Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: UserName on April 15, 2003, 11:45:01 PM
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It's all fun and games until someone loses.. well, you know how it goes.
Teen blinded by potato-gun misfire.
04/15/2003
By DONNA FIELDER / Denton Record-Chronicle
A Denton teenager was in critical condition Monday after he was shot in the face with a frog that exploded from a "potato gun."
Daniel Benjamin Berry, 17, was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth early Sunday after he looked down the gun's PVC pipe barrel and was struck in the face by the frog.
"He is going to be blind in both eyes," Daniel's mother, Lisa Berry, said in the hospital's critical-care waiting room.
A potato gun is usually made with a PVC pipe with one end sealed. A potato or another object is wedged into the open end. Flammable liquid such as hairspray is put into a sealed chamber in the device and ignited.
Sunday's accident occurred about 1 a.m. in the Copper Canyon area. Denton County Sheriff's Department spokesman Kevin Patton said three teenagers took the gun and potatoes to the bridge.
"At some point, someone decided to fire frogs from the gun," he said. "And at some point, the gun misfired."
A crowd of teenagers had gathered to watch, the sheriff's spokesman said.
"Mr. Berry was a spectator. He walked over to try to help with the misfire," Mr. Patton said. "He looked down the barrel, and the gun fired on a delayed reaction."
He was taken to a hospital emergency room and was later transferred to the Fort Worth hospital, Mr. Patton said.
Mrs. Berry said she couldn't understand why the illegal weapons are available on the Internet.
"Some other kid ordered one over the Internet," she said. "They thought it was a toy. It's not a toy; it's a dangerous weapon."
Daniel's mother said her son had broken bones in his face and would require surgery. He told her he didn't think there was a frog in the gun and looked to try to see it.
"He said it just went off. It was a misfire. It hit him square in the face," she said.
Mr. Patton said no charges would be filed.
"This is the first incident involving a potato gun that we have had to deal with," Mr. Patton said. "We had six teenagers in possession of a potato gun, and one of them was critically injured.
"What are you going to do? This was an accident."
Mrs. Berry said she didn't blame the other boys. They did not know the power of the gun, she said.
Daniel had wanted to join the Air Force but she would not give her permission, she said. She encouraged him to attend college until he was old enough to join without parental consent.
"All he ever wanted to do was be an Air Force pilot," she said. "That isn't going to happen now."
http://www.dallasnews.com/localnews/stories/041503dnmetblinded.d18cb.html
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Denton, as in Texas?
Too bad about his flying dreams. Only takes one moment of bad judgement. :(
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Originally posted by Tarmac
Denton, as in Texas?
Too bad about his flying dreams. Only takes one moment of bad judgement. :(
Yeah, Denton Texas.
I wonder how good of a soldier he'd make if looking into the barrel of a loaded gun seems like a perfectly good idea to him.
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Pretty stupid, but he's not eligible for a Darwin because he can still breed.
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Damn, maybe Texas ain't such a bad place after all. If that happened in California, all of the other kids would have been arrested. The entire school body at whatever school they went to would have to be counciled and cirriculum created to teach the evils of projectiles. And, of course, the mother would be suing the parents of the other kids, the other kids themselves, the department of transportation (they were on a bridge), and the doctors who couldn't get the kid's sight back.
SOB
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Damn....I live in Denton.
Story didnt say when this happened. Heard a crapload of sirens going off the other day. The new main fire station is close to my house so I hear them all the time.
Wonder if any of the Denton kids that play AH know this guy? I know there are a couple of kids near me who play AH....Slash27 is one, I think.
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This is what happens when you use the wrong caliber ammo.
My Favorite Darwin Award winner was the guy from Arkansas that replaced the burnt out headlight fuse with a .22 LR cartridge.
The round heated up, fired, ricoched off the dash and removed his left nut.
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Let's see who stops posting.
I'll bet it was one of the fools from the potato gun post.
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Poor guy. Wasn't the most intelligent thing to do, but still...I know I did stupid things as a teenager. Sounds pretty innocent if a bit stupid.
Blinded by a frog shot from a spud gun. Ugh :/
Oh, I expect the Animal Welfare people to come say 'WHAT ABOUT THE FROG, IT DIED!' soon.
Grrr.
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Originally posted by rpm371
This is what happens when you use the wrong caliber ammo.
My Favorite Darwin Award winner was the guy from Arkansas that replaced the burnt out headlight fuse with a .22 LR cartridge.
The round heated up, fired, ricoched off the dash and removed his left nut.
If it had been loaded with potato, he would most likely be dead.
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Damn sad story :(
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The real tragedy is that he was blinded stupidly while being cruel to animals.
"How did you lose your vision?"
"I was shot in the face with a frog."
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Originally posted by gofaster
"I was shot in the face with a frog."
As sad as the story is, that made me laugh for a good two or three minutes. :D
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I dont get you guys. How the f*ck can you laugh at that story?
