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phantom power

(25,966 posts)
Thu Jun 26, 2014, 05:59 PM Jun 2014

OK gun range owner insists howitzer fired safely after shell blasts house 3 miles away

30-45 whole minutes of instruction. For a fucking howitzer.

An Oklahoma home was damaged last weekend by a howitzer artillery shell fired from a gun range three miles away.

The artillery shell – which is 14.5 inches long and 3.5 inches across – crashed through an exterior wall, hit the ceiling, and damaged another wall while homeowner Gene Kelley and his wife were in another room, reported KOAM-TV.

“It’s unbelievable,” Kelley said. “Unless you were here to see it or see the pictures I’ve got, you would not believe how huge this thing is.”

....

“It was not on a level plane, but on a downward trend, pointed downhill in the bottom of a valley,” said Mike Friend, Owner of Fast Machine Gun Shoot. “For that thing to rise and go far northwest of the range, it’s just unheard of.”

Both Friend and Kelley described the incident as a “freak accident.”

“As far as the safety end of everything, we drill every one of our shooters before it ever begins,” Friend said. “We have 30-45 minute drill.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/26/ok-gun-range-owner-insists-howitzer-fired-safely-after-shell-blasts-house-3-miles-away/
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OK gun range owner insists howitzer fired safely after shell blasts house 3 miles away (Original Post) phantom power Jun 2014 OP
Large scale gun buffoonery. leftcoastloon Jun 2014 #1
WTF? HooptieWagon Jun 2014 #2
Didn't Mythbusters bust this safety myth... n/t PoliticAverse Jun 2014 #3
This is the cost of freedom Renew Deal Jun 2014 #4
He is correct, it may have FIRED safely liberal N proud Jun 2014 #5
... napkinz Jun 2014 #6
Damn. Must have some big old deer in Oklahoma. Jakes Progress Jun 2014 #7
I think this comes under the other "responsible gun owner" rubric gratuitous Jun 2014 #10
"Your destroyed house and possible death don't trump my 2nd amendment rights." thucythucy Jun 2014 #13
I hope they have enough money for a lawsuit. Thank God they are unhurt. nt Hekate Jun 2014 #8
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence - and when you claim you petronius Jun 2014 #9
Gun activists are domestic terrorists. onehandle Jun 2014 #11
Oh, Klan Home. Ah! Alex P Notkeaton Jun 2014 #12
Freak accident. Ok, yes Boom Sound 416 Jun 2014 #14
Fired from the Oaklahoma "Full Auto Shoot and Trade Show". SomethingFishy Jun 2014 #15
"It's not the range's fault if you choose to live on the howitzer path" struggle4progress Jun 2014 #16
maybe it ricocheted? onethatcares Jun 2014 #17
WTF is anyone doing with a howitzer 3 miles... TreasonousBastard Jun 2014 #18
I can see how this would happen jmowreader Jun 2014 #19
How about: civilians should not have access to howitzers? Warren Stupidity Jun 2014 #20
They have just as much use for a howitzer as Ted Nugent does for a machine gun jmowreader Jun 2014 #21
a machine gun is arguably an arm one can bear. Warren Stupidity Jun 2014 #22
Clearly, the range owner is incorrect. MineralMan Jun 2014 #23
NRA sympathizers must want all Amurikans to have the right to fire their howitzers where and indepat Jun 2014 #24

Renew Deal

(81,802 posts)
4. This is the cost of freedom
Thu Jun 26, 2014, 06:13 PM
Jun 2014

You're either with us or with those that don't want to die at home by stray artillery.

gratuitous

(82,849 posts)
10. I think this comes under the other "responsible gun owner" rubric
Thu Jun 26, 2014, 06:27 PM
Jun 2014

It's so much fun to make a big boom. Sorry about your house, Mr. Kelly, but your right to live unmolested by howitzer shells does not trump some dumbass's Second Amendment rights. You should have thought about that "sooner," living in Oklahoma and all.

thucythucy

(7,986 posts)
13. "Your destroyed house and possible death don't trump my 2nd amendment rights."
Thu Jun 26, 2014, 06:32 PM
Jun 2014

I mean, shouldn't every "well regulated militia" have its own artillery?

