If UBL showed up while I happened to be shooting his likeness....well...

But many of these target are done with the person's permission. If you do any busines with LETargets, many of their picture targest are of their emplyees, like the hostage in the airplane, the bad guy was Matt in sales, who is no longer there.

But to make make targets out of private citizens, even though criminals, I think not a good idea for several reasons, like a picture of an ex, might come back to bite a person big time.

From what I have heard in the military, a long time ago they used basic square targets for shooting. Along came the Vietnam war and soldiers were not shooting. Since then they have changed to semi-realistic looking targets with a human shape and some type if features shown. Also they have changed to a "pop up" target, where the targets at different distances pop up for a pre-determined time and then pop back down. Studies (sorry I do not have any documentation to source) have shown that this has been effective. I believe that it is important to overcome the visual problems that arise with shooting at a human looking target. Should it be of an actual person you know? As previous posts have said, this might be frowned upon, I do think however that it would be calming to shoot an Osama target full of holes so all of my "Brothers and Sisters" could come home and I wife would not have to worry about the upcoming deployment.

Just my .02 worth, take it for what it is.

Maybe more to do with a silhouette figure, no real personal attributes, but an outline of their target of engagement. If you are deer hunting out west, one of the things you look for is the "Mickey Mouse ears", a deer laying down and looking at you gives a very similar silhouette, a quick reference.

So maybe the silhouette, the outline of the head on the shoulders, kind of like a religious cross or the "t", gives an aiming point that can be related to a human form that would be used in many shooting situations, like low light.

At the range I shoot mostly Circle targets downloaded from the internet. As a part of my Training (Classroom Time) The instructor advised against shooting "Picture" targets. His thinking was, That if you ended up in court the Prosecuting Attorney Would ask you questions like "I see from the targets you shoot you are practicing to be a bloodthursty Killer", and other such thought patters if you catch my drift. Doesn't one of the targets at Bills look like Robert Blake? Also ther is a sillouette type target there of a man, Blue as I recall the with hair part on the left side of the target. If that were a man standing in real life you would be shooting him in the back. When I bring Rookies to the range, the always want a Bin Laden for some reason. remember, I am Not a lawyer.

Steve