Reactionary idiots in UK find a .22 short bullet, nearly kill themselves in terror

[Neutron]

Guardian article (http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/walthamforest/walthamforestnews/display.var.1013959.0.bullet_found_in_doorway.php)



Bullet found in doorway

By David Williams (david.williams@london.newsquest.co.uk)

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</td></tr><tr><td>LETHAL: The .22 calibre bullet found in Walthamstow High Street on a market day morning (D6W1001)</td></tr></tbody></table>LIVE ammunition has been found lying in the doorway of a busy high street shop.

The .22 calibre short round bullet was found at the entrance of the 99p Stores in Walthamstow High Street on Wednesday morning, November 1.
Haroon Khan, who has a firearms licence and is a member of a local gun club, was alarmed to discover live ammunition in a Walthamstow doorway.
The bullet, of Swiss origin, was still in its brass casing, complete with enough gunpowder for it to fire itself.



Mr Khan said that if it had been struck hard enough or exposed to heat it could have gone off.
"This sort of thing should not be lying around. It was live, primed and active," he said. "But rather me pick it up than a little kid.
"How can you feel safe when you are finding things like this on the street?
"To get hold of one of these is not easy. You have to go through a scrutinised search, you need a licence and you have to belong to a club."
Ammunition of this kind would ordinarily be used in a small handgun or pistol, and both can be owned legally under licence.
But to leave strictly controlled goods out in the street would be enough for a firearms licence to be revoked.
The bullet has been examined at a Metropolitan Police laboratory and details about it kept for future reference.
A police spokesman said: "Recovering firearms and ammunition is a priority for the police. We take the same view of ammunition as we do of a gun.
"If it goes bang, it is still lethal."
Police are treating the unattended ammunition as a crime. Mr Khan alerted them at 10.16am, and they arrived at his shop to pick up the bullet at 11.32am.
7:00pm Thursday 9th November 2006
Ok guys, seriously. We get that you don't like guns. That's ok I suppose. But to find a total pipsqueak round like a .22 short and flip your stacks like this? Can somebody find me this David Williams so I can defenestrate him onto a double decker bus and light him on fire? Why the hell does a single round of .22 get a whole damn article's worth of mention? Seriously people, find something better to report. Talk about drying paint. Talk about growing grass. This is insanity.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Can somebody find me this David Williams so I can defenestrate him onto a double decker bus and light him on fire? Why the hell does a single round of .22 get a whole damn article's worth of mention? Seriously people, find something better to report. Talk about drying paint. Talk about growing grass. This is insanity.
Please don't be ridiculous.

We have totally different cultures, and ours just happens to be more concerned about the dangers of having live ammunition lying about in the street where anyone could pick it up. I don't know how things work in the rest of the world, but over here it's not common practice to find bullets lying about in the street. Like the article says, it could have been intended to be used in a crime. They have to treat something like that seriously.

What would you have rather the guy did? Leave the bullet there? Take it for himself and risk some kind of legal action? If it turned out the bullet had been intended to be used in a crime, he would be obstructing the course of justice by removing evidence.

[Rod Stafford]

Please don't be ridiculous.

We have totally different cultures.

That's all it boils down to here.

[Neutron]

No, there's more to it than that. A cartridge such as that, unsupported and away from a chamber or a gun barrel is a threat to nobody. You can't accelerate a bullet to do real damage without focusing expanding gas through a sealed environment.

It's an utterly ludicrous fearmongering job, irregardless of your culture. I'm not even arguing culture here. I'm going on facts.

[Neutron]

What would you have rather the guy did? Leave the bullet there? Take it for himself and risk some kind of legal action? If it turned out the bullet had been intended to be used in a crime, he would be obstructing the course of justice by removing evidence.

Nonchalantly pass it off to a bobby and not get the media involved in an unnecessary tiff? I dunno.

That, or yank the slug with needlenose pliars and tip out the powder, throwing it all in the rubbish bin, and forget about it.

[Rod Stafford]

Yes, people are stupid over here as well as in your country. If we have another Love Guns vs. Hate Guns debate on this forum I may just take a gun to myself. Something tells me that this article wasn't published in a remotely respectable newspaper in the first place. In any case, you don't just find bullets lying around on the street over here so whether it was LETHAL!! or not is irrelevant.

[Neutron]

The implication in the article is that it most certainly was, and that is the point of contention I am making here. It isn't a love vs hate thing. It's an education vs not thing.

Let's not flag wave here. That isn't the issue.

[Rod Stafford]

Yes, but it's simple enough. He's an attention seeker reporting the smallest scrap of news to what is presumably a local rag and it gets published because the country has extremely strict views on firearms.

[Neutron]

I understand the motives at work. Sensationalism sells very well, and there's an ethical quandry to print stories that shock rather than ones that inform. I guess my reasoning here is that the order of magnitude that the hyperbole had to reach in this article is amazing, and believe me, I've read stupid rags about the subject from sources all over the globe - even here.

[Park Kraken]

The article mentions that intense pressure could have set it off, or heat. How about the bullet getting wedged in between the closing door and doorway, or friction rubbing it from the close door and doorway? Or it someone stepped on it in such a way that it scraped against the floor, again using friction? Any number of interesting ways it could of gone off from where it was at. My thoughts? The bullet was placed there as part of a prank.

[Morgan Evanar]

The article mentions that intense pressure could have set it off, or heat. How about the bullet getting wedged in between the closing door and doorway, or friction rubbing it from the close door and doorway? Or it someone stepped on it in such a way that it scraped against the floor, again using friction? Any number of interesting ways it could of gone off from where it was at. My thoughts? The bullet was placed there as part of a prank.You'd have to hit it with a hammer, at the very least.

I've read stupid rags about the subject from sources all over the globe - especially here.Fixed. Considering our country does have a responsible gun culture, some of the trash written here is especially disgraceful.

[Neutron]

The article mentions that intense pressure could have set it off, or heat. How about the bullet getting wedged in between the closing door and doorway, or friction rubbing it from the close door and doorway? Or it someone stepped on it in such a way that it scraped against the floor, again using friction? Any number of interesting ways it could of gone off from where it was at. My thoughts? The bullet was placed there as part of a prank.

The pressure on the primer has to be acute and sudden. I could slowly dimple a primer and it wouldn't go off, but if I hit it hard and smart, it would. Sort of like those fireworks that you throw on the ground and they pop.

As for heat? LOL I forgot about that. There's no way. Think about it like this - barrels and chambers of firing guns can get hot enough to scald skin off your fingers. Even being that hot, bullets do not "cook off" in the chamber. In other words, that ain't happening.

Even assuming it did get a narrow, hard rap, my issue about the gas expansion is still at hand. Without pressure built up behind a bullet, it isn't really going to "go". It'll be like a lady finger. It'll pop, you'll hear it, and the slug may zing away a few meters, but it isn't gonna be going fast enough to endanger anybody.