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Our way was to indicate threats, not non-threats... you know like real life. But we have adopted to IDPA, and for the most part are better off for it.
And if you come visit us at Texas Tactical..... you will find both threat and non-threat indicators on every stage. I think you and I have had this discussion before Ken. (Like many others. :D ) I am not even going to use that dreaded phrase "In the REAL world...." But there just seems to be too much logic behind only shooting something that is creating a threat to your person. The hands just don't mean anything to me. A gun or a knife, that tells me there is a problem and I need to do something about it. (We won't even get into the scenario of a bad guy holding up both hands at first and THEN drawing a weapon. ;) )

I think Iron Mike finally got tired of me chewing on him about hands & threat indicators. (Maybe that's where he got one of those holes in his ear for them ear rings) Or maybe, he just decided it was easier to paint targets than listening to me complain about it every match. I have a feeling that was probably 90% of the reason he paints threat indicators now.... just to shut Bubba up! :rollin

I think one of the reasons this still comes up though is for many of us who hav been shooting IDPA for more than 6 or 7 years, we still remember the stages where Non-threats were desided as the buzzer went off by drawing a playing card or a color card or a card with the name of the threat. I know we did the playing card designator at one of the first Nationals I attended. I've seen Frank use a hand written card for Rope, Handkerchief, Towel. I shot one that used water pistols as threats and all kinds of other toys as non-threats. And there is a lot of good training involved in working with shoot/no-shoot decissions as part of a match. However, those stages were shot before the current rule book.

But as you say, it comes down to a matter of rules. We may not agree with all the rules. But, if we are going to say we are running IDPA matches, then we need to follow the rules AS THEY ARE WRITTEN. If not, call your match something else. I do take EXTREAM exception to addting to the rules. For example, I was told a recent state match defined the threat indicators on a target WERE HARD COVER! :eek >: Show me. Page & Paragraph! That is NOT in the rule book and should NEVER appear in a Sanctioned IDPA match! I don't care if you ARE the Area Coordinator! You can't make up new rules like that! Follow the rules as they are written.

This is a sport. It has rules. You have to follow them even if you don't like them. I don't like hitting a golf ball out of someone eles's diviot. It's not fair that they didn't repair their diviot. But the rules say I can't not improve my lie. We can't change the rules to fit the local mentality of what is or is not "tactical" or "real world". This is IDPA and we have to play the game universaly to the "current" rules.

I'll hush now.....
Bubba
http://www.dbl-tap.com