I once had a bonfire fire a conker at me.

I, for one, welcome our new cast-iron pot-bellied overlords.

But that seems like a basic firearms safety issue, in that you should be able to account for all your rounds (and weapons I guess) all of the time. There shouldn't be that "one problem stray" because you should know where it is, ergo not a stray!

Sorry!

... welcome our new iron clad, ammo pumping overlords.

May death come swiftly to their enemies!

A1: you keep looking until you find it?

A2: you look vaguely down, don't see it, continue life?

Choices, choices.

I think if it was a rise of the machines it would of killed her, so i'd go with Darwin award where she got lucky as opposed to most Darwin winners that are truely unlucky and stupid of course.

The round is the bullet, metal casing, propellant and 'cap', so the round went off and the bullet hit her.

< /pedant>

Still - reminds me of the Darwin award story of someone using a .22 round as a fuse in their vehicle, and shooting themselves in the knee.

Mines the one with the round bullet hole in it.

ttfn

Mythbusters tested the "bullet on a campfire" myth, and found the bullet exited the fire with a pretty low velocity: the reason being, there was nothing to take the recoil when the powder lit. They also found a bullet in a hot oven wouldn't even make it through the glass door.

More likely the woman just got shot (maybe by herself?) and wanted to hide the fact.

http://kwc.org/mythbusters/2007/08/episode_85_red_rag_to_a_bull_h.html

Can't it be that the Lizard Army is mellowing out and wants to raise the overall IQ of humanity?

Perhaps they're just practicing for operations against a moose-hunting, wolf-hating, Darwin-disliking, in-duh-vidual from slightly to the north of that location?

Paris 'cause she's got more brains than both in-duh-viduals... combined.

IIRC, Mythbusters already proved that ammunition in a stove can be dangerous, possibly fatal given a large enough round!

Wow - what a great piece of near Darwinism

>Davis offered: "There's always that one problem stray. And of course, it got me."

I reckon that's a damn good attitude to have.

It just doesn't make sense, why would the machines kill the Darwin nominees? Those should be the easiest to control, on the long run.... Or do they think the power output from the smart ones is stronger?

Hmmm....

... stoves do.

If she hadn't survived would the stove have been given the death penalty?

...the stove get upset at being put in irons??

... If she was frying popcorn.

Does this mean she's done this sort of thing before?

Now I need to get a clean "wipe coffee off the screen" cloth.

On a serious note, this sort of thing is why I reckon the US needs to re-evaluate it's gun-toting amendment. It's pretty clear that it needs to be changed to something like "you have the right to bear arms once you have demonstrated a full understanding of how to use and look after weaponry" (I'm not getting into the pro/anti thing, it's not relevant here)

Some samples of lessons:

Do not look down the barrel to find out if a round is in it, and do not try to work it loose with the trigger.

Do not point a weapon at someone unless you are prepared to kill them

Do not play "duck season" "wabbit season"

Those nice little metal things that go on the inside go bang if you burn or heat them

Do not play Russian Roulette with automatics

On the other hand, we'd be sadly deprived of some fantastic Darwin Awards nominations...

A 22 gauge shotgun would be a rather rare thing compared to a 22 caliber (0.22 inch diameter) rifle or pistol. The .22 LR rimfire and .22 center fire rounds are small, cheap, and common. A 22 gauge shotgun would be just sightly smaller than the common 20 gauge shotgun (gauge being a measure of how many lead balls of that size it takes to weigh a pound).

I doubt this woman has a 22 gauge shotgun or any shells for one, or that she'd be able to overlook one wrapped in newspaper. A .22 long rifle round is easy to overlook if one isn't careful.

"just finished stoking her cast-iron stove to heat her home when something inside it exploded"

Replace stoking with stroking and you can see how my mind wondered... after that, everything was an innuendo... my bad.

Right-o, just like Mythbusters "proved" that rounds fired up in the air couldn't hurt you. I notice *they* were standing behind heavy plastic shields.

I'd think if the cartridge was resting suitably against the back wall of the stove, it would find plenty enough to recoil against, plus it looks like the stove was still open and she was still pretty close having just put the newspaper in.

We just had a kid killed when he was trying to hammer a .30-06 rifle round into a chair. The link's expired from the local paper, though.

Clearly, the cast iron stove is the "cranky old-timer" of the machine uprising:

"...You goddam young Renaults today don't know nothin' about nothin'! Ya don't get all fancy-schmantzy with yer throttle -- ya just shoot the sonsabitches... Goddam young punks...! *muttermumble*"

All you saying she should know exactly where each round is...

