If you set up a photo of the president’s face and used it as a target to shoot at, throw darts at, launch arrows at, etc, could you be charged with anything? What about a photo of a senator, governor or some other political figure? Or would this be protected by the first amendment?
Can’t imagine why it shouldn’t be your right to do this. It would be quite an oppressive regime that deems it necessary to enforce patriotism on its subjects by exalting representative idols into sanctity.
(Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. Or Joseph Stalin, Kim Jong-il, Mao Zedong, Saddam Hussein, or any other of those big-portrait guys whose desecration would’ve get you executed…)
Of course, if instead of saying “Look, I’m making a political statement!” you declare “Look, I’m going to kill this guy! I’m practicing for an actual murder!” then you might have a problem.
I wouldn’t be surprised if you had a visit from the Secret Service if someone reported you. They take any possible threat seriously. I seem to recall them having a chat with a school kid who wore a shirt with a photo of Bush in a crosshair a few years ago.
This is all I could find:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/news_alert_121202_general.html
After 9/11, I went to a shooting range with targets made from a photo of Bin Laden. The range master wouldn’t allow use to use them, although I doubt there was any law against it.
Many ranges do not allow the use of human shaped or appearing targets just on general principle.
I can understand why a range might be reluctant to allow targets that portrayed an actual person.
But not allowing human shaped targets?
That I’ve never encountered anywhere.
How is a person supposed to practiced with a pistol he/she has for self-defense without a proper frame of reference? Just a round target doesn’t always cut it.
Every range I’ve ever been to sold human shaped targets for use on their range.
I’ve seen it before at least twice. Both times were at large outdoor public ranges; one was at a metropark in southeast Michigan, and another was somewhere in Ohio. So it does happen.
Even the generic black silhouettes? That’s just dumb.
Anheuser Busch sponsors a decent sized nature/wildlife preserve in St. Charles county, MO, including a pretty impressive shooting range.
They do not allow man-silhouette targets; ostensibly, they are about hunting and sports shooting, not the “other kind.”
I’ve encountered it at a local gun club. It’s a question of political correctness and appeasing certain government officials that don’t like guns and have the power to close the range.
I am really hoping someone can actually answer my OP. (That comes off as snarky, I know, but I really don’t intend to.)
I can’t think of any law that it would violate. That doesn’t mean that you wouldn’t get harassed about it.
I once bought a dart board with then President Charles de Gaulle’s picture on it. I don’t suppose that counts.
IANAL. I can’t imagine any federal laws against shooting a photograph. That doesn’t mean that some local law enforcement officer won’t give you trouble.
It may get you locked up under their national security laws for suspected terrorism. In which case they won’t admit to having imprisoned you or even that they considered imprisoning you. Police and judge inquires will get the same response you spouse would. Nothing. So you won’t get charged in the court system, but shooting the pictures may get you disappeared.
If you place one target at around chest height and the other around head height you can do a reasonable approximation of a vital area target, but I know that the two ranges that I shoot at the majority of the time have it posted as a range rule. No people looking targets, period.
If you look in here you’ll find dart boards for sale featuring various prominent persons depicted on the front.
The current president is one of the options available. Not only that, the previous incumbent of the White House can also be had. And his wife, but you’ve got to buy them as a package.
Unless I went for a custom board I’d probably go for Paris Hilton though. That statement should not be construed as a wish or intent to injure Paris Hilton very much in any way whatsoever. Others may consider that Britney Spears would be a more appropriate target considering it’s a dart board we’re talking about, but I guess tastes are going to vary.
The site gives an address and a phone number.
I am not a lawyer.
In Cuba using a photo of Fidel, and I guess now Raul Castro, would get you between 3-5 years for “desacato oficial”, and “desacato a la figura del comandante en jefe”, translated “oficial disrespect” and “disrespect of the figure of the commander in chief”. These are actual crimes in the Cuban criminal code.
I wouldn’t do it myself. It’s just really bad taste.