'Safety bullet' invention aims to prevent accidental shootings

News Herald ^ | Story filed: 11:52 Tuesday 30th July 2002 | Editorial Staff

[Vigilantcitizen]

Get 'em Travis...

[Shooter 2.5]

That's one of the reasons that I use the same style holster for every occasion.
I even noticed that when I see something on the street like guys hanging around a dark parking lot in bad weather, I started a really bad habit of fingering the bottom of my coat or shirt just like I do in the IDPA matches in anticipation of sweeping it away.
On the other hand, the real bad guys might recognize that behavior and pick on someone else.

[Travis McGee]

Mike Worley, "Inventor of the Safety Bullet", doesn't even own a handgun he says.

Typical.

Like I said earlier, a desert nomad selling "Safe Igloo Plans" to Eskimos from his tent in the Sahara.

[Clinging Bitterly]

> I would like to see that gun. It sounds like one awsome firearm.

It's just a standard piece, they are probably still made the same, and I like it just the way it came out of the box, with the standard oiled walnut grips with the little medallions on them. Mine has the long barrel, 8" I think, and it's very smooth and accurate, as one would expect. I bought it from my late stepdad about 20 years ago, and I think he bought it new about ten years before that.

My wife's brother has an identical "larger brother" of it in .44 Long Colt, and he had a good smith put a 2X scope on it in a matching stainless finish. He uses it for deer hunting here in the brushy western Oregon Coast Range. He says it beats the heck out of packing a long rifle, but his rifle is a .50 cal cap & ball, and it's pretty darned long.

Dave in Eugene

[Travis McGee]

Mike, there are already steel safes the size of a textbook which have a "touch pad" combination lock on top contoured like a hand so you not only see it, you feel the numbers. You put your hand on it, and push "3-1-2" and the lid pops open, and there's your gun, which will NOT jam because you forgot the hidden "gun jammer" you loaded in it last month.

In my case, I have a plastic trigger lock that works like a heavy duty "child proof pill bottle cap". I can get it off in a second, but no child under 7 can work it, the spring is too strong. Kids older than that are trained in the deadliness of guns.

[Terriergal]

Home Invader Thwarted: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/745723/posts

I wonder if this guy would have had time to eject the safety bullet...? And if he HAD had one of these things in the chamber... I wonder who would be dead? not the perp, I'm betting.

[Shooter 2.5]

It was around 12 o'clock and I was just getting ready to turn in and there was a sentence that condemned him to hell and a couple of other things.

Don't take it personal because I had two of mine deleted and I was the one that asked for my posts to be removed. Someone on another thread didn't like me discussing something with someone else so I hit the button on my posts so that I couldn't upset his friend.

[Terriergal]

Mike Worley, "Inventor of the Safety Bullet", doesn't even own a handgun he says.

Suddenly, everything becomes crystal clear...

[Tennessee_Bob]

What this does is make your gun safer and you can get to use it far faster than with any other device on the market.

Until that critical moment when you're under pressure and forget the round is in the weapon. Better yet, fumble with it in the dark.

Thanks, but no. I'll rely on my training.

[Redcloak]

My goodness! What a speedy reply.

So you really think that a person who's under stress in the dead of night will be able to realize what went wrong, grab the release tool (assuming it's close at hand), thread it into the barrel, release the locking mechanism, remove the tool, clear the chamber, re-acquire their target, aim, and fire in less than two seconds? Assuming for the sake of argument that this is possible, just how far do you think the goblin can move in those extra 2 seconds? 2 seconds is an eternity in a gunfight.

As for a conventional locking safety device, I'll use mine as an example. It's a lock box with a Simplex lock. I know it's there. It's not going to surprise me. I know automatically that I have to key the combo to get the gun. I can have the gun out and charged in under 2 seconds. Admitedly, this is slightly more time than someone with your product in their weapon will take to retrieve their gun. But simply retrieving the gun isn't all there is to a gunfight.

Let's assume that I forget to charge it. Let's also assume that your guy similarly forgets to rack the slide. When I squeeze the trigger, nothing will happen; however, I'll instantly realize what went wrong and be one quick yank of the slide away from having a functional firearm. Your guy will be at the start of that "2 second" timeline you describe. Again, we're assuming that one can do all of the things necessary to unspike the gun in 2 seconds.

