what cracked me up the most, is that it’s not just illegal to shoot at pictures of people, it’s humanoid pictures as a group.

Ok, let me state as someone who enjoys shooting, that shooting at plain old bullseye targets can get a little boring. Online I’ve seen ‘fun’ targets that address this. Pictures of a guy in a ski-mask holding a gun to a hostage (shoot the bag guy, don’t harm the hostage), aliens, zombies…and of course, the ever popular Hitler and Bin Laden.

That’s the thing that has me confused. I can understand the police getting upset if you’re shooting at a picture of them, or your next door neighbor or the President or something…but for it to be a criminal offense to shoot at a picture of a zombie or Hitler…isn’t that going a little too far?

I mean, if someone is learning to shoot with criminal intent, is the inability to shoot at humanoid targets really that much of a handicap? Is someone going to run into a bank, start waving a gun and not be able to shoot anyone unless they’re wearing a bullseye on their heads?

Plus, it all comes back to the same thing. Criminals don’t obey the law…and if you’re willing to shoot a real person, a law forbidding you to print out a picture of a person to shoot at isn’t going to hold you back.