Chief Deputy Ben Houchin said 62-year-old Michael Gardner, the wedding's officiant, fired a gun to get everyone's attention.

A Texas man accidentally shot a child while officiating a wedding in Lancaster County on Saturday, the sheriff’s office says.

Chief Deputy Ben Houchin said deputies were sent to a wedding at Hillside Events near Denton on a report of a gunshot wound.

Deputies learned that 62-year-old Michael Gardner, the wedding’s officiant, fired a gun to get everyone’s attention.

“He was going to fire in the air, and as he did that, it slipped and went off,” Houchin said.

The gun was loaded with a blank that Gardner made with gunpowder and glue.

  • Nougat@kbin.social
    108·
    1 year ago

    Houchin said Gardner accidentally shot a child in the shoulder. They were taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.

    Also, it was a blank, so the kid doesn’t have a bullet hole. None of this excuses wielding a firearm irresponsibly in a crowd of people, and I’ll take “Trigger discipline” for $200, Alex. Just wanted to bring to the fore that the kid will be okay.

      • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
        12·
        1 year ago

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Lee#Death

        In a film shoot prior to the fatal scene, the gun that was used as a prop (a real revolver) was loaded with improperly made dummy rounds, improvised from live cartridges that had the powder charges removed by the special effects crew, so in close-ups the revolver would show normal-looking ammunition. However, the crew neglected to remove the primers from the cartridges, and at some point before the fatal event, one of the rounds had been fired. Although there were no powder charges, the energy from the ignited primer was enough to separate the bullet from the casing and push it part-way into the gun barrel, where it got stuck—a dangerous condition known as a squib load.

        During the fatal scene, which called for the revolver to be fired at Lee from a distance of 3.6–4.5 meters (12–15 ft), the dummy cartridges were replaced with blank rounds, which contained a powder charge and the primer, but no solid bullet, allowing the gun to be fired with sound and flash effects without the risk of an actual projectile. However, the gun was not properly checked and cleared before the blank was fired, and the dummy bullet previously lodged in the barrel was then propelled forward by the blank’s propellant and shot out the muzzle with almost the same force as if the round were live, striking Lee in the abdomen.[101][102]

        So two blanks, one with no powder and the other with no bullet, effectively formed one round of live ammunition. What a truly wild story.

        • I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world
          6·
          1 year ago

          It “slipped”?! How about not firing guns if your hands are not dexterous enough to point it correctly. Pretty much any time you fire a gun there is going to be a direction it could “slip” to that will kill someone.

      • n0m4n@lemmy.world
        3·
        1 year ago

        Gun safety rules.

        1. ALWAYS keep the gun pointed in a safe direction;
        2. ALWAYS keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot
        3. ALWAYS keep the gun unloaded until ready to use.

        Every gun is considered loaded until proven otherwise. Every pull of the trigger will cost $10,000, as lawyers become involved, per NRA literature. Hearing damage by firing close to people is another risk.

    • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
      7·
      1 year ago

      Hey you might get a kick out of this. If you look carefully in the show Farscape you will notice that the person in the show who was an ex-solider never has her finger on the trigger unless firing but the untrained people with her do.

    • rosymind@leminal.space
      3·
      1 year ago

      Kid will survive, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be traumatized. Still, I’m glad the guy at least had the foresight not to stick a real bullet in there… why he thought firing a gun was the best way to get attention, though, is beyond me. If someone fires a gun in my near vicinity I’m not suddenly going to go “ohhh, it’s time to pay attention to the pastor” Nah. Imma be running for the hills before I even know my legs are moving

      • PoliticalAgitator@lemm.ee
        7·
        1 year ago

        The guy at least had the foresight not to stick a real bullet in there

        The next one might not because America’s gun laws – especially in Texas – are based on voluntarily following good practises.

        Whenever something like this happens, pro-gun people flock to the comments to pat themselves on the back by telling everyone that they would never do that with a gun because they have trigger discipline and they treat guns with respect.

        But so what? They might never drive drunk but that doesn’t mean we can abolish DUI laws.

        What laws did this guy break and what is his punishment? Was it illegal to make his own sketchy blanks? Was it illegal to injure an innocent person with a firearm? Was it illegal to have a firearm at a wedding or to brandish it? Is he going to be prevented from owning firearms in the future now that he has proven to be a dumb fuck?

        And most importantly, what is the pro-gun community going to do to prevent things like this happening again?

