Tuesday, October 14, 2014

In California, Woman Injured at Gun Range - Dropped Bullet Discharge

The Sentinal

The Kings County Sheriff’s Office said a 48-year-old woman suffered a bullet wound Sunday following an accident at the Lemoore Sportsman’s Club shooting range.
Maria Ramos was airlifted to Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno after a .22-caliber rim-fire bullet hit the upper portion of her right leg. Deputies say she is currently in stable condition and expected to recover.
When deputies arrived, they learned that Ramos had placed a live .22-caliber bullet onto a table. The bullet reportedly fell off the table and onto the concrete, ultimately causing it to discharge toward the victim’s leg.
Deputies said it appeared that the victim was practicing good gun safety.
Is such a thing even possible? It's a new one on me.  I suppose the woman "was practicing good gun safety" but bad bullet safety.

30 comments:

  1. "Is such a thing even possible? It's a new one on me."

    My first impulse is to call BS on the story. .22lr is very light and I don't think it would have sufficient mass to cause it to go off by dropping from a bench. Plus, if it did happen to discharge when dropped, its velocity would be much lower because it doesn't have a chamber and barrel surrounding it to help impart velocity while all of the powder burns.
    Outside of the barrel, most of the pressure would escape to the side as the bullet separated from the cartridge. In fact, since the bullet normally weighs more, the brass would travel faster than the bullet. However, the police seem convinced,

    "It discharged, hitting Ramos in the leg. The sheriff's office says this kind of accident is rare, but it can happen with a .22 caliber bullet."

    http://abc30.com/news/woman-injured-in-lemoore-shooting-range-accident/348656/

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    1. We'll have to watch this one closely. I may have to add something to the "one strike you're out" list.

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    2. Would that include anyone who ejects an unfired round from the chamber in order to clear the weapon but fails to catch it before it hits the ground?

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    3. Just when I think you can't get any crazier you consider adding "ever dropped a piece of ammo" to the list of disqualifications.

      Frankly, I hope you do adopt this position and convince all the gun control groups to do the same, guaranteeing that everyone will see you as ludicrous scolds who aren't worth paying attention to.

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    4. It was a joke, guys. Could you really not tell that?

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    5. It was a joke, guys. Could you really not tell that?

      Given the insanity of many other things you have proposed, presumably in all seriousness, it would be useful if you could give us a rim shot when this particular insane infringement on that which shall not be infringed is a "joke."

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    6. Yeah, it's pretty hard to tell with you. Was it also a joke when you says you would want to see "real looking" toy guns and BB guns banned with no grandfather clause (criminalizing possession without exception?)? That's gotta be a joke too, right?

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    7. It might be an example of Poe's Law, but more likely Kurt and TS are just pretending to not have understood. That Anonymous seems to have really believed it, which says more about him than it does about me.

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    8. Mikeb, you espouse restrictions I have never seen anyone else advocate. There is no degree of restrictiveness with regard to gun regulation, however ludicrous, for which your support would seem implausible to me. In fact, if you now say that the real joke was your announcement that the dropped ammunition gun ban law was a joke, and that you actually really do support such a law, I won't be all that surprised.

      I had actually not been familiar with Poe's Law until Anon mentioned it--I had to look it up. Perfect description of what happened here.

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    9. Nah, you're doing the Pretend-Poe Law. And you're very good at it.

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    10. Have it your way, mind reader (albeit a monumentally inept one).

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  2. Letting your bullets roll around lose and fall on the floor where they discharge is practicing good safety? No wonder gun loons are killing people all over the country.

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  3. This was a .22 rimfire round--the extended rim on it is the primer rather than the little primer in the center of most other rounds, so this kind of freak accident is more possible with it. I've only ever seen it happen in videos where the round was dropped 20-30 feet to see if it could happen--don't know what the magic height is to get detonation. As for the injury, I doubt the bullet itself hit her leg--laws of motion being what they are, she probably got a piece of shrapnel from the casing shredding as happens when they discharge outside a gun barrel.

