A teenage boy shoots himself with a blank-loaded pistol
The gun somehow fired at about 6:20 p.m. Saturday as Tucker removed it from the locked cabinet in preparation for a show an hour later, Van Fleet said. The shot hit Tucker in the head, and despite being rushed to the hospital, he was dead before 10 p.m.
When I was in combat training in the Marines, we had an instructor put a cleaning rod in an M16 loaded with blanks. He pulled the trigger and lodged the rod into the trunk of a tree. That lesson has stayed with me for my entire life.
A blank simply doesn't have a bullet of lead or metal but still has powder and a primer and makes just as much gas. Most blanks have something in place of the bullet to keep the powder from falling out, and while it won't build up pressure the same way a bullet will, it will still come out of the muzzle at dangerous velocities.
The boy's father says
While his Eagle Scout son knew how to use shotguns and .22-caliber rifles, he had never been trained how to use a pistol because he wasn't old enough. And Tucker didn't know how dangerous blanks can be, his father said. "He was a 15-year-old kid. A lot of adults don't realize a blank can actually kill you," he said.
While his Eagle Scout son knew how to use shotguns and .22-caliber rifles, he had never been trained how to use a pistol because he wasn't old enough. And Tucker didn't know how dangerous blanks can be, his father said.
"He was a 15-year-old kid. A lot of adults don't realize a blank can actually kill you," he said.
I agree that most people don't know that blanks can kill you, but if you were teaching your kid to shoot a rifle, shouldn't you have also taught him the four rules? Rule 2, keeping the muzzle pointed in a safe direction, would have saved this boy's life.
I realize that you're going to need firearms for certain plays, even those that make a pop sound. I can't tell from the article if this was a normal pistol that only fired blanks or if it were a prop pistol with a partially plugged barrel, but either way items like that should not be accessible to students at any time. Most kids seem to get all of their knowledge of guns from TV and movies.
However, this instance just goes to show that even though this prop was supposedly in a locked storage unit, it eventually get into the hands of a young teenager. This could be your child as well, some day. No matter how hard you try, something like this could happen to your kids.
Would your children understand to not touch the gun? Would they, if need be, know to treat the gun as loaded and ensure they kept the muzzle pointed in a safe direction and keep their finger off the trigger?
We teach our children to say "no" to drugs, but don't assume that teaching them so will turn them into an addict. When we instruct them to not take car rides from strangers, we don't believe that will make them more willing to take joy rides. The admonishments we dole out about not playing with knives or touching the hot stove doesn't make them into terrors in the kitchen. Teaching your children safe firearm handling (and even avoidance when younger) will not automatically turn them into gun-nuts.
Please, teach your children safety. Don't let your fear of firearms be a fatal flaw. Remember, it's not a one hour class that will satisfy that need, you should go over safety repeatedly until it's ingrained into your children's mind. It works, I know from first hand experience.