4 Year Old Girl Killed by Bullet Fragments

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RogueLeader

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A four year old girl was hit in the head by shrapnel from a stray bullet on Sunday when her grandfather and father were out shooting in the desert around Sloan, Nevada. She was sitting on the tailgate of their truck, when she fell to the ground. At first the two men thought she fell off the tailgate and struck her head on the ground, but hospital x-rays showed bullet fragments. Apparently, the stray round was fired elsewhere, but it is unknown where the shot originated from. She died on Wednesday.

If anyone wants the details, they can type in www.lvrj.com, and look at the back issues.

Please be very careful when taking your children out shooting with you, especially when out in the woods, or the open desert. You never know who is out there and where they are.
 
Oh no, that's tragic. Was she hit by fragments or a stray round? I wouldn't think a bullet from a long way off would fragment.
 
I was doing some plinking when I lived in Idaho. I was shooting with rocks in the background about 50 yards out. I shot and then heard my headlight break (my car was parked behind me). A bullet fragment from a ricochet had bounced off a nearly parabolic rock surface and impacted the headlight which means it had to have passed within 2 feet of my thigh.
 
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=472825

WRT the appropriateness of this story for THR. Keeping everyone safe while shooting is a first priority, but uncontrollable situations like other people shooting when you're not aware of them isn't going to provide any lessons learned to take away from this tragedy.

If the family had passed another group of shooters coming in they might have left to return another day to shoot or picked a shooting spot well out of line of the line of fire, even if over a hill since bullets can travel a long distance when they're not fired into a backstop.

If the child was killed by fragments it then brings into question whether she was hit by a ricochet and if the backstop was suitable to be fired into. Rocks produce ricochets that can come back in the direction of the firing line. The lesson to take away would be that rocky backstops are not safe backstops.
 
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