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    1. Nice guessing! The report said the bullet hit her. If this round is more susceptible to this kind of discharge, then users of this ammunition should know that and take care, which this gun loon did not. Since this DID happen your video example is wrong.

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    2. Anon at 6:21 PM

      The report said she suffered from a bullet wound. In the same report it said that she placed a live bullet on the table, referring to the entire .22 cartridge. It also referred to the round as a rimfire bullet. Lots of inexact language which basically just tells us she was injured.

      As for my statement that it was probably the brass case or a piece of it that hit her, the physics are simple--actions produce equal and opposite reactions. Fire a gun, and the forces involved push equally on the bullet and the gun. The bullet, being less massive, fires forward at a high velocity. The gun, and the shooter, being far more massive, react much less violently to the equal amount of rearward force--recoil.

      In this case, the bullet has high mass and the cartridge has low mass, so the bullet accelerates much less when the same force is applied.

      If you are going to make fun of someone, perhaps you should actually know what you are talking about.


      As for the comment about the video I mentioned, how was I wrong? I didn't say this couldn't happen. Instead, I cited the video as evidence that it is possible. All I said was I didn't know what the minimum height was for this to be possible. Apparently you were unable to understand that that was not a denial of this being possible. I feel sorry for you.

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    3. I didn't make fun of you, I said according to the wording of the report you were wrong. Until further evidence is reported, I'll stick with that. Do you always accuse people of making fun of you because they point out the reported facts disagree with your opinion?

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    4. Anon at 6:17

      Sorry troll, that's all the food you get.

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    5. Sorry anon., I won't believe your delusional opinion against the reported facts. Prove the facts wrong first.

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  4. So Mikeb, if I understand correctly, you favor a life sentence of forcible disarmament for dropping a gun--should we now expect you to expand that to a dropped round of ammunition?

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    1. You beat me to it. I just wrote that to ss.

      Is it my imagination, or are we becoming synchronized is some kind of antithetical balancing way.

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    2. Is it my imagination, or are we becoming synchronized is some kind of antithetical balancing way.

      I sure as hell hope not. Even being the "Anti-Mikeb" is more of a connection than I'd want. Besides, it was a fairly obvious question, not really requiring any kind of "synchronization."

      By the way, years ago I was assembling my 1911, and when I tried to lock in the bushing over the recoil spring plug, the spring got away from me and shot the plug out, bouncing it off the center of my forehead. I had upped the spring to (I think) 24 lbs., so the gun could safely handle the powerful .45 Super cartridge (the source of my "45superman" moniker), so the plug had enough velocity to leave a bruise for a few days.

      Embarrassingly clumsy, but pretty close to harmless. Does that put me on the "must be disarmed" list?

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    3. Not sure, definitely the idiot gun loon list.

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    4. 24 lbs? Ouch! Was disassembling a Cz 52 when my tool bent and allowed the barrel to shoot out of the thing--flew 7 feet and took a divot out of the drywall--and that was just a 14.5 lb spring.


      Mike,

      Your desire to disarm the clumsy is already silly looking enough. To now demand disarmament for anyone who drops a bullet...please, do it that the world may see your madness.

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    5. Would you guys accept a life-time disarmament for 2nd offense clumsiness? This is a one-time offer.

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    6. In reply to your "offer," Mikeb, I have two words: "Shoveitupyour" and "ass."

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    7. No, I don't accept your "offer". I don't accept lifetime disarmament based on mere clumsiness, or disability for that matter.

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    8. Would you guys accept a life-time disarmament for 2nd offense clumsiness?

      So where were you going with this "one-time 'offer'" (as if you were in a position to make and withdraw "offers")? Were you considering a "two strikes you're out" policy? Sorta goes against your fanatical, extremist grain, doesn't it?

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    9. I keep telling you I'm reasonable and flexible.

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    10. Yeah--you tell me that. It's the convincing me (and many others) that gives you so much trouble.

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