What's next, surface to air missiles?

petronius

(26,581 posts)
9. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence - and when you claim you
Thu Jun 26, 2014, 06:26 PM
Jun 2014

did everything correctly even though your artillery projectile ended up in someone's house, expect to offer some extraordinary evidence that you didn't fuck up...

onethatcares

(16,133 posts)
17. maybe it ricocheted?
Thu Jun 26, 2014, 06:45 PM
Jun 2014

off the grass and into the sky to end up in that homeowners house.

I've seen things like that happen in road runner cartoons and you know how life imitates art, so it is feasible.


Now, anyone seen that dang wabbit?

TreasonousBastard

(43,049 posts)
18. WTF is anyone doing with a howitzer 3 miles...
Thu Jun 26, 2014, 07:28 PM
Jun 2014

from a populated area? These things typically have a range of 12 miles or more. I know that and I was signal, not artillery.

The whole point of a howitzer, like a mortar but badder, is to rain hell from the sky behind fortified walls and such, and aiming is not really part of the plan. So how is this guy surprised that the shell did what it was supposed to do but just did it in the wrong place?

(Can that well-regulated militia be a stupid one, too?)

jmowreader

(50,453 posts)
19. I can see how this would happen
Thu Jun 26, 2014, 07:58 PM
Jun 2014

You can change the distance a cannon fires by changing how much propellant you use. It comes in bags, six per round (there is a base charge in the 105mm case that is always fired), and your fire mission tells you how many to put in. The problem is, during Vietnam a 105mm charge command told you how many to take out. A charge command for a 155mm howitzer, 175mm gun or 8" gun always told you how many to put in, and the 105 has been changed to that standard for safety. If you have a fire direction control officer who thinks in Vietnam terms and an ammo crew that thinks the current way you're going to get an extremely long round.

The real question I have is, why did they fire this gun from this observation point, and why were they firing metal projectiles in the first place? The Army requires that when you want to fire artillery in peacetime you have to construct a real complex "fan" on the map. You plot the position you want to use, then you have to ensure any civilian area is at least twice the gun's maximum range from it. If you can't, you can't fire that gun there. You can't fire a 155mm howitzer at most stateside bases because civilians live too close to the base, so the Army has positioned battalion sets of 155s at Fort Stewart, GA, and Fort Hood, TX; when the General Support battalions need to do their annual live-fire they have to be flown down there to shoot. (The Army turns it into a big test called an External Evaluation. They bring in officers from other units to observe, and simulate everything they'd do to go to war.) If there was a house three miles from the muzzle of the gun, the gun should not have been fired. \

And seriously, wouldn't the civilians who went to this demonstration had a better time if the lunatic gun crew had waited till after sunset and fired illumination rounds?

 

Warren Stupidity

(48,181 posts)
20. How about: civilians should not have access to howitzers?
Fri Jun 27, 2014, 01:57 PM
Jun 2014

There is no right to keep and bear artillery.

jmowreader

(50,453 posts)
21. They have just as much use for a howitzer as Ted Nugent does for a machine gun
Fri Jun 27, 2014, 02:24 PM
Jun 2014

They may have more: they can fire the 1812 Overture without ruining the National Guard's holiday weekend. They can use it to break avalanches loose - don't laugh, people do this. They can put it in the front yard as a lawn ornament, where it would be far more decorative than the atrocity someone stole out of Anita Bryant's front yard. There have to be hundreds of things you can do with your own personal howitzer.

 

Warren Stupidity

(48,181 posts)
22. a machine gun is arguably an arm one can bear.
Fri Jun 27, 2014, 02:37 PM
Jun 2014

a HOWITZER isn't and is not constitutionally protected.

MineralMan

(146,192 posts)
23. Clearly, the range owner is incorrect.
Fri Jun 27, 2014, 03:00 PM
Jun 2014

If he were correct, what happened wouldn't have happened. Morons abound!

indepat

(20,899 posts)
24. NRA sympathizers must want all Amurikans to have the right to fire their howitzers where and
Fri Jun 27, 2014, 04:30 PM
Jun 2014

when and at what they please. This is an exaggeration, but not by all that much.

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