Your view of what a person in a stressful situation can do is simply unrealistic. Your device is driven by a primer. It's going to produce an odd pop when fired. If this happens in the dead of night during a self-defense situation, it's going to take the owner at least a second to realize that the pop wasn't the right sound. It will take another second, at least, to realize exactly what went wrong. Panic will start to set in as they try to recall what to do next. Now you expect them to find the release tool and use it? And in less than 2 seconds? They've already spent those two seconds, and then some, just diagnosing the problem! In short, THEY'RE DEAD!!

Your device is a tragedy waiting to happen. You had best take Abundy's advice. Print out this thread and show it to your attorney. You obviously have too much of an emotional attachment to your design. You need someone like your lawyer who can give you an unemotional evaluation of these opinions.

[Lazamataz]

I think your device is very creative, and has a place in the array of safety devices a person might select from.

You wouldn't catch me dead owning one -- my safety device is my noggin -- but I see utterly nothing wrong with your invention, for other people. And I wish you much success in your endeavor.

[Lazamataz]

So you really think that a person who's under stress in the dead of night

Let us not forget that a person who has such a device should train to rack once before advancing to meet the enemy. This training should be done so often that it becomes 'muscle memory' and is a reflex upon being awoken to investigate an intrusion.

This device + proper and constant training should make the firearm immediately useable and safe.

I wouldn't own one, but I know many people who would.

[Terriergal]

Another thing I'm thinking... from another story Mike relayed here:

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/apnews/stories/072902/D7L2RCKO0.html

Apparently some stupid kid picked the lock on his dad's gun safe so he could show his equally idiotic friend his dad's gun. The kid hands the gun to the friend, friend pulls trigger, shoots kid in the arm. Luckily he wasn't killed. I think the problem with kids being irresponsible with guns in that family is solved forevermore, HOWEVER...

If the kid is savvy enough to pick the lock, could he not just as easily REMOVE the safety bullet? And if he did not remove the safety bullet, and accidentally fired the safety bullet, locking up the weapon, how much do you want to bet a kid who sneaks into his Dad's gun safe is going to HIDE the gun back in the safe without telling his dad? NOW suppose the dad runs to the safe to get the gun in an emergency, where he has only seconds to act... he goes to fire the gun and realizes someone has accidentally fired it... now he has to look for the special tool... and by then he's a dead man.

NOTHING replaces or is better than discipline, common sense, and openness of communication with the kids who are in your house. My kids get the horror stories about guns all the time *from us*, but they also get to see the good and useful side of guns.

[Redcloak]

Laz, wouldn't it be better if that proper and consistant training meant learning not to leave loaded firearms lying around? The "rack once before advancing to meet the enemy" training you specify also applies to guns that don't have anything in the chamber.

But what I've been harping on is this: What happens when one forgets their training under stress? Forget to rack the slide on an empty chamber and the gun is still functional. Forget with this thing in there and the gun is turned into a blunt instrument.

[Ben Bolt]

Someone who has a specific thought out agenda and comes here to promote & to disrupt the forum for self serving , self promotion should be more than layed open to scrutiny .
Especially people who promote the left .

[Shooter 2.5]

I agree. As long as we don't drag ourselves down with it like I did when I had to have my posts removed.
There's no sense in getting upset when I'm sitting in the air conditioning behind a computer with a cold one in my hand.
Take care. I'm turning in.

[PoorMuttly]

ANYONE WHO BUYS THEM, DESERVES TO.

[PoorMuttly]

Some day, when there are clear, plastic guns, the people who need this device will have much safer children...before they accidentally run them over in the driveway, with their hovercraft.

[Jeff Head]

I'm not here to impress you, nor do I have any desire to. ... and I have not "bithced" to you about anything. To the contrary, throughout the thread that is what you have done over and over again about the sad state of affiars as pertains to firearms and how your invention is going to make them safe for children.

I have a flash for you .. they most certainly will not.

What I have done is to indicate that I disagree with you and told you why. You apparently can't handle that because you made absolutely no attempt in your reply to address any of those points of disagreement.

I have given you the same solution that many, many of the other people on this thread have done education and training ... and explained, as have they, why your invention is more of a danger than a help ... both to individuals who might have one in their gun and to the ones they would protect.

I pray too that no unforseen incident happens to me or mine. I have prepared them against that day ... both to defend themselves if need be ... and to seek solace in God's wisdom for those experiences that occur that are hard to understand as mortals.

And your response to that is to deflect and indicate I am "bitching"?

Sorry, you have displayed the shallowness of your arguement once too often for me.

As to what I have done ... I have already explained it. I have raised five kids to understand that in order to be free, they must be