Nail shot into Shawnee man’s head felt like just ‘a little sting’

Kansas City Star ^ | 6/11/08 | Benita Williams and Brad Cooper

[Non-Sequitur]

George Chandler’s not sure how it happened. Maybe he stood up at the wrong time, or maybe his friend lost his balance.

What he knows for sure is that one minute he was installing lattice for his wife’s trailing wisteria, and the next minute he had a two-inch nail from a nail gun embedded in his skull.

[T-Bird45]

OK, let's accept that there was improper control of the primary safety, IOW the operator's finger was on the trigger when it shouldn't have been. Now, let's consider a picture:

See the "M"-shaped part at the very bottom left of the picture at the nose of the nailgun? That is a safety that MUST BE DEPRESSED in order to make the trigger active for driving a nail. I am saying that safety had to be bypassed so the nailgun could drive a nail without that safety being in contact with something. The guy who took the nail to the head says he only felt a little sting so that says to me the nailgun was not in contact with his head.

BTW, I agree with the concept that nailguns, air or powder, should be treated like firearms as regards keeping the finger off the trigger, know the target and backstop, etc.

[AnAmericanMother]

Since they were doing lattice, I wonder if the idiot had the nail gun in position, realized the hose was jammed, and flipped the hose to clear it while the muzzle of the nail gun was still touching a piece of the latticework. With just a little wobble, the nail could easily miss the lattice completely and hit the other guy in the head.

I don't work jobs with dangerous equipment with folks I don't know. Really, the only people I work with are my dad, my hubby, and my son (my daughter doesn't DO carpentry). I also don't SCUBA with anybody but my husband as my buddy.