File this one under R for ridiculous.

A new movement has emerged from the throngs of social justice warriors that aims to remove black targets from gun ranges across America. Why? Not because the contrast of black and white on a paper target is easy for shooters to decipher, but because it’s racist.

According to the No More Black Targets website, paper targets featuring a black silhouette of a person make shooters fire their weapons at them:

Young black men are 3X more likely to be shot by trained shooters than their white peers. A disturbing potential correlation: The most popular target for shooters to learn to use their firearm is a black silhouette. Unconscious bias can be deadly.

“In our study we found two main things: First, people were quicker to shoot black targets with a gun, relative to white targets with a gun. And … people were more trigger-happy when shooting black targets compared to shooting white targets.”

That is, shooters weren’t just faster to fire at black targets; they were also more likely to fire at a black target. This petition seeks to eliminate the use of the most popular target for shooters to learn to use their firearm: a menacing black silhouette.

In shooting ranges, in permitting and instruction environments, anywhere someone is learning to use a firearm.

No More Black Targets is a collective of artists, diverse in backgrounds, ethnicities and nationalities, working in paint, digital media, patternmaking and also physical installations to bring new artwork to life. The collective stand for “More paint. Less hate.”

A screenshot of few of their suggested patterns of targets may be a better explanation of why their idea is absurd rather than any rationale I could provide:

Sadly, the No More Black Targets website makes no mention of the rampant black-on-black shootings in Chicago or that of the blacks being shot and killed from 2012-13, 62.2% of the offenders were themselves black.

The problem isn’t the color of paper targets at a gun range, the problem is that movements like this one are choosing to focus on law-abiding citizens training to defend themselves against a potential threat rather than focusing on the blatant offenses that continue to plague this nation.