# So.  You're a sniper and you're really, really bored.  What to do?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-youre-a-sniper-and-youre-really-really-bored-what-to-do/671686>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [October 19, 2013, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-youre-a-sniper-and-youre-really-really-bored-what-to-do/671686 "2013-10-19T22:46:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2013, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-youre-a-sniper-and-youre-really-really-bored-what-to-do/671686/1 "2013-10-19T22:46:53Z")

</div>

It seems that in Syria, some have decided to draw on a fond childhood memory and [play a slightly modified version of the game ‘tag.’](http://www.businessinsider.com/syrian-snipers-play-bullet-tag-2013-10)

> [@](#):
>
> A surgeon who recently volunteered for a five-day tour of duty in the Syrian combat zone detailed a particularly troubling trend: snipers shooting at specific body parts for sport.
> 
> Bill Neely, international editor of ITV, [produced a short video report](http://www.itv.com/news/2013-10-16/this-is-what-deadlocked-war-leads-to-syrias-sniper-game/) of Dr. David Nott’s tribulations in Syria.
> 
> Nott gets onto the subject of snipers during one of the interviews. To him, proof of the game is in the gunshot wounds he treats:

Now I’m not an expert on snipers, but as I understand it, boredom is something that ‘comes with the job.’ So the level of boredom we’re talking about here must be something truly extraordinary such that it could not only give rise this sort of ‘game’ but also that it first completely excised any vestigial traces of empathy that might have prevented it.