Council Bluffs boy, 7, hit by bullet while watching fireworks with grandparents

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Omaha World Herald

By Maggie O'Brien

COUNCIL BLUFFS — Jim Riddle couldn’t figure out why his 7-year-old grandson wouldn’t come back outside to watch the neighborhood fireworks show.
It was about 10:30 p.m. Saturday, and Riddle’s grandson, Leyton McNabb, was nowhere to be found as the fun was getting started.
"It was like we had front-row seats," said Riddle. "Then, my wife started screaming."
Riddle rushed inside, and saw that Leyton, who will be a second-grader at Franklin Elementary School, was bleeding from his right shoulder. Patricia Riddle tried to stop the bleeding using a dish towel, thinking the boy had been struck by fireworks. But upon closer examination, the startled grandparents realized Leyton had been hit by a bullet.

FULL story at link. Also see this LBN story from this morning: Woman struck by bullet while at Pennsylvania amusement park: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141136752



Leyton McNabb

Read more: http://www.omaha.com/news/crime/council-bluffs-boy-hit-by-bullet-while-watching-fireworks-with/article_400e18b6-231a-11e5-8933-d39d071fe3ce.html

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USA leads 3-0 early over Japan in the women's world soccer championship at the 14:00 minute mark.

[-Bernie-]

1. Now 4-0

and Lloyd made the hat trick.

I think she will nab the MVP...

[C Moon]

4. Awesome!!! Thanks for the update!

and get well, Leyton!

[daleanime]

2. Yea, gun-safety....

[Judi Lynn]

3. Hope the police can discover how this happened. Unbelievable. Get well soon to Leyton. n/t

[MsMAC]

18. There was a young girl who was killed in Kansas City

a few years back and they eventually did find who did it! Some idiot firing up in the air! Hope for this family they find who fired the shots also and glad the little guy wasn't hurt worse!

[TexasBushwhacker]

23. Yup, terminal velocity of a bullet is 300 feet per second

A bullet going as slow as 200 feet per second can penetrate soft tissue. The bullet probably hit a vein or artery.

[FrodosPet]

5. Stupid stupid STUPID people with their stupid bang bang toys

Do these morans (they are not even smart enough to be called morons) realize "What goes up must come down?"

[Skittles]

15. gun humpers are not known for their intellect

[Initech]

21. +1

Fuck guns.

[KT2000]

6. an idiot had perfect cover

it was hard to tell fireworks from gunshots and bombs.
Poor little fella. Welcome to the mad mad world.

[Kalidurga]

7. There are people who fire their guns in the air on the 4th of July

Its a major crime and if they get caught they should be charged with reckless endangerment at the very least.

[CountAllVotes]

13. That's what they do around here!

Yahoo's love firing off their stupid gunz, they just love it!

[Kalidurga]

17. Yes it's one of the reasons it's not so risk free going to a large fireworks display

or even one in an area where people are used to the gun culture. I have no answers on how to keep this kind of thing from happening. Unless we are willing to unilaterally disarm every single person in this country there will be people who are willing to pull the trigger even if they don't intend to hit anyone its a small comfort when you are the injured party.

[KG]

8. yay, guns!

[No Vested Interest]

9. That beautiful young boy did not deserve to be hit by gunfire.

Where and when will this stupidity end?

[EL34x4]

14. The stupidity is only beginning

I'm 46 and I don't ever remember people firing off guns in celebration when I was growing up. Now it seems like a regular occurrence.

[onehandle]

10. Every July 4th, gun owners shoot into the air to celebrate freedumb.

Every year, children are hit.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. They seem to think that the bullets just keep going into outer space

In fact, they fall back to earth and often hit people.

[happyslug]

19. This appears to be a .223 or 5.56 mm AR-15 round

That is according to preliminary reports. This may be a .22 but the blast of a .22 is not that loud so people opt for more powerful weapons and rounds, thus it looks like an AR-15 (Semi-automatic civilian legal version of the M-16).

[Fred Sanders]

11. 340 million guns. Infinite ammo. NRA propaganda-enslaved nation. This is the consequence: everyday in America.

"Nothing can be done about the Dixie Swastika" either, remember?.....but then the nation waited a minute and reflected on common sense and came to it's collective and common senses.

Another outbreak of common sense is needed.

[Plucketeer]

16. Hope the kid's OK!

When we lived in the LA area, a neighbor-lady had just retired to her bed for the evening - this was about 10PM on the night of the fourth. Just after she laid her head on her pillow, a .45 slug came neatly thru her roof, her bedroom ceiling and lodged itself in the pillow next to hers! This had fallen from above - shot by who knows who, some distance away. Idiots.

[happyslug]

20. Sounds like a 45-70 round

The 45-70-405 round is known for their high trajectory (It was a black powder round when adopted by the US Army in 1873) and that they tend to keep on going, not affected by hitting most things. On the other hand once they slow down they bounce around a good deal while retaining a good bit of penetration power.

The 45 Automatic round, starts out much slower and do to its low speed has terrible penetration power. One old joke about the .45 Auto was it could penetrate the doors of a car if you opened the doors first (Thus the Texas Ranger going after Bonnie and Clyde in the early 1930s, turned in his Thompson Sub-machine gun in 45 auto for a Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) in 30'06, so he would have a weapon to penetrate the doors of Bonnie and Clyde's car).

Could the .45 you talked about be a 45 Auto? Possible, a 45 Auto can penetrate thin metal and wood (Thus the 357 Magnum was adopted by Police to be better able to penetrate car bodies), but thick wood or metal would stop such a round (I heard of a Police Officer who used the 45 Auto for that reason, he did not want any rounds he fired to go to far from where he aimed his pistol at).

Those old large heavy rifle bullets, you have to be careful with, they will bounce. I have heard similar stories dealing with Rifled Shotguns slugs, i.e. they penetrate and bounce.

[tblue37]

22. I don't understand why the US doesn;t flood the air with PSAs about this sort of thing around every

holiday especially, but all through the year as well.

Remember "This is your brain on drugs"? Why can't they fill the airways and public spaces with a PSA about this sort of crap?

People are not at all well-informed, so it is pretty much certain that most people honestly assume that firing into the air means no one will ever be harmed by their bullets.

Some idiots would still take the chance, no doubt, especially if they've been drinking, because for some idiots, nothing matters more than their momentary, impulsive thrill. They'd figure, "Probably no one will get hurt," and that would be good enough for them, even if they knew that there was still a real possibility that someone, quite possibly a child, would pay the price for their thrill shooting.

But as it stands, I would bet that most people--including most of the jackasses who shoot into the air in celebration--simply do not know that a bullet shot into the air can come down with enough power behind it to harm or kill someone miles away.