South Dakota gun show bans vendor who sold racist targets

SIOUX FALLS, S.D., March 18 (UPI) -- Organizers of a South Dakota gun show said they did not pre-approve a vendor's targets bearing the silhouette of an exaggerated black man and a racial slur.

The "Official Runnin' [expletive] Target," which made use of a racial slur, were seen for sale during the weekend at the Collector's Classic Gun Show in Sioux Falls.

A KSFY-TV crew asked the seller, who was not identified, if he considered the targets to be offensive.

"To who? Are you a negro?" the vendor said. "You know there's some black people and then there's some negroes."

The vendor said he "sold 500 of them this weekend so what difference does it make?"

Daethal Dockter, a member of the gun show's board of directors, said the vendor did not clear the targets with officials before selling them.

"We don't condone such things at our shows and this problem will be taken care of," Dockter said. Bob Campbell, organizer of the gun show, said the vendor has been banned from future events.

"I'm very disappointed and disgusted to see what was on that table," Campbell said. "I was not aware that it was there or it would've been gone ... I will not see it again at this show."

The incident follows revelations in January that police in Miami Beach, Fla., had been using mug shots of black suspects for target practice. North Miami Beach Police Chief J. Scott Dennis said the officers exercised poor judgement but would not be disciplined.