Posted on 06/20/2011 3:01:45 AM PDT by markomalley
An Old West shootout staged as part of a charity fundraiser may have come a little too close to the real thing when three tourists were injured.
South Dakota authorities say the three were injured Friday night at a shootout in Hill City and taken to a hospital about 30 miles away. A Pennington County sheriff’s spokesman says the tourists’ injuries are not life-threatening.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
However Brenda Nolting, the president of the Hill City Area Chamber of Commerce, said the incident may spell the end for the show.
"There won't be another shoot-out," she told a local newspaper. "In my mind, it's done for good. This just cannot happen." Lieutenant Marty Graves, of the Pennington County Sheriff's Office, said an investigation was under way but that the incident appeared to have been accidental.
Cream of wheat loads .....cereal killers ?
A gun is a gun, and anything that fires out of its barrel is a projectile capable of killing.
Next time load some blanks in those Hoglegs, okay?
The Journal article I read yesterday, contained a bit more information and talked about two groups involved with the reenactment, one has never had an issue, and has very strict safety regarding distance from the crowd and loading not allowed by individual shooters. The other group is the one involved, and has had more than one problem during the shoot.
Everyone involved including news agencies, have been asked not to comment on supposed reasons, suspected or otherwise, for the injuries to onlookers until the investigation is complete.
Live fire always adds some authenticity to the show.
——that was...really uninformative——
After reading the articles, my take is......nothing happened
Either nothing happened, or...something happened. But you didn’t hear it from me.
Even blanks can be dangerous. They all have some kind of "wadding" to keep the powder charge in place. Even a piece of fabric at high velocity can cause injury to vulnerable tissue (like eyes).
So yes, you CAN "shoot your eye out". Even with blanks.
And if any of you are members of my reenacting club, this ain't the time or place to bring up that flatlander kid I shot at Burton. By mistake, of course.
I never liked that kid anyway, he had squinty eyes...
(None of us have ever encountered a reckless person at the shooting range, have we?)
As someone has already noted on this thread, that's how Brandon Lee died. Thought he was gonna be a funny guy and cap himself in the head with a "blank" - which would, one would suppose, have been a "blank" at 50 yards, but up against his cranium, guess what?
It wasn't a blank.
But 'responsible' gun fighters giving a show would never 1) Aim At The Spectators and 2) Be far enough away from each that the wadding in the 'blank' wouldn't reach the other.
Note that 'responsible' is the operative word
As to Brandon Lee' death -- as I recall that his 'prop Gun' did have 'Blanks'. But by putting it to his skull the wadding in the 'blank' still had enough energy to kill him.
There was another young actor (white guy) who died the same way and around the same time as Brandon Lee during the filming of his TV Show. He too 'accidentally' killed himself with his 'Prop Gun w/ Blanks'. Can't recall his name.
Both were a long time ago so maybe Lee's gun didn't have blanks, and I'm mis remembering (I didn't check wiki). But I find that hard to believe as the Prop Manager on a set watches any REAL firearms used like they were Atom Bombs.
(they have them more than the actor does. scene over - give me that gun))
The problem is, all that stuff flying out the end of the barrel doesn't do what a bullet or lead shot for example would do. When you set off a big ol' .45 colt case with some propellant and then stuffed full of cream of wheat, (good Lord the stupidity) that cream of wheat is gonna still be moving at what, 800fps? In almost every direction once it leaves the barrel.
Also, in the case of these "misinformed" hollywood actors with repressed suicidal tendencies, just the expanding gases coming out the end of the barrel are enough to blast your brains out even without any kind of projectile of any kind. To borrow a line from Tom Clancy, "It might as well have been an elephant gun."
Brandon Lee was not killed by putting his own prop gun against his head.
He was killed by a "prop" weapon by another actor because idiots loaded real guns with real ammunition where the powder was removed. The primers remained. One of the "dummy" rounds fired and sent a bullet into the barrel (squib load). Later, in a separate scene, the gun was loaded with actual blanks, there was enough pressure from the blank rounds to force the bullet out of the barrel and Brandon was shot in the abdomen - the bullet also struck his spine. He died in surgery.
I think every Democrat should attend this Wild West show.
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