Are snipers cowards

[GarlicGuy]

Not in my book.

[Fullmetal89]

We have this asshole at work who rages when he plays Call of Duty or Battlefield during breaks. He gets mad when his opponents don't let him kill them. Like literally, he'll yell things like "oh come on! just let me kill you!"

Our supervisors usually don't let him near the xbox anymore.

You guys should give him a set of boo boo keys for him to play with next time he throws a tantrum.

[Flutterguy]

Pretty sure they're specialists.

[vetinari]

Snipers have the highest mortality rates of any infantry, actually.

[esach88]

So snipers kill people without being seen. From a distance. The chances of them being killed when they engage targets is minimal. Is it cowardly the way they do their jobs?

It's not CoD where they camp in a corner for the whole round and rack up 50 kills. Sniper usually takes a shot maybe two and has to relocate or get fucked. It can actually be incredibly dangerous and snipers tend to have bounties on them.

[Ginantonicus]

This is PTSS that is common for all veteran soldiers not just snipers. Snipers have it easier, they don't have to see comrades dying around them.

Calling you out on this one. What about when the sniper can hear his mates getting shot over the radio, has no shot, must hold position and can't help. What about when a kid or woman is the target. A grunt can see that its a kid or woman, a sniper could see details about the person.

Shooting a target from hundreds (if not 1,000+) yards away takes a lot of skill.

Just found out a guy I work with was a sniper trainer for the army so I asked him how hard it was to hit something at 1000 yards and his reply was "Any mug can hit something at 1000 yards. They just have to buy a good enough rifle and download the app. Make it 1.8k yards and it starts to get difficult".

[Ehrenpanzer]

If you have a sound suppressor then you can fire as many shots as you want. The only sound an observer would hear is the sonic boom as the bullet passed them, which they would hear in the direction the bullet was relative to them (if it passes on their right the sound will be on their right, even if fired from over to their left).

At night you would probably be in trouble since using a silencer usually precludes the use of a flash suppressor, but in daylight a flash wouldn't be visible so you could fire with absolute stealth. The crack of a bullet's sonic boom does nothing to indicate the direction a bullet was fired from unless there are multiple people in multiple locations near your target with adequate knowledge of Doppler effect, sonic booms, and in constant communication to triangulate where a shot came from relative to what each of them heard... But the chances of that are remote and even then it is not exact.

If not using a silencer though, you are correct. It would only take a single shot for observers to hear the explosion of the shot and know where it came from.

I dont know what Halo game you get your information from, but this is all complete bull...please actually have FIRED a real sniper rifle or understand the extreme limitations of "sound suppressors" when using large calibre weapons before posting

[Super Friendly Kitty Cat]

So snipers kill people without being seen. From a distance. The chances of them being killed when they engage targets is minimal. Is it cowardly the way they do their jobs?

No.

You must have never heard of "White Death" Simo Häyhä.

One of the most badass guys ever.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_H%C3%A4yh%C3%A4
http://www.badassoftheweek.com/hayha.html
http://www.simohayha.com/

[Piglord]

I was a sniper. I may have been a coward to some, but I lived. I can handle that.

[Super Friendly Kitty Cat]

I was a sniper. I may have been a coward to some, but I lived. I can handle that.

The real cowards are the politicians who start wars, or continue them, like Obama and his Drone Wars.

[ro9ue]

Getting an advantage over your opponent is just being intelligent.

[King Shark]

Ninjas kill people without being seen. Yet I don't see anyone calling them cowards.

[Powerogue]

By that logic no one should use guns, we should all just beat each other to death with our fists. You can get really close and personal that way!

[Deleted]

In a war it doesn't matter if you're a coward or you're brave. All it matters is if you're alive or dead and if you completed your objective or not.

[Puupi]

In a war it doesn't matter if you're a coward or you're brave. All it matters is if you're alive or dead and if you completed your objective or not.

Works in peace, too.

[breadisfunny]

Military snipers were traditionally viewed with suspicion, even by their fellow soldiers and Marines. Only in the last two decades, experts say, have snipers’ reputations turned from reviled to heroic.

‘Everybody hates snipers until you go to combat.’

im pretty sure you mean the last five decades. as snipers were used extensively in vietnam as well.