Any July 4th horror stories?

[Preacherman]

Any idiots in your part of the world who used July 4th as an excuse for mayhem, dumb stuff, and general stupidity?

My contribution, courtesy of the local PD, who are still laughing:

Goon tries to impress mother, siblings and (new) girlfriend by making monster firework for the Fourth. Goon buys about $50 worth of fireworks (assorted), cuts them all open, decants the contents into a 2-liter Coke bottle, and places this carefully on the lawn in front of his house. Scratches head, tries to figure out how to light said bottle without a rolled paper fuse. Has inspiration. Takes fuse from cut-open firework, lights fuse, and drops into open neck of bottle. Resultant blast removes his clothing, gives him flashburns up and down the front of his body, blinds him in one eye, and cauterizes his tongue, which he presumably had between his teeth and lips while trying to think (an activity which won't be necessary for a while now). Also breaks several windows in house and neighborhood. Mother is not impressed, and when police arrive, is seated upon her recumbent son, beating him heavily around the head, questioning his intelligence in somewhat less than the Queen's English. Girlfriend has left, saying she wants a safer boyfriend.

Ouch.

 

[Sportcat]

Where's a video camera when you need one!?!? C'mon someone HAD to have filmed that.

 

[goalie]

It's only funny until you have to take care of them in the ER, while keeping a straight face.

 

[bogie]

There I wuz, unpacking my latest acquisition, a Lee Pro 1000, which will do nothing but .38 specials, when the rattle of what would sound to the untrained ear like fully automatic fire penetrated The Bunker.

I hurridly reloaded my 22 _ounce_ beverage, and headed for tactical rear deck, about the time the last of the giant string of fireworks a block or so over finished. It was a nice night, so I stayed out a moment or three, then I watched the news, and went to bed...

 

[MAURICE]

Well, nothing gun related, but here goes.
At approx 0430 I was headed to a friends house to drop him off after a long night of blowing stuff up and playing Halo 2. While coming around a corner I heard a rubbing sound coming from the front right wheel of my vehicle. Then I felt a wobble. While approaching another intersection I jokingly said to him "Cory, I hope this wheel stays on long enough to get home". As if it were on que there was a loud SNAP! and the front right wheel keeps going straight. The problem was that the rest of the vehicle was turning left.
Pow! The rotor hit the ground, and so did the front end of the car. Resulting damage doesnt actually look too bad. Needs a new fender, new rotors, possible a brake line. Other than that it looks ok so far. Have not yet had a chance to study it closely.

After stopping (did not have much of a choice at this point) and doing a safety and damage assesment I called dispatch and they had a unit out quickly. The tire rolled through the intersection and hit a curb. The car came to a stop blocking only 1 lane of traffic on a 4 lane hiway. No injuries and no property damage, so all is well.

The funny thing (other than the excellent timing of my comment) was watching the wheel just bounce along casually through the intersection even as I was trying to bring the vehicle to a safe stop.

Guess this kind of stuff has to happen to someone. I have a sense of humor.Might as well be me.

 

[444]

I am not going to start telling war stories, but I work as a firefighter. I have seen many an idiot burn down their own house or that of their neighbors exercising their right to set off fireworks.

 

[El Tejon]

Well, I happen to work in the stupidity field. "Hold my beer and watch this, Aunt Mom."

Alcohol, gun powder, an seventh grade education and a complete lack of dental hygenie are never pretty. Had several folks around here forget that calling attention to one's self is not the right thing to do when on probation.

Several arrested, none hospitalized, fortunately.

 

[444]

I see that happen a lot.
Some idiot gets into an argument with their significant other or another moron. One decides to make the argument all the more dramatic by calling an ambulance. Turns out that one or both of them have warrants and they, in effect, turned themselves in because they are idiots.
Happens every day.

 

[Sportcat]

While not exactly gun related...

http://wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3553635&nav=0RaMbkiC

Gator attacks man in NC lake

(Wilmington, North Carolina-NBC) July 4, 2005 - In Wilmington, North Carolina's Greenfield Lake there are plenty of gators, hungry gators.

Floyd Masters was spending his holiday weekend along the lake, when he decided to take a dip.

Despite several posted signs warning of alligators in the area, Masters jumped into the water. Moments later, he was attacked by one of the ten-foot reptiles who bit his right arm.

Two men saw the attack and dragged Masters out of the lake. They used a shirt as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. Masters was treated for bites to his chest, stomach and hands, as well.

Police and wildlife officials are investigating. Masters' injuries are not considered life threatening.

 

[mzmtg]

It's too early...

Any REALLY good stories wont be over yet...

