Man gives kids 40 mm shell to play with; 2 killed, 5 hurt

CNN ^

[Gomez]

BAKERSFIELD, California (AP) -- A military shell given to a group of children by a neighbor exploded while they played with it, killing two children and injuring five others, police and witnesses said.

Police were investigating the cause of Tuesday's explosion, which damaged homes and forced neighbors to wrap bloodied and dazed children in blankets.

[Tuxedo]

Just friggin damn.....

[Borges]

Future headline: Jury gives inmates stupid man to play with.

[alais4]

He said the firing pin and bottom shell casing had been removed, along with the gun powder inside. Sounds like a flimsy excuse. I guess now we'll never know now. I wonder what he'll be charged with?

[DTogo]

The neighbors let him live?

[digger48]

Dang....big bullet..

[elkfersupper]

We've lost it in this country.

People have gotten so stupid they don't know what ordnance is.

[Texas Eagle]

A 40mm shell? Is that the size of shell a Howitzer would fire?

[Ptarmigan]

It's an ammo for the love of God. WTF??????????????

[digger48]

[COEXERJ145]

No, most howitzers fire 105mm and 155mm shells.

40mm was a common anti-aircraft shell in WWII.

[Strategerist]

It's the shell a small anti-aircraft gun would fire. Much much smaller than a howitzer shell.

[llevrok]

Who was the neighbor - Cousin Eddy from the National Lampoon Vacation movies? (Hold muh beer and watch this....)

[magslinger]

1.57 inch.

[lesser_satan]

40mm is about 1.57", so I would guess not.

[USMCVet]

I think you've got the wrong 40mm: I believe that they're talking about the 40mm grenade round for the M203 granade launcher.

I further suspect that the idiot that gave that thing to the kids gave them a fired dud - and they are very sensitive to impact and contain many very small fragments.

There's no "firing pin" to remove and no "black powder" in that cartridge; 40mms have the high-low pressure system and only have a small cup of smokeless propellant in the inside of the cartridge case. It is very unlikely that he tried to remove the grenade from the cartridge case - it's much more likely that he removed a fired - and armed - dud round from a military range.

[DTogo]

Might have been a 40mm grenade used in the M-203, which has a firing pin and powder charge to launch the explosive projectile:
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/40.htm

[The Electrician]

Wow, didn't initial reports (including the report that just aired on my local 11 PM TV news) say that the kids were playing with shotgun shells? That sure doesn't sound like a shotgun shell... :-(

[digger48]

Thank You!

[RedEyeJack]

Most likely a rifle grenade from an M-203 or Mark-19 grenade launcher. The 40mm rifled grenade has been a standard type of infantry ordnance for 40 years. The duds, rounds that arm and fail to detonate after firing, are notorious for causing this type of accident. They can be found on practice ranges between EOD sweeps and are usually taken as souvenirs. This is often the result.