I mean when I was a kid, I did oh-so-many stupid things, frankly its a small wonder I survived. Like the really smart idea of cutting the cord to my nightlamp with a pair of scissors (luckily they had plastic handles) or my brilliant idea of playing fireman in the bathroom. Armed with a plastic spray bottle (you know the kind your mom used to water the plants with) I poured out 1/4 gallon of aceton in the zink and lit it...the idea was that fireman Steve would use his little spray bottle and put out the fire. Well, it didnt really work but after using the shower the flames went out, and all that happened was that the zink cracked in two.
ANYWAY...kids do stupid stuff. Its all a part of growing up. When something like this happens it breaks the heart. So frog or no frog, I dont see the humor. I dunno maybe its because I have kids myself.
YMMV
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We can laugh because it happened "over there" and we don't know the kid. If we took a solemn moment every time something bad happened to someone in the world we'd all be depressed and mute.
SOB
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If he looked down the barrel of a loaded potato gun, I think he would walked right in front of a jet aircraft intake when the engine was set to afterburner...
-SW
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Originally posted by Hortlund
I dont get you guys. How the f*ck can you laugh at that story?
YMMV
because they are idiots mon....
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Anyone need a 25foot potato gun?
http://www.spudcannon.org/
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Originally posted by Dune
Anyone need a 25foot potato gun?
http://www.spudcannon.org/
This is what would have happened to that kid's head if he was hit by that 25 foot potato gun (loaded with a potato).
(http://acm.cs.umn.edu/~fuzz/images/pics/mellon-good2.jpg)
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Originally posted by rpm371
This is what happens when you use the wrong caliber ammo.
My Favorite Darwin Award winner was the guy from Arkansas that replaced the burnt out headlight fuse with a .22 LR cartridge.
The round heated up, fired, ricoched off the dash and removed his left nut.
LOL I fell out of my chait laughing when i read this LOL.
I can only hope he dont pass on his genes.
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Imagine it killed the frog. Maybe the kid can get robot eyes one day. There have already been a few cases of people being blind getting to see by implanting electrodes into the brain.
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Ok ... some here seem a tad bit confused about what the Darwin award and it's qualifications are. Just to make it perfectly clear:
The Darwin Awards commemorate individuals who protect our gene pool by making the ultimate sacrifice of their own lives: by eliminating themselves in an extraordinarily idiotic manner, thereby improving our species' chance of long-term survival. In other words, they are cautionary tales about people who kill themselves in really stupid ways, and in doing so, significantly improve the gene pool by eliminating themselves from the human race.
These individuals carry out disastrous plans that any average pre-teen knows are the result of a really bad idea. The single-minded purpose and self-sacrifice of the winners, and the spectacular means by which they snuff themselves, make them candidates for the honor of winning a Darwin Award. The terrorist who mails a letter bomb with insufficient postage deserves to win a Darwin Award when he blows himself up opening the returned package. As does the fisherman who throws a lit stick of dynamite for his faithful golden retriever to fetch and return to him. As do the surfers who celebrate a hurricane by throwing a beachfront party and getting washed out to sea.
Named in honor of Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, the Darwin Awards represent examples of evolution in action by showing what happens to people who are unable to cope with the basic dangers of the modern world. These ironic tales of fatal misadventure illustrate some of life's most important lessons.
Most of us know instinctively that the words "trust me" and "light this fuse" are a recipe for disaster. We assume that basic common sense eliminates the need for public service announcements such as, "Warning: Coffee is hot!" and "Superman cape does not enable wearer to fly." But the true stories you will read show that common sense is really not so common. No amount of overzealous caution would have helped the man who used household current to electrocute fish in a pond, then waded in to collect his catch without removing the wire. As you'll see, there are even people who need to be told not to peek inside a gas can using a cigarette lighter.
The Darwin Awards are macabre tales that make us laugh while instructing us in the laws of common sense. Consider the man who crawled under the roller coaster guardrail to retrieve his hat. When the next coaster came by, an unfortunate rider broke her leg on his skull. Ouch! From our point of view, the man who lost his head is a Darwin Award winner, and his story is just another episode in the saga of survival of the fittest.
The Darwin Awards can be considered a rusty chromosome award for those who douse the gene pool with chlorine.
http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/
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So ... to make a long story short, losing the ability to breed (while it can be argued as a technicality when it comes to "eliminating someone from the gene pool") doesn't qualify. Losing the ability to breathe does ... but only if the above applies as well.
Thank you. :D
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Originally posted by Arlo
So ... to make a long story short, losing the ability to breed (while it can be argued as a technicality when it comes to "eliminating someone from the gene pool") doesn't qualify. Losing the ability to breathe does ... but only if the above applies as well.
Thank you. :D
My nomination is valid nonetheless, there's still a chance he'll die from infection.
*crosses fingers*
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Originally posted by UserName
My nomination is valid nonetheless, there's still a chance he'll die from infection.
*crosses fingers*
Bad case of warts, maybe?