PSA
I caught the Mythbusters episode this weekend wherein they test if you can bend the trajectory of a bullet after it was done in some Angelina Jolie flick. Seemed quite unsafe to me, even though they did take additional steps. But more importantly, Kari don’t go shooting when you’re six months pregnant. Lead, noise, and other things that likely aren’t good for baby.
June 15th, 2009 at 10:31 am
Lead is a concern. Have good ventilation and maybe handle the ammo for nice lady. Make sure she washs her hands before eating a sandwich.
But the noise isn’t going to be an issue. Sound conduction through your head around your ear muffs will be greater than that through the mothers abdomen. Putting your hands over your ears works pretty good, right?
June 15th, 2009 at 10:42 am
I say get it acclimated to the joy of shooting as early as possible…
June 15th, 2009 at 11:04 am
I didn’t see that particular episode, but they generally strike me as being pretty paranoid about safety* whenever they do a firearms episode. What did you see that was unsafe?
* Adam and Jamie, at least. I’ve noticed Kari seems to let her trigger finger discipline slide on occasion. I haven’t noticed anything with the others in the episodes I’ve seen, but they don’t strike me as being quite as obsessive as Adam and Jamie, either.
June 15th, 2009 at 11:05 am
The care they take with shooting tests on Mythbusters is quite impressive. I note the bullet resistant sheilds, the remote triggering, the robotic aiming, the single shot loads (well, except for using a minigun to chop down a tree….).
Pregnant and working is OK, especially for a specialist who knows how to do things safely.
June 15th, 2009 at 11:29 am
Most professionally run (either commercial or top notch non-commercial) ranges I’ve been to won’t allow pregnant women on the range. I have to say, I think it’s a pretty good idea. Given that lead poisoning can be particularly dangerous for children, caution is warranted.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Both the lead and the noise are a concern with pregnant women. When my wife was pregnant, several sources as well as her OBGYN gave her a strict 20 week cut-off for shooting. If I remember correctly this was based on the developmental stage of the fetus’s ears. Sound may be reduced to safe levels for an adult bu covering your ears, but the ears of the developing fetus are much more sensitive. Lead poisoning seemed to be a lesser concern.
So this “specialist” likely didnt know how to do things safely.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
I saw that episode too, and also thought it was unsafe.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Lets see…..swinging arm wildly while pulling the trigger…..what’s unsafe about that?
Did you notice that they DIDN’T go to their friendly, neighborhood Alameda police range for THAT session?
June 15th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Yup… and I also noticed that they were in a “bowl” out in the middle of nowhere, and later on I noticed that the “handheld” shots from the .50 caliber experiments were done in a mirror, and I figure the same was done for the swinging pistols.
Mythbusters’ insurance company is more than slightly paranoid, I don’t think they would have allowed her to shoot if it was considered a hazard. They were shooting 1911’s outdoors after all, that’s not exactly an earth shattering kaboom.
June 15th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
I was happy they did test it. I already knew the outcome. You’d be amazed how engrained the curving bullet thing is in al gore’s internets by the gun ignorant. Problem is this belief is almost religious, and mythbusters will catch a lot of hell because of busting it.
And we wonder why they say “do not try this at home”…
“were what you call “experts””.
June 15th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
I have to agree that the noise levels can be a bad thing during the later parts of pregnancy. The fetus is surrounded by amniotic fluid which for acoustic waves is pretty much water which means that it conducts sound energy much more efficiently than air or most mixtures of liquid, soft and firm structures. In addition, the fluid has non linear propagation characteristics which change the profile of the sound impulse and may form a shock front. Finally I expect that the stretched skin and uterus will behave more like a membrane (as for example a drum head) collecting and transmitting sound energy than as a sound barrier or absorber. Better safe than sorry.
June 15th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
“I already knew the outcome.” Yup Shawn, any of us who paid attention in elementary physics knew the outcome in advance and without doubt. Sir Isaac Newton could have told anyone three hundred years ago who was willing to listen, but then I expect the guys on the show knew it just as well. I’m a little bit surprised they did this one, but then again, I suppose it did make good TV. Any excuse to whip out the firearms makes for a good show. I watched it.
Both our fetuses (feti?) were in the womb while my wife accompanied me night after night as I mixed sound for a rock band. Four hours was about the minimum gig, and 110 dBa was the norm. That and she played in the local symphony nearly until the water broke. I bet you a woman yelling loudly exposes the baby to more sound pressure at audible frequencies than just about any external noise source. Put your ear tight against your wife’s belly just under the diaphram if you don’t believe me, and have her shout at different frequencies. Sometimes just talking hurts the ear. Both kids are top students and doing very well thank you.
June 15th, 2009 at 11:05 pm
Kari draped a bulletproof vest over her abdomen as a safety measure. Problem is, although the vest might stop a bullet, the impact (if there were one) would still thump against her terribly. If she thought the vest was prudent, she should have passed on participating.
June 15th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
Having dealt with this question for the last few months by every concerned person on the range concerning my own very pregnant wife, I feel I just have to chime in. Liquid is indeed a very good conductor of sound, when that sound originates IN the liquid. Sound waves do not propagate well from air into water. Think about when you are in a pool and someone shouts at you from their lounge chair. If you are underwater you can’t really hear them. The lead could be a concern in a poorly-ventilated indoor range, but at an outdoor range it should be no issue. If it reassures anyone further, she was in the Army at the time and her pregnancy profile only restricted her from going to an indoor range (or shooting from prone).