        But we know the answer. He probably broke zero laws and will still be able to own all the guns he wants and take them to all the weddings he wants. His punishment will be minor or non-existent. The pro-gun community will do absolutely nothing to address the shortcomings of their laws, they’ll just tut about it on the internet.

        Republicans value $16 million a year and a voting bloc that will tolerate anything over people’s lives. The gun lobby values profits over people’s lives.

        But the pro-gun community sells people out for convenience.

  • CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.worldEnglish
    90·
    1 year ago

    The only reason his grandkid is still alive is because he wasn’t QUITE stupid enough to put live rounds in his ‘attention getter’. What a moron.

    I’ve seen a guy shoot his daughter in the leg at a public outdoor range because he cleared a misfire in his handgun incorrectly. She lived, but goddamn. It only takes a second of inattention to kill someone and it happens all the time. These people do not treat firearms with respect. It’s not a fucking noisemaker or a penis replacement. It kills, instantly.

    • OhShitSon@lemm.ee
      49·
      1 year ago

      Which is why the rest of the world thinks it’s fucking insane how lax gun laws are in the US.

    • TragicNotCute@lemmy.worldEnglish
      24·
      1 year ago

      I just imagine the internal conversation that morning.

      well I could bring a bell, or maybe even an air horn. I want to make sure I can control the group. I guess I could also raise my voice too.

      OR…

    • agent_flounder@lemmy.oneEnglish
      20·
      1 year ago

      This is why, while I support recognizing the right to self defense, I do not support Constitutional carry. Something this dangerous should require regular safety training. I felt the same about driving.

      • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
        11·
        1 year ago

        I live in Texas which is now permitless carry.

        I still have a license to carry because I fucking should have one.

      • GentlemanLoser@ttrpg.network
        17·
        1 year ago

        Sorta, yep! It happened in two parts - for one scene the gun had homemade cartridges with primer and and an actual bullet, but no gunpowder, so that the ammo looked real in close-ups of the gun. At some point that round was fired and the primer was enough to discharge the bullet, which lodged itself in the barrel.

        Then, later on in another scene, they loaded the same gun with blanks full of powder and primer but no bullet, so when fired they’d get the usual bang and flash. Except, since there was a bullet lodged in the barrel, the blank round still had enough force to propel the bullet out the rest of the way and into Brandon Lee.

        It happened in such a freaky way that it feels like there must be more to it, but just as likely human stupidity and bad luck.

        • Salamendacious@lemmy.world
          6·
          1 year ago

          I didn’t look up the actual incident so I wasn’t actually aware of that. What I was trying to say is that I think there’s this thought in a lot of people’s head’s that blanks are completely safe and they’re not. At close range or if there’s some debris in the barrel a blank can be dangerous.

            • Salamendacious@lemmy.world
              1·
              1 year ago

              Oh I never took it that you were challenging me. I was a little amped up. I get pretty indignant whenever I see easily avoidable gun violence. People who leave their guns out for children to find, I’ve read about a guy who was showing off his new laser sight and shot his girlfriend’s child killed him or her (I can’t remember which), the stores feel endless. it really boils my blood. I appreciate that you gave me the details. I always thought it was a foreign object, like a pebble or something, that just happened to be in the barrel.

      • CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        1 year ago

        Sort of. He was actually killed by a bullet that had lodged in the barrel from a previous issue with the weapon. The blank just fired the bullet that was lodged in the barrel.

        People have killed themselves with blanks though, usually screwing around pretending to commit suicide and then accidentally doing it. I remember reading about an actor that put pistol loaded with blanks up to his head and pulled the trigger. There’s enough gas force coming out the end to put a hole in you at that range.

        • TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          4·
          1 year ago

          Yea, the only way a properly made blank can be dangerous is if the gun barrel is close enough for the ignited gasses to do damage from what I understand. So if you put the barrel right up against something, the gasses will push through and take a chunk with it.

    • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
      15·
      1 year ago

      See this kinda stuff is why I don’t own a real firearm. I grew up with guns in the house, went shooting with friends and my dad. I don’t need a way to accidentally kill someone around.

        • Nudding@lemmy.world
          3·
          1 year ago

          The problem is that gun companies have convinced half the population of a country that owning a gun is a “God given right” which is a fucking weird concept to begin with lol.

      • DTFpanda@lemmy.world
        13·
        1 year ago

        Americans have an estimated 120 guns per 100 citizens, almost double that of the country with the second highest amount of firearms per capita.

