Man sues gun range
After being struck by a bullet in his yard.
15 Responses to “Man sues gun range”
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September 6th, 2010 at 10:13 am
The range he alleges as the origin of the bullet is one that I use. The area has, not unsurprisingly, grown up around the area since it opened some 37 years ago. Every couple of years somebody tries to force it into closing or modifying operations yet the site is one of the best for this use (it’s virtually in a creek with a huge berm behind it).
The local PD pretty much sums it up- Rowlett police determined the bullet was on a downward trajectory, but police spokesman John Ellison says “there is no actual evidence that would support the fact that the bullet was fired from the range.”
Just keep in mind every bullet you fire potentially has a lawyer attached to it.
September 6th, 2010 at 10:20 am
I’m calling BS on this one.
September 6th, 2010 at 10:35 am
Does the range have shooting stations with a ceiling which block shots that are aimed (purposefully or accidentally) over the berm? If not, I predict they will be getting them as a result of this lawsuit.
Glad the man injured by a falling bullet will be OK.
September 6th, 2010 at 12:58 pm
My first inclination was in his direction, until I read the facts. Coming down, it could be coming from anywhere, and we’ve got serious overreach when he was shot with a .22 and wants to ban “longer range ammunition.”
September 6th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
According to the article, it is a .22 bullet fired from a mile away, and it got more than a couple of inches of penetration, striking him in the back on a downward trajectory, nicking his pancreas and lodging in a lung. I call BS.
When I went to school for anatomy, one of the things I learned is that the pancreas is in the abdomen, and the lungs are in the chest. How could a bullet on a downward trajectory nick an organ, change direction, and lodge in a lung?
Second, a .22lr bullet has a coefficient of .130 and leaves the muzzle at 2000 fps. At 250 yards it has already lost half its speed and 75% of its energy. By 1,000 yards, it is only moving at 474 fps, and has lost 95% of its muzzle energy. Bullet drop at 1000 yards is 591 feet and flight time is 4.3 seconds! The calculator I use doesn’t go any further, but I don’t imagine a .22lr will be able to do that kind of damage at 2000 yards.
September 6th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
I’ve been to this range many times, the shooting stations are covered. You can see it on Google Maps here.
The closest houses are just under a mile behind it. Now I, personally, probably wouldn’t have bought one of them, but the gun range was there first, long before any of them were built. And the berm, etc., at this range is as good as any other outdoor range I’ve ever been to.
September 6th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
I’m with Alan. I have those same scars on my belly. They are from a colon blowout due to diverticulitis (nasty surgery, they were inside for 3 1/2 hours cleaning up the mess and resectioning) and a perforated middle intestine of unknown provenance. A few years later, I had gall bladder surgery, and hence the little “bullet hole” shaped scars on the side of the belly.
If I’m a lawyer defending the gun range, I subpoena his medical records. He’s had some surgeries, and likely not all due to being struck by a downward-trajectory bullet.
BTW, the TV program “Mythbusters” did the science on that, and concluded that a falling bullet lacks enough energy to penetrate the human body very far, due to the phenomenon of Terminal Velocity.
A bullet shot AT him would have had the energy to wound, but not a spent bullet from the range.
September 6th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
Rivrdog: That mythbusters episode is often misquoted. What they proved was that a bullet fired exactly STRAIGHT UP didn’t regain enough velocity to wound when falling back to earth. That is not what is being described here. What we are describing here is the parabolic arc that all bullets follow. If you are struck by any projectile that is past its midrange point, you are being struck by a falling bullet.
As a paramedic, I have personally seen people hit by falling bullets that were fired in the air on New Year’s eve.
September 6th, 2010 at 10:21 pm
The maximum range on the box of Federal .22 long rifle here in my hand is 1.5 miles. The box says “Dangerous at up to 1.5 miles”, so the 1.2 mile range is technically within the danger zone. But a .22lr is a pretty low energy round and I have a little trouble believing that it caused all that damage at the very end of its trajectory. So I wonder if they really mean .22 long rifle. The story just says “.22 caliber bullet”. Lots of high velocity rifle rounds use a .22 caliber projectile, the 5.56 mm (.223 caliber) being one of the most popular. I could see that round zapping someone seriously at that range, although the odds of getting hit in that manner would be like winning the lottery (in reverse).
September 6th, 2010 at 10:55 pm
What .22LR leaves the muzzle at 2000 FPS? I want some.
September 6th, 2010 at 11:52 pm
I sure hope He is bs’ing. I love that range. All the guys there are really cool. I’d hate to have the closest outdoor range to me get shutdown.
September 7th, 2010 at 3:51 am
In Tyler, with our large immigrant population, we hear gunfire on all the major holidays. A gun range isn’t the only…or even the major…source of stray bullets.
September 7th, 2010 at 7:59 pm
The MSM is reporting this story.
I can totally see them screwing up 22 long rifle with say a 223.
I’m still calling BS though.
September 7th, 2010 at 10:08 pm
Divemedic, I’m glad you brought that up. That episode of Mythbusters began with an interview of, IIRC, an ER MD and a police ballistics consultant, who both said the same thing about angled or arcing shots, as opposed to a straight-up one. So it’s not so much a misquote as a “read the whole thing.” Good catch.
September 9th, 2010 at 12:58 am
Gentlemen:
To quote myself, “…and concluded that a falling bullet lacks enough energy to penetrate the human body very far, due to the phenomenon of Terminal Velocity.”
Note that I didn’t say anything about an arcing bullet. My point was (and I could have stated it better), that with everything else as unknowns, science can’t be applied. I also believe that the press, with their abysmal lack of knowledge on ballistics, could have reported in error here. If the bullet was recovered whole, forensics should be able to narrow down the ammo it came from.
There’s too much missing from this story to really squawk about it yet, but I STILL think that the gun range’s lawyers need to depose the docs who worked on this guy, and maybe THEN, the info on how he was REALLY wounded and with what might come to light.
I know how much BS gets spread when someone bankrolls an effort to close a gun range. I used to belong to Douglas Ridge Rifle Club in Oregon, and such an effort was aimed at them.