 

[AZTOY]

We had the Korean police show up after firing off some fireworks offpost . :banghead:

I think it had something to do with, 30 drunk Army guys shooting bottlerocket at eack other.

 

[Evil_Ed]

Maurice,
You are not alone. I had almost the same exact thing (without the timely comment) happen to me with the second car I owned. All the lug bolts sheered off, thankfully I was slowing down and pulling into the turn lane when it happened. You are right, it is very surreal watching your tire continue on through the intersection. Mine made it through a busy intersection and bounced out into an empty field at the corner. I can't believe none of the cars was hit by my rogue tire as it was rush hour and the road was packed with cars.

On the current 4th safety subject... no injuries/stupidity to report. We had the kids out on the slip and slide all afternoon so the yard was completely soaked before we started with the fireworks. Saw a lot of nice fireworks throughout the neighborhood and heard no fire engines or cop cars the entire time (much better than our old neighborhood). I love being a homeowner in a nice neighborhood.

 

[KnightHawk67]

Wheel falling off is bad, imagine being on a 4 lane roadway, about to cross another 4 lane that always has heavy traffic, when the light turns red. You hit the brakes and they slap to the floor, and stay there.

There is a lot to be said about the speed the human brain cranks up to in times like that.

Luckily, there was a Moses moment in cross traffic and I shot thru unscathed. About half a block later the rear brake cylinder finally got the car stopped.

It turns out the hydraulic line that goes between the frame clip and the front wheel brake assembly ruptured and sprayed all my brake fluid on the ground.

No fireworks accidents, but I tried to become a Roman candle. ( if the brake fluid would have sprayed back onto the exhaust header )

 

[TheOtherOne]

I got a sunburn on my nose.

 

[Harry Tuttle]

Yesterday, i taught a young lad how to safely ignite a hotdog cooking fire with white gas.
After stacking kindling and sticks and adding a top layer of 2 inch timber,
we spent a couple minutes on proper long distance wooden match flicking.

Once he had that technique mastered, i added a half cup of "boyscout juice", stepped back to the firingline, and gave the fire command.

He delayed the ignition for 5 seconds, so the vapors built up and spilled out of the fire ring

wooooooomp!

 

[Rupestris]

Harry,
I'll let you in on a little secret. I use three or four Matchlite briquettes to start camp/cooking fires. They light easy and burn for about five minutes. Long enough to get everything else started.

Turned out to be a rather uneventful 4th here. Rain moved in just before dark and slowed everything down.
No major fires, no ambulances or fire trucks. It was entertaining listening to my sister-in-law going balistic because bottle rockes and other debris from the neighborhood was landing in her pool.

 

[Zundfolge]

I was enjoying myself until I read George Hill's July 1st blog entry.

then I got all depressed

http://www.madogre.com/News.html

Friday, July 1st, 2005: I've got mixed feelings about the 4th of July this year. With the Supremes saying that it is okay for a local municipal government to take private property from one guy and sell it to another guy... I'm just not feeling it. If a guy breaks into your home, steals something, sells it to a pawn shop – that's illegal. But if the City takes your whole freaking house and pawns it off – well that's just fine. ***? That is so blatantly unconstitutional that it inst even funny. The open door for gross abuse of this, for revenge, favoritism, for kickbacks... I just can not see how this decision was reached with a straight face. Guys, this 4th will be a Memorial. Independence day... it used to be. It used to be.

My faith in the system is broken as it stands now. But I do believe in this country, and I do believe in the organization and processes that make the system work. The only problem is that evil people have been for generations eating away at our freedoms and liberty. The system is right – but the people in the system are wrong. Very wrong. The USA was founded on the principles of INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY. Freedom in the purist form. If you think otherwise, screw you... because you are ignorant of the details of history and where the Founding Fathers were coming from. I wont be calibrating the 4th this year. I'll be mourning it.

Then I read Kim du Toit's response to George's lament and got even more depressed.
http://www.kimdutoit.com/ee/index.php/rant/single/8553/

 

[Trebor]

Wheel falling off is bad, imagine being on a 4 lane roadway, about to cross another 4 lane that always has heavy traffic, when the light turns red. You hit the brakes and they slap to the floor, and stay there.

Been there. Done that. In my case even though I popped the emergency brake I still thought I was gonna go into the intersection. I wound up shoving the tranny into "Park" to stop the car. Yeah, bad on the transmission, but getting nailed by a semi would have been worse.

As for fireworks, I worked in the ER too long to buy or shoot any cheap fireworks. I just watch the town displays and the occasional neighbor who's trying to blow themselves up.

Gun related: Any reports of idiots shooting in the air in your areas this year? I haven't heard of any around here.