        Tell me again how that isn’t a problem.

          • PRUSSIA_x86@lemmy.world
            23·
            1 year ago

            Exactly, we should treating guns like cars. They should require revocable licenses, registration, training, and significant financial investment.

            • tburkhol@lemmy.world
              14·
              1 year ago

              Not to mention liability insurance. Your gun harms/kills someone? You’ve got insurance to pay for it. Your gun stolen and used to harm someone? Prove it was securely stored or it goes on your insurance.

          • Kalash@feddit.ch
            12·
            1 year ago

            Tell me again how cars aren’t the problem.

            You do realise cars actually require a license to operate? You literally already have “car control”.

            So what exactly is your agrument again?

          • N4CHEM@lemmy.ml
            10·
            1 year ago

            No, no, you’re right there. Cars are a problem too. But that’s a different topic, we’re talking guns now.

              • N4CHEM@lemmy.ml
                6·
                1 year ago

                Who talked about banning cars? Don’t put words in my mouth and don’t be so rude.

                Cars are a source of different problems: pollution, traffic congestion, lack of space in cities due to parking needs… and accidents too, yes. All of these issues can be solved with his public transport, and 95% car rides can be replaced by public transport (unless I’m transporting the furniture I just bought back to my house).

                There’s no need to go live in a padded cell (although if you wish to, be my guest), just stop whining online and look for solutions instead.

          • hperrin@lemmy.world
            9·
            1 year ago

            Ok, let’s treat guns like cars and require a training period and license to use one.

            Though I would probably treat it more like a forklift, because a gun is a lot more immediately dangerous if you make a mistake than a car, like a forklift. With a car, you usually have to be doing something wrong for a while before you’ll kill anyone. With a gun you just accidentally pull the trigger when it’s pointed at someone and you probably just ended a life.

          • DTFpanda@lemmy.world
            8·
            1 year ago

            Nice red herring. What does this have to do with the fact that there are TWICE as many guns per person in America than the next highest country? Doesn’t that tell you that maybe we have influenced too much gun culture in our society and made it too easy for people to obtain without proper vetting and safety regulations?

              • DTFpanda@lemmy.world
                10·
                1 year ago

                I fully expect the folks here to be rabid anti gun without any rationale arguments for that stance

                Maybe don’t start off your argument with calling someone an asshat then 🤷‍♂️

                I’m not anti gun, btw. I own a shotgun and know how to use it. My state recently passed a ban on semi-automatic assault weapons that I voted in favor of. But go ahead and keep insulting those who disagree with you and assuming they’re ‘rabid anti gun.’

                Americans have all sorts of mental health issues that are completely undiagnosed and many of them are dealing with their unchecked emotions by waltzing into a Sportsman’s Warehouse and back out with a cart of weapons after signing some waivers and shooting up places with large gatherings of people.

                I don’t even understand how people argue against this shit. It’s been happening for far too long, getting much worse, and America is basically alone on top of this shit mountain we’ve built for ourselves.

              • breadsmasher@lemmy.worldEnglish
                12·
                1 year ago

                armed meth heads

                Huh … because of guns? You need guns because other people have guns?

                So if there were no guns … you wouldn’t need a gun?

                As someone from a country with sane gun control. Not once in my entire life have I wished to have a gun to defend myself with against other people.

                I don’t even live in a “good” area. But because guns aren’t exactly legal, there are very few guns around at all.

                This is an entirely workable solution as almost every other western country has demonstrated. America is just obsessed with owning (to use your words) “tools” to murder each other with.

                You know what happens when guns are actually restricted? They become difficult to get for everyone. Going by the logic “banning guns means only criminals have guns”, do you ever wonder why other countries don’t have a huge crimimal-gun-problem? Because its a myth perpetuated by gun nuts.

                The average person in modern society should have no reason to own a gun.

                America is just psychotic

        • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
          4·
          1 year ago

          I would rather cage stupid people than implement stricter gun control to be honest. I think that would go a hell of a lot farther in improving society.

          • AA5B@lemmy.world
            3·
            1 year ago

            The problem is that caging stupidity doesn’t prevent harm. What about the toddler who got shot? It would be far better to try to prevent the situation from happening in the first place

            • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
              1·
              1 year ago

              Maybe I need to be more clear. These people would be caged preemptively upon being identified as a moron, not just after they do something stupid with a gun. This idiot would have been in the cage instead of out shooting toddlers.

