Difference between "Sniper" and Bushwacker"

[Yoda]

It seems to me that the media is over-using the term, "Sniper." Most especially, when they reported on those two wack jobs that shot all those poor people in the DC area a few years back, they kept referring to them as "snipers."

Why don't we try to get the media to acknowledge that there is a difference between an honorable, well-trained, disciplined, professional "sniper" who puts himself at risk to serve his country, and a dishonorabe "bushwacker" low life who takes pot shots at innocent people at rock-throwing ranges for no motive other than self-interest.

From what I've heard, those "DC snipers" never took any long range shots, and they certainly had no honor or morals. The term "bushwacker" is an apt term for such animals.

Can you guys think of some other derogatory term that might fit?

- - - Yoda

 

[merpho]

What would you call the FBI guy at Ruby Ridge?

 

[EddieNFL]

Determined by who tells the story.

 

[kingpin008]

First of all, we don't focus on derogatory terms here. This is The High Road.

Secondly, IMHO the term "sniper" =/= honor and morality.

Sniper, to me, denotes a trained marksman (or woman) capable of making precision shots at distance with a rifle. While many snipers are for sure highly honorable and moral, the two are not mutually exclusive in my mind.

That said, I do not think that the shots made by the DC "snipers" warranted the use of the term. They were shooters, if anything.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Why don't we try to get the media to acknowledge that there is a difference between an honorable, well-trained, disciplined, professional "sniper" who puts himself at risk to serve his country, and a dishonorabe "bushwacker" low life who takes pot shots at innocent people at rock-throwing ranges for no motive other than self-interest.

First, the act of sniping does not require being honorable, well trained, disciplined or professional. The orignal "snipers" did not really meet these criteria as they were often just whichever volunteer was the best shooter back home.

Second, whether the act of sniping is considered honorable or not depends on whether the sniper is shooting for you or shooting at you. Enemy snipers are often truly hated for what they do and not treated with respect for their honor, discipline, training, etc.

Third, a person who shoots from a clandestine position and hits his targets with regularity isn't taking pot shots.

Fourth, range is not a determining factor of what is or is not a sniper. Many police snipers end up shooting at distances inside of pistol and shotgun ranges and most never have to shoot beyond 100 yards. I would have to find the data again, but most are within 50-60 yards. The police sniper that shot the revolver from the guy's hand (who was sitting in a lawn chair in the street) was only something like 30 yards distant.

Fifth, the interest or motivation for the shooting is not a definitional issue for what is or is not sniping.

Sixth, bushwhacking is the act of guerilla fighting. That would make much of the US's fighting heroes "bushwhackers" which is a term you indicate to include dishonorable, untrained, personal agenda, civilian killers. Of course, as a verb, it means to attack suddenly from a place of concealment...to ambush. This too is something taught to US troops and militaries all over the world as a viable tactic.

There are professional snipers who snipe for their country and there are snipers who snipe for personal ambition or profit. The act is the same even if the reasons behind the act are different.

 

[4v50 Gary]

In writing my book about the sharpshooter and the sniper, I did not include bushwhackers. The distinction can be hard to discern. We generally think of snipers as military trained personnel or law enforcement officers who are authorized and equipped to use rifles equipped with optical devices. However, the term sniper has been applied by both the media, law enforcement and the military to civilians who "snapped" like Charles Whitman, Lee Harvey Oswald and now our dynamic doofesses Mohammed & Malvo. Trouble arises when opportunistic politicians seize upon the moment to outlaw "sniper rifles." It is evident here in California where we are not allowed by our overlords to have .50 caliber rifles even though no .50 caliber rifle was ever involved in a bushwhacking incident in this state.

 

[Officers'Wife]

That said, I do not think that the shots made by the DC "snipers" warranted the use of the term. They were shooters, if anything.

Personally I believe criminals or murderers would be the more accurate terms. The tools of their crime do not define them, only the crime.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

Bushwackers are murderers. Snipers are proffesionals killing for a just cause. Just how I see it.

 

[rocky branch]

So the ambushes I set against NVA and VC trail guides along the Cambodian Border during my two tours makes me a murderere and a bushwhacker?

You need more daylight.

Sniping is a dirty job, not to be glorified, so is ambushing, so is hand to hand and hair teeth and eyeball fighting.

