Meh.

"Utah Teen Fatally Shoots Self With Miniature Toy Cannon" says the headline at KSNT, a CBS affiliate in Las Vegas.


First off - just because you treat it like a toy, doesn't mean it really *is* a toy in the conventional sense of the word.  If it expels hard projectiles at speed (like a bb gun) then it is a toy that requires supervised training and overwatch, and a little extra care.  All of which may well have been provided by this family, I don't know the details. But I do know that young budding armorers are capable of siphoning off some powder and a bb or two for their own purposes - and I'm not really here to pile on the family, they're beating themselves with bats right now regardless of the details.

I'm mostly snarking crappy reporting by the CBS people, and possibly muddled speech by the Chief, who probably doesn't spend a lot of time with a microphone shoved in his face.  But there aren't any quote marks in the article.

However, the real purpose here is a cautionary tale for anyone buying something like this - or any muzzle-loading firearm: toy cannon or Civil War musket.  Unless it's coming to you new, in the box, don't assume it's empty.  Especially if it's not new.

Check it.

I bought a French M1822 flint-to-percussion conversion musket at a gun show.  When I got it home, I pulled the ramrod and put it down the barrel. I always do this to muzzle loaders- I didn't at the gun show itself because the seller was one of those types who really don't want you to touch their stuff, much less check it thoroughly, so I did it first thing at home.  The rod "thumped" down, rather than landing with a metallic ring.  It made a soft landing, and it didn't go down far enough.  Marking where the muzzle was on the rod with my thumb, I pulled the rod and then laid it along the outside of the barrel.  It went down just far enough to indicate that there might well be a load in the gun.  

It could also have been cleaning wadding.  In the case of this musket, it was a proper load which I had to remove using a ball puller and compressed air.

The cannon in the story "somehow" went off.  It went off because it was charged.  I don't know who charged it.  But it went off because it was loaded.  And like any firearm... "toy" or not, you have to treat them as if they are loaded.  

And teach the young ones to do so, as well.  And then, because I know how I was at that age, you have to hope that the training sticks.  In my case, the "always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction" bit has always been operative.  

But there was this one time, at band camp... a story I won't put in pixels!  Suffice it to say, it's never wrong to reinforce safe weapon handling rules.  Even when they roll their eyes at you.