        • pete_the_cat@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          1 year ago

          Most people that are pro gun aren’t against stricter gun control measures, the problem is we don’t live in society where we can tell who will do something dumb in the future. Blanket bans don’t help anyone.

          • AA5B@lemmy.world
            3·
            1 year ago

            No, it would be useless to ban blankets, everyone would be cold 🤓

            But restrictions on carrying would make a lot more sense. They should not be carrying a weapon in a crowded area

            • pete_the_cat@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              1 year ago

              I agree, dumb fucks shouldn’t be allowed to walk around with guns and do whatever they want. Anytime I see a post of some idiot walking around town with an AR-15 on his back I want to punch them in the face.

    • pete_the_cat@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13·
      1 year ago

      But the gun literally isn’t the problem, it’s the idiot with the gun. The gun isn’t sentient. The problem is we allow stupid people to own guns.

      Edit: just the downvotes on this comment show that people think guns=bad

      • techt@lemmy.world
        16·
        1 year ago

        Generally when people say or suggest that, “Guns are a problem,” they don’t mean the literal inanimate objects are the sole issue; it’s a shorthand way to refer to many things including access to firearms, lack of background checks, proper training, lobbying, and much more.

        • pete_the_cat@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          1 year ago

          And that’s why heated debates like this happen, because people don’t say what they mean. A lot of people do really think the gun is the problem though.

          I was raised around guns and shot them at a young age (10ish, I’m from South Jersey, not Nowhere USA), it was instilled in me “You don’t fuck around with guns. Period. If you do, someone will end up getting hurt. It doesn’t matter if it’s a paintball gun, a BB gun, or a shotgun. Treat it with respect and only point it at things you wish to kill (metaphorically speaking for paintball guns)”.

          The major problem is the lack of training and respect for the weapon. People treat it like it’s a party noise maker or an accessory to make you look cool/bad ass.

          • techt@lemmy.world
            11·
            1 year ago

            It doesn’t seem that heated to me? Also I’ve never spoken to anyone who thinks that the actual gun objects are the problem; it’s understood to be synecdoche.

            I think responding to a literal interpretation of someone else’s words as if that’s what they meant as a way to criticize the way they expressed their point is more damaging to the discourse because it’s a bad faith response.

      • PoliticalAgitator@lemm.ee
        10·
        1 year ago

        Which is why nobody is demanding guns are thrown in jail, they’re demanding laws that make even a token effort to minimise the risk to the public.

        But the pro-gun community responds with vapid “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” talking points, fed to them by a gun lobby that doesn’t care what kills people, as long as the profits keep soaring.

        Legal gun owners kill people, with guns.

        They make up 80% of mass shooters but when you ask the pro-gun community what they’re going to change to stop legal gun owners doing mass shootings, they proudly boast “nothing” – they’re content to keep selling guns to blatantly dangerous people and letting people die.

        Children are killing themselves in record numbers using their father’s legally owned guns but when you ask the pro-gun community what they’re going to do about poorly secured firearms, they proudly boast “nothing” – they want to keep guns in gloveboxes and bedsides lest they miss their chance at a “get out of murder free” and they don’t care if criminals and kids get their hands on them.

        And of course, every week there’s a new story about a legal gun owner doing something stupid with a gun but when you ask the gun community what they’re going to do about stupid people with guns, once again they proudly boast “nothing”. They’ll double over to suck their own dicks because it wasn’t them but they won’t budge an inch to ensure “responsible gun owners” are actually responsible.

        So fuck em and their second amendment. They’ve been insisting they had all the answers for 20 years and they’ve fixed exactly nothing, so I’ve got no idea why they’re welcome in the conversation at all, let alone dictating when it can happen and what can be discussed.

        If they throw a tantrum about their rights, fuck em still. Statistically they’ve repeatedly voted to trample the rights of others and even if they haven’t, their guns did nothing to stop it happening, despite what we were promised.

        If they want to follow through on their threats to become domestic terrorists, fuck em even harder. It shows they were never as far from firing on innocent people as they claimed and if they want to die in a hail of bullets, at least it’s them dying for their guns for once.

        • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
          1·
          1 year ago

          If they do not give an inch, they will be forced to accept a mile. The obstinacy on action and refusal to allow any changes is just moving people more and more to the extreme on this issue. If the NRA doesn’t want to come to the table, they’ll see their guns confiscated at gunpoint.

          This isn’t a threat, it’s an observation. It’s why there’s the saying “those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable”. We are going to get the gun violence under control one way or another.

