2 ms·

Wait. How does one have time to see a small piece of tape on a gun before making a decision to shoot someone with a gun pointed at you?

peteradio 6y ago
There are a lot more common scenarios than the "split second don't shoot reaction" scene from every movie ever. From the videos I've seen a lot of officers were co-mingling with the "protesters", it would be nice to ID someone easily who *isn't* pointing a gun at you but who also has a gun.
TaylorAlexander 6y ago
They don’t. But if you see someone else with a gun before they see you, it might give some idea as to who they are.
evgen 6y ago
It is so you can flash the side of your gun at someone else in a dark/smoky/obscured room and they can see the signal, but you don't need to completely surrender situational initiative. The tape is reflective to help in this case. The person flashing the sign knows it is not 100% certain to work, but it better than metallic crickets or pass phrases.
masklinn 6y ago
Habit. They're trained to take in the scene in order to e.g. evaluate if they have a safe shot. Even if it only works some of the time, every time it works is a gain.
matt-attack 6y ago
Is it better to not even have a chance to work? Not sure why the choice has to be between a 100% effective solution and a "better than nothing" solution. It's like saying to the Fire Extinguisher salesman, "But what if the fire is too big and I run out of propellant? No thanks I'm not going to own one."
jstarfish 6y ago
That isn't the point of the exercise. Suppose you're an officer responding to a shootout between two randoms. The tape signals whether either of them are police. (This is why I would never carry a gun in this country. Suppose you do stop some sort of crime in public at gunpoint-- any trigger-happy idiot who walks in is going to see you as the aggressor.)

2 ms·

Wait. How does one have time to see a small piece of tape on a gun before making a decision to shoot someone with a gun pointed at you?

by onlyrealcuzzo 6y ago

peteradio 6y ago
There are a lot more common scenarios than the "split second don't shoot reaction" scene from every movie ever. From the videos I've seen a lot of officers were co-mingling with the "protesters", it would be nice to ID someone easily who *isn't* pointing a gun at you but who also has a gun.
TaylorAlexander 6y ago
They don’t. But if you see someone else with a gun before they see you, it might give some idea as to who they are.
evgen 6y ago
It is so you can flash the side of your gun at someone else in a dark/smoky/obscured room and they can see the signal, but you don't need to completely surrender situational initiative. The tape is reflective to help in this case. The person flashing the sign knows it is not 100% certain to work, but it better than metallic crickets or pass phrases.
masklinn 6y ago
Habit. They're trained to take in the scene in order to e.g. evaluate if they have a safe shot. Even if it only works some of the time, every time it works is a gain.
matt-attack 6y ago
Is it better to not even have a chance to work? Not sure why the choice has to be between a 100% effective solution and a "better than nothing" solution. It's like saying to the Fire Extinguisher salesman, "But what if the fire is too big and I run out of propellant? No thanks I'm not going to own one."
jstarfish 6y ago
That isn't the point of the exercise. Suppose you're an officer responding to a shootout between two randoms. The tape signals whether either of them are police. (This is why I would never carry a gun in this country. Suppose you do stop some sort of crime in public at gunpoint-- any trigger-happy idiot who walks in is going to see you as the aggressor.)