Big difference is in those who actually do it and those who sit around flapping their gums about it.

I don't miss that stuff, but I sure miss the company of guys who were willing and able to do it.

 

[Shadow Man]

but I sure miss the company of guys who were willing and able to do it.

The bonds formed between brothers in combat can be replicated no where else.

 

[Aran]

sniper [verb, no object] to shoot at individuals as opportunity offers from a concealed or distant position: The enemy was sniping from the roofs.

I see nothing about this word having to do with honor, specific distance, motive, etc.

 

[cesarv]

If anything, shooting from a hidden postion without the target's knowledge might be considered dishonorable.

 

[cambeul41]

If anything, shooting from a hidden postion without the target's knowledge might be considered dishonorable.

You think those at war should "fight fairly" and give the other chap a chance?

 

[sheepdog]

...I'm sure glad the men who won our freedom didn't know that they were dishonorable...such a comment smacks of ignorance...war is nasty in any form...whether you drop a bomb from a few thousand feet in the air or place a land mine...shoot from cover or face to face...but we'd better be eternally grateful that American men and now women have left the safety of their homes and the comfort of their families to fight those nasty wars so that we can sit here in safe neighborhoods and drink coffee and freely speak our minds...hopefully after engaging them!!! When there are 30 of you and 200 of the enemy...you don't march up in pretty ranks with drums and banners...you shoot from ambush in total surprise...or you lose...and you surgically remove specific targets from 800+ yards to save hundreds of lives...read Band of Brothers and tell me about dishonorable...

 

[wishin]

As with many other things, once you get past the book definition, it's all in your point of view. I see it as a real good long distance shooter who snipes.

 

[sheepdog]

...I wish I had a round of .45 ammo for every life saved because of a man lying in the bushes or the sand with a good rifle and the skill to use it well...

 

[ultradoc]

what about plain ol' good guy and bad guy?

 

[sheepdog]

...yup...I'm for the good guy goin' home no matter what it takes!!!

 

[Victor1Echo]

Kill for an organized government, you are a sniper. The rebels, freedom fighters, resisters are the bushwackers. It's all media spin.

 

[rattletrap1970]

I would imagine it depends on whether you are the "sniper" or the "snipee".

 

[Water-Man]

Who is justified to define whether or not sniping is right or wrong?

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Sniping is just a tactic. A person using that tactic can be called a sniper. Yes, there are some highly trained, highly skilled folks who do it professionally, but being highly skilled and highly trained is not necessary to employ this tactic.

I have noticed in several Vietnam and Iraq documentaries that allied personnel come under fire from a clandestine shooter, that shooter is identified as a "sniper" by trained professional military folks. They know nothing of the "sniper's" training, skill, honor, professionalism etc., but know that he is sniping at them. Go figure.

...I'm sure glad the men who won our freedom didn't know that they were dishonorable.

Carlos Hathcock noted in one of his biographies how some of his fellow soldiers did not have respect for snipers, referring to them as Murder, Inc., a label he found offensive. Apparently, snipers were resented by some fellow soldiers because they did not fight as regular soldiers fight. Hathcock could not understand the resentment.

 

[ffr1910]

long distance serial killer

 

[Water-Man]

Could be that's because Hathcock had tunnel vision about that subject.

 

[Yoda]

Maybe I'm not getting through...

"Snipers" in the militry, police, freedom movement = good.
"Bushwacker" who murders innocent people (empasis on MURDER) = bad.

I just suggesting that the media is overusing the term, "sniper," and that it might help our cause if we try to get them to use some other term for "bad guy."

It's the same as the term, "gunman," becoming synomous ithe "crimminal," or TV newscasts always showing an image of a gun when they're talking about crime, even when the crime did not involve a gun.

Should we try to influence others, or should we amuse ourselves with hair-splitting on this site? I don't know anyone who used the term "bushmacking" to describe an ambush in 'Nam, but maybe those who did them did use the term. However, i did myself think that the use of the term "sniper" in relation to the DC snupers was an affront to a lot of good guys... and I'd even say that enemy snipers shooting at our soldiers are more "honorable" than those DC nutjobs. At least they had some cause greater than themselves.

- - - Yoda