        • pete_the_cat@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          I’m for more consistent regulations state to state, but saying “take away all the guns, problem solved” is like putting a bandaid on an infected wound. You’re not treating the cause, our mental healthcare and healthcare in general is shit in this country. People want an easy fix and I don’t blame them.

          • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
            1·
            1 year ago

            The issue isn’t mental healthcare though. That’s insulting to everyone who deals with mental health problems, and the US doesn’t uniquely have mental health problems compared to the rest of the West.

            I don’t like like making multiple replies to the same person, and this is already my second, so I’m going to lump in my response to another comment – the way you were brought up around guns, that fucking around will get someone hurt and you should never point it unless you’re going to shoot – needs to be drilled into every gun owner. I do truly believe that we can drastically reduce gun violence without taking away all guns. If owners have to regularly demonstrate they’ve internalized the mantra, we’ll see fewer deaths. If we deny guns to people who want to use them to make a point, we’ll see fewer deaths. We need to restrict ownership so idiots and violent people can’t get their hands on a gun.

            • pete_the_cat@lemmy.worldEnglish
              2·
              1 year ago

              Mental healthcare definitely is shitty in the country, you can’t deny that, I suffer from insomnia and ADHD so I’m well aware of the state of our mental healthcare here,it’s better than it was in the past, but it’s still not great. We don’t give those in need proper support (why do you think there are so many mass shootings? Your average sane person doesn’t unload on a crowd of people at a music festival, school, or mall, do they? They have long standing issues that weren’t properly dealt with and they cracked.). That’s not the case in this instance though, this guy was just an absolute moron. We need to standardize the gun laws federally because it’s currently a mess state to state. I can’t buy a BB gun here in NJ but someone in Texas could walk into a store and buy a rifle that day and walk out with it.

      • who8mydamnoreos@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        1 year ago

        This person should never be allowed a firearm again right? He has abused our rights and therefor can not be trusted with the responsibility. Yet still those “rights shall not be infringed” folk will fight for him to carry whatever he wants.

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
        3·
        1 year ago

        Ffs so you know how pedantic you sound right now? Yes technically a gun just sitting somewhere locked and unloaded is usually not the issue the problem is they are freaken everywhere. There is probably enough rounds of ammo in civilian hands in the US to literally wipe out humanity. When you have this much of something even if an absurdly small percentage is misused it means it will happen every day.

        • pete_the_cat@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          Obviously not, but nothing happens in vacuum. Banning guns screws over all the people that use them legally and responsibly. It’s like saying “we should ban all cars because some people can stop driving while drunk”. The real solution is removing the idiot from the equation.

      • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
        1·
        1 year ago

        Propose a solution then. How do we stop this from happening again? We cannot simply say “ah well this is the price of gun ownership” and do nothing.

        It’s absolutely unacceptable, and a growing number of Americans, especially young people, do not want this to continue.

        Gun proponents thus have a choice. Find a way for this to not be the price of gun ownership, or see gun ownership go away. If you do nothing, the extreme solutions to confiscate guns and the like are more likely to happen.

        • pete_the_cat@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          First off, we could make more consistent laws federally. Laws differ greatly from state to state. Here in NJ, I can’t even buy a damn BB gun at a sporting goods store and it takes at least two weeks to get any deadly firearm, yet in some place like Texas, I could probably walk into a sporting goods store and buy a hunting rifle that day and walk out with it.

          As a more direct response to your question: if you do something dumb with a gun, your ownership rights should be hindered or completely revoked, and you should be fined/jailed/held responsible for your actions. Treat it the same way we treat motor vehicles. You get caught driving drunk? You can’t drive for a few weeks/months, you get caught again? It gets revoked longer this time, etc… You get caught speeding? You get fined. Pretty simple.

          The problem is we have all these “you won’t infringe on my second amendment rights!” idiots and lobbyists that prevent any changes from happening.

          • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
            1·
            1 year ago

            Seems we largely agree then. Those idiots need to read the 9th amendment. Paraphrased – the specific enumeration of rights in the Constitution shall not be used to deny our other rights. You can see two immediate corollaries from this:

            1. Rights don’t have different strengths. Saying “shall not be infringed” is rather redundant, because none of our rights shall be infringed.