How many knives do you have that you think are in the kitchen. and how many knives in a £5 box..?

That's not the most frightening thing to ever come out of an oven though, my wife's cooking is lethal! Shallow wound to the calf!? Try lasagne to the oesophagus! Lightweight Americans, I don't know...

WTF is this icon supposed to be? Reminds me of Koolaid, ET and Morse Code.

@Nic Brough,

Well there *was* a time in the US when arms were common enough that you grew up in a culture that pretty much integrated safety into the commonplace aspect. I suspect, if you go back a few years, that the UK enjoyed such a period, at least regionally.

Of course, you're always going to have idiots. I grew up with several. Never had one die from firearms. Had several die from cars + booze, a few from drugs, a couple from sporting accidents. We still kill more people with cars, even with lots of training and practice and licensing. You can't legislate common sense, and when you breed it out of the culture you're going to have increasing amounts of entertaining fail.

BTW, I don't reckon she "shot herself" using any kind of actual firearm, as the muzzle velocities, even from a .22 pistol, aren't going to leave the round in a wound shallow enough for you to pluck the bullet out yourself before going to hospital.

Failing to account for all the rounds . . . ? Easy enough with .22 cartridges if they're "bulk packed" loose in counts of 200 or more. Most of mine are in bulk packs of 400-500, so it would be quite possible to spill a handful and never know if you'd recovered them all.

However, just wadding up a sheet of newspaper that had been under the rounds? Without at least a cursory check first? . . . That's not terribly prudent. I mean, if she had leaned in to apply a poker to the fire, and the "shallow wound" had been on either side of her nose . . .

Very different story.

The scholar Alvin Kernan served as an enlisted sailor in the USN in WW II, chiefly on aircraft carriers. His memoir of the service mentions the hazardous duty of working the incinerator, when the debris to burned might include stray rounds. Without a snug chamber, a round that went off would not have the velocity to penetrate the incinerator door; on the other hand it could well penetrate the human just who had just opened said door to add more trash.

Admittedly these were not .22 rounds, more likely .30 and .50,

"Do not play Russian Roulette with automatics"

That is a nice quote I will start to use, with your permission. Got a nice ring to it, maybe as a quit message or something. Right up there with "And one more thing: It's been emotional."

Without a doubt, we can predict which party this woman will be voting for in November...wonder if she knows a better moose recipe than Palin herself?

Imagine getting t-bagged by a AGA?

That's a world of pain and humilation.

Mines the bulletproof one with the Battlefield 2 DVD in.

Missed her brain by 2 and a half feet.

"""Do not play Russian Roulette with automatics"""

I actually went to school with someone who did exactly that. And from what I hear, it isn't terribly uncommon.

A better rule might be "Don't play with guns." They're fun and all, but you should know what you're doing. And that includes knowing that it's a bad idea to point one at your own head.

They are known as "snake shot" around here, but in other parts of the country as "rat shot". Pretty bloody useless at any distance, but if one went off in a stove it could quite possibly lodge one or more of the small shot in the skin (smaller pellets require less force to penetrate). See:

http://www.cci-ammunition.com/ballistics/detail.aspx?loadNo=0039

I usually have a box of these in my ammo box. You can shoot varmints in the horse chow or off the roof beams without making holes in the barn. They don't ricochet to speak of, either. They are also relatively quiet. Handy.

The Olympic Peninsula in Warshington State is abt 1380 km from Juneau, Alaska, where Ms. Palin holds sway in her Commie-red wardrobe.

But in spite of the distance, the comparison is apt. Both represent the back ass end of nowhere, full of survivalists and assorted other self-designated free spirits. In the continental US, however, this kind of anti-establishment life view is more prevalent in Montana, Idaho, and (vide "State of Jefferson") southern Oregon & northern California than on the Olympic Peninsula.

Lexicographic/semantic observation: the old Latinism "vide" for "see" is succumbing to "Google".

Chocolate moose is my favourite.

> full of survivalists and assorted other self-designated free spirits

Really. *Proper* free spirits should be assigned by Central Committee. Besides, she has a GUN!!1

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedishrag/2008/10/how-did-newswee.html#comment-133980175

“Good catch. That is a 50 caliber automatic street-sweeper cop-killer assault weapon. Not only could she have blown her foot off, she could've killed every human within a 1000 yard radius. Which she would've probably enjoyed, since she loves to kill things. She is terrifying, and I have nightmares about her every night.

Hold me.”

And what if the rear of the case was wedged up on (or near enough) a wall of the stove? There's the missing reactive force!