Student dies after firing prop gun

[PvtPyle]

I will be on Ch 4 tonight speaking on this very subject. As a professional trainer and prop master there are two people to blame here.

FIRST and foremost the person responsible for this event is the kid who killed himself. I would be qurious to see what his comments were right before, his attitude and state of mind before in recent days was. Was he in a bad place or was he just emotionally immature and stupid?

And second, where was the gun owner? They should have had a trained and responsible person on site that was task only with minding the gun. A gun wrangler. The gun comes out for the scene and goes directly back to him when the scene is done. His sole mission in life is to watch the gun and what happens with it.

Of course blame can also be placed with the parents IF he never received proper training in firearms when he lives in a county where there are tons of firearms. There is plenty of blame to go around, but it starts and ends with him.

Sean, find out what you can about the kid and his mindset and let us know.

For the rest you can see how dangerous blanks can be when ch 4 posts the story on their web site. I took an AK blank and fired it at a piece of sheet rock from 18" and contact distance. The AK blank has about 15% more powder but it has a 16" barrel instead of the 4" or 6" the pistol has.

 

[Schofield3]

Sean,
My condolences to the family as well, it’s such a shame to see a young person lose their life so needlessly; please do keep us informed as any new info comes along…

Scho

 

[A-190]

Over twenty years ago a friend and fellow police officer was killed in a training accident with blanks. Tragic how he died. We trained a lot with .38 blanks in those days and a academy student shoved a revolver into his belly and fired the blank. Terry was gone before we got him to the hospital..........

 

[jakemccoy]

Blank is the wrong word. That's half the problem.

 

[DaveBeal]

This story brings back a memory from my high school days, 35 years ago. We were doing a production of "You Can't Take It With You". It has a scene in which a basement full of fireworks explodes offstage. We planned to do it by throwing firecrackers into a 55 gal drum in the wing, but a guy who was a city fireman and team trainer volunteered to let me use his .38Spl with a handful of blanks. I fired them by kneeling next to drum, holding the gun inside. Still foolish, though, since no one was wearing ear protection. I had no idea at the time that blanks could be so dangerous.