 

[lee n. field]

Nothing real horrible or interesting, except my son modified my lighter so it has a six inch flame, the better to light our (technically illegal in this People's State) fireworks. Must be something he learned in Boy Scouts.

 

[P95Carry]

That guy referred to by P'man in opening post - had obviously never heard of cannon fuze!!! Heck, a few inches of that and he'd be in good shape, except for the maternal beating, and a P'd off neighborhood!!!!

Darwin is probably counting up his successes from this weekend and I think it is early yet for the main reports to come in! Some folks somewhere local had a good shoot (by sound of it) - even some full auto - hopefully no gun oriented mishaps from that.

As they say - watch this space.

 

[mfree]

My 4'th horror story was from last year... driving down the road, not feeling right, and realizing that I just drove the last mile and a half unconscious.

Drove right to the emergency room where they determined I was puttering around with a BP of 225/110. Stress reaction, long story behind it too

I'm frellin' lucky I didn't stroke out that day...

 

[Harry Tuttle]

Matchlite briquettes

Matchlite briquettes do not go "Foooooooooom!" as if that olde wurm Smaug smote the barbie from Mount Doom.

I like using waxen starter stix for campfires, but they take 3 minutes to achive what the white gas did in 3 seconds.

Young lads are tempted by the powers of Boyscout Juice.
Its important to teach them how to safely harness the conflageration so they don't end up like Preacherman's citizen.

Heck, Pyro 101 has a whole chapter on fuse trailing gunpowder piles
that the "Goon" obviously missed.

 

[MechAg94]

I had a horror story for a little while, but it had a happy ending.

I was shooting my Armalite AR-15 with HoloSight with my Dad yesterday. We were celebrating the 4th by shooting our US issue firearms. I was trying to make some adjustments to the scope and make sure it was zeroed in adequately.

Anyway, the gun was acting real eratic after the first set of groups. It failed to feed a couple times, failed to eject, and the bolt failed to close a few times. I didn't know what was going on. Finally, it failed to feed once. I looked down at it and there was some little piece of brass wedged along side the cartridge preventing it from dropping into the barrel and holding the bolt open. We made the mistake of pulling back on the bolt and the little piece fell out. Not knowing what it was, we started looking for it and looking at the fired brass. We found at 3 cases with the primer section missing. We figured that one of those got caught up in the bolt and was giving us most of the problems. We pulled out the bolt to double check and found nothing. The movement of the bolt appeared okay. We were out in the woods and couldn't find the small primer pieces.

I fired some more and started to get ejection problems almost immediately. My Dad suggested looking to make sure there was nothing jamed in the ejector. There didn't appear to be anything there. We ended up field stripping it again. This time, I pulled that pin out of the bolt and pulled the bolt apart. On the back of the lug piece I found a little piece of brass maybe a couple milimeters long and thin. It was inside the bolt and likely fouled up the action. I figured it was pinched off one of those primer pieces that got bent up around the bolt.

We wiped everything down, put it back together, and everything operated just perfectly. I shot off a 40 round mag of Wolf ammo before we left without any problems whatsoever. My Holosight was nice and accurate. I was ecstatic that it was not the rifle but the cheap ammo I was trying to shoot up.

Lesson: I was trying to burn up some old brass ammo I had. I think it was some no-name ammo I bought at a gun show that comes in clear plastic bags. I think the lesson is to Not use cheap ammo. It is just not worth it. Stick to factory or ammo that YOU trust. If memory serves, this is the same ammo from a year or so ago where one cartridge came apart on me as I tried to eject the unfired cartridge. The bullet stayed in the barrel and it dumped powder all in the inside of the rifle. A pain to clean out. I have bought this ammo before just to use for breakin or to shoot up. I don't think I was waste money on it again.

 

[HighVelocity]

In our little community of Hurst, TX last night you'd have thought a tanker of Budweiser had flipped over because there were thousands of people in the streets.
Perched upon our folding chairs along with hundreds of other tailgaiters in the parking lot of Cavender's Boot City/Dollar General, we watched some folks zoom around on mini bikes and ate ice cream from Braums while we waited for the fireworks.
The fireworks were pretty good. The best part though was when the grand finale ended. A woman near us of substantial proportion yelled out, GIT R DONE!

Then we spent 30 minutes trying to get out of the parking lot.

 

[jhisaac1]

Not exactly 4th of July related but there was a lot of "red" and "white" (no blue). Took a look at my daughters tonsils. Hmmmm. Probably time to go see the doctor. Initial tests came back negative for both strep and mono. What's left? She was a real trooper when they took the blood. Those needles are big when your arm is only 10 years old.