(almost) Darwin award: teen shoots self in face

[wacki]

Teen accidentally shoots self in face

New Port Richey, Florida — A teenager has been hospitalized with facial injuries caused when a bullet he found fired while held in a vice, the Pasco County Sheriff's Office reported Wednesday.

The victim, Alex Carman, 15, was taken to Bayfront Medical Center with injuries to the right upper cheek.

Investigators say the Riverridge H.S. student found a 380 bullet on the side of a road, brought it home and put it into a vice. He apparently struck the the primer end of the bullet with a metal screw, causing it to fire.

They say a 22-caliber bullet pierced with a screw was also found near the vice. On the ground was a hammer and a small pool of blood.

Investigators say it "appears Alex placed the bullet in the vice, hammered a screw into the primer causing the bullet to explode."

They say it appears to be an accidental injury. There were no charges.

http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=46159

and here is a similar thing w/ a RPG

http://darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2006-04.html

 

[MSGT9410]

"There were no charges"

There are times at which stupidity should be a crime.

 

[Jim March]

Well...no, I don't call this "almost a Darwin". Dumb, yeah, but this was never a lethal situation.

OK. Y'all understand that you can toss bullets in a campfire and it's no big deal? Without a cylinder or barrel or whatever around the shell, it ruptures and spills energy into places other than the bullet. So the net kinetic energy is lower than when a gun is involved, by a lot.

Second, the shell is lighter than the bullet so it goes flying off faster, BUT has almost no penetration ability and loses speed rapidly in the air.

In this case, the shell in the vice sped the bullet up some but the odds of it still having lethal energy are pretty dang low.

---

Now a loaded gun in a fire, that's another matter. It can kill. A revolver can sometimes spit multiple lethal rounds in a cook-off, one from the barrel and others from just the cylinder, the number depending on the gun. A five-shot snubby will generally spit three lethal slugs, a six or seven shooter generally five.

 

[Lucky]

If guns weren't a forbidden topic then safety could be taught in schools. If the school library just had books then kids could learn for themselves. If they didn't block internet sites they could research even without books.

I was lucky to get some exposure to firearms through an outdoor class. But afaik if they can teach sex-ed then they can teach firearms safety, for the same reasons. And parents could have their kids sit out of the class, for the same reasons.

Hypocrites.


P.S.
Please don't throw ammo in my campfire. Murphy's law, it will land in the unlikely position that gives confinement and also points at me.

 

[Cliff47]

Not really qualifies as a Darwin Award winner, but definitely in the Honorable Mention category. ROFL trying not to spray soda on my keyboard.

 

[Kali Endgame]

Investigators say the Riverridge H.S. student found a 380 bullet on the side of a road, brought it home and put it into a vice. He apparently struck the the primer end of the bullet with a metal screw, causing it to fire.

They say a 22-caliber bullet pierced with a screw was also found near the vice. On the ground was a hammer and a small pool of blood.

My reading comprehension isn't that great, so what was fired a 22 or 380 round?

 

[never_retreat]

Dumb a$$ reporters

Investigators say the Riverridge H.S. student found a 380 bullet on the side of a road, brought it home and put it into a vice. He apparently struck the the primer end of the bullet with a metal screw, causing it to fire.
380 bullet? not a complete cartridge? Struck the primer end?
They say a 22-caliber bullet pierced with a screw was also found near the vice. On the ground was a hammer and a small pool of blood.
How did it get to 22 cal now? 2nd shooter? 2 vises? How did the screw get into the bullet?
Investigators say it "appears Alex placed the bullet in the vice, hammered a screw into the primer causing the bullet to explode."Maybe this idiot needs to invite his dumb reporter friend over and they can play with grenades(without pins)Do the world a favor ad kill two idiots with one stone. And he is old enough to be in high school?

 

[Il Duca]

He fired a .380 that injured him but he had done it before with a .22, hence it being found by the vise. This is one of those things you have to hope is too stupid to be true. Sad thing is one of my coworkers caught his 17 y.o. with a 3 1/2 12 ga shell in a vise whacking it with a hammer . How bad would that suck?

 

[Zen21Tao]

We can only hope this boy genius never uses his little bullet experiments to try to solve the age old 9mm v .45ACP debate.

 

[MikeWSC]

Maybe if a few of the less enlightened parents would send their kids (and themselves) to a Hunter Safety class or Basic Firearms class, dumb acts like
this wouldn't happen. My son started learning about firearms at 5 or 6, never denied him the opportunity to look at equipment when he asked. Never had him sneek a peek or pull stunts like this.

Skateboards on the other hand , well, the folks sure are nice in the E.R. !


Best in the New Year............ Mike

 

[Geronimo45]

I guess this means that the .380 doesn't have enough stopping power. Better take this thread to the autoloader forum to answer the 5-page thread there.

 

[carterbeauford]

Didn't you hear? .22GAP is a shortened and necked down .380ACP.