LF: Georgia man loses leg after firing rifle at lawnmower packed with explosives

Title: Georgia man loses leg after firing rifle at lawnmower packed with explosives
Source: UK Telegraph
URL Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor ... er-packed-with-explosives.html
Published: Mar 24, 2016
Author: Robert Tait
Post Date: 2016-03-26 12:11:23 by cranky
Keywords: None
Views: 2108
Comments: 11

Injury sustained after lawnmower filled with tannerite explodes into a lethal mass of flying debris when struck by high-powered bullet

The three friends no doubt thought shooting at an old lawnmower would be a fun way of exercising America’s gun ownership rights.

Mr Presley and his two accomplices in Walton County in the southern state of Georgia packed the lawnmower with 3ib of Tannerite - a binary explosive designed to make a loudly combusting target for firearms practice - before shooting at it from just 14 yards away.

Mr Presley lost his left leg below the knee after being struck by the potentially lethal lumps of metal. The consequences could have been fatal if his friends had not been present to attend to his injuries and have him taken to hospital.

Tannerite, a patented product, combines ammonium nitrate and aluminium which are mixed and shaken together to produce an explosive. It is not flammable and generally stable when not subjected to high velocity bullets.

While its use for shooting practice is both common and legal in Georgia, the injured man and his friends ignored basic precautions, according to police - packing the lawnmower with too much explosive and then firing at excessively close range.

“It’s not a toy. It’s much more than just a fire-cracker,” said Joe Chapman, sheriff of Walton Country, adding that use of the explosive for fire practice generates frequent complaints about noise. “As a rule of thumb, I’m told that you need to be 100 yards away per pound of Tannerite.”

Mr Presley admitted to be just 43 feet away from the lawnmower when he fired his high-velocity rifle. His two friends were standing behind him, one of them filming.

Y is the amount of tannerite in ounces and X is the number of beers you've had in the last 2 hours.

President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people. --Clint Eastwood

"I am concerned for the security of our great nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within." -- General Douglas MacArthur

He could try to sue the Tannerite manufacturer, but he wouldn't have a leg to stand on.

Thank God he had the 2nd Amendment right to defend himself...
If that suicidal lawnmower had gotten any closer, it might've blown his other leg off too!

If only we had lots of high speed trains, things like that wouldn't happen any more.

If you ... don't use exclamation points --- you should't be typeing ! Commas - semicolons - question marks are for girlie boys !

"Stupid is as stupid does. That's what mama always sa... Oh look, a squirrel!" [KABOOOM]

If people who own guns have to pass an intelligence test this wouldn't happen. Why are morons allowed to own guns