            2. The conservatives on SCOTUS actively do what this amendment says not to do! They say nothing in the Constitution guarantees a right to an abortion, but the ninth amendment says it doesn’t give a shit. Unfortunately, SCOTUS has a design flaw, and there’s no way to hold them accountable for flagrantly acting unconstitutionally.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
    27·
    1 year ago

    fired a gun to get everyone’s attention.

    He f-ing what? Even if he didn’t shot the child, this man belongs behind bar for sheer stupidity.

    Reason No. 4020 for “American people in general should not have access to firearms”.

  • moitoi@feddit.de
    21·
    1 year ago

    Deputies learned that 62-year-old Michael Gardner, the wedding’s officiant, fired a gun to get everyone’s attention.

    When did he think it was a good idea? When?

  • crashoverride@lemmy.world
    16·
    1 year ago

    If there is anyone here who has cause to think that I should not have a gun, speak now or forever…BANG…oh shit, sorry kid!

  • DTFpanda@lemmy.world
    14·
    1 year ago

    Makes me think of that scene from the Office when Dwight randomly fires a gun in the air at the start of the rabies awareness race. First time I saw that, I thought, “they sure do know how to exaggerate American culture” but alas, here we are.

    • Buffaloaf@lemmy.world
      20·
      1 year ago

      Blanks still fire a jet of super hot air and fire with some force. Even without a projectile, it can still injure or even kill someone if they’re close enough.

    • Nougat@kbin.social
      11·
      1 year ago

      Just because the cartridge doesn’t have a bullet doesn’t mean nothing comes out of the business end.

      • SheeEttin@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        With a properly functioning blank, there shouldn’t be any projectile coming out of the muzzle. This guy made his own with gunpowder and glue, so apparently there was some kind of glue blob that was a projectile.

        • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
          6·
          1 year ago

          The force of the expanding gas is sufficient to hurt people, even with a properly made blank. It’s why a gun designed to fire only blanks doesn’t even have a barrel with an opening that could compress the gas.

          It’s why you generally avoid firing a gun of any sort in a crowd. Even when they’re as safe as possible, they’re not safe.

    • DaCookeyMonsta@lemmy.world
      3·
      1 year ago

      Says it was a homemade blank made from gunpowder and glue. Depends on the construction but the glue “bullet” (probably just a plug to keep the gunpowder in) should explode in the barrel and shoot out basically dust.

      However you can’t guarantee the glue plug would fully disintegrate and at close range the debris can be moving fast enough to cause damage and can be hot enough to burn.

      • hperrin@lemmy.world
        6·
        1 year ago

        His death was a squib load, which is where a bullet is lodged in the barrel, not in the casing. The blast from the blank projected the bullet out of the barrel.

        But yes, just the blast can kill too.

        • ThunderingJerboa@kbin.social
          1·
          1 year ago

          You are correct but the Jon-Erik Hexum did actually play russian roulette with a revolver loaded with a blank and suffered from braindeath, so it is still very worth noting that blanks can still very much kill.

      • DaCookeyMonsta@lemmy.world
        10·
        1 year ago

        Technically Brandon Lee was killed by a bullet. They removed the powder but left the bullet (for appearance sake since it was a revolver and would be noticeable). Since there was no powder the bullet didn’t fire out of the gun when the trigger was pulled but the primer (which wasn’t removed) igniting created enough force to put the bullet in the barrel where it got jammed.

        No one noticed the jammed bullet, and when they next fired it with blanks this time (powder charge, no bullets) the powder was now forceful enough to fire the bullet out of the gun.

        Essentially they accidentally made a revolver into a breach loaded firearm.

        • Buffaloaf@lemmy.world
          2·
          1 year ago

          What gets me about that is, yeah, they didn’t check the barrel, but when they pulled the dummy rounds out to put in the blanks why didn’t anyone notice that one of the casings was missing its bullet? Shouldn’t that be an easy thing to spot?

          • DaCookeyMonsta@lemmy.world
            2·
            1 year ago

            When you unload a revolver you’re looking at it from behind, and if you just dump the casings into your hand you might not notice. Maybe that happened.

            Or maybe they only replaced one bullet with a blank.

            Or maybe they were just lazy and negligent.

    • SterlingVapor@slrpnk.netEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Because it’s a bullet without the bullet - it’s still a directed explosion that could kill someone with air pressure alone if you’re close enough

      Now let’s say there’s something in the barrel, or in this case a chunk of glue from a home made blank propelled out at the speed of a bullet. It’s a lot less force or energy than a piece of lead, but everything is pretty deadly when it’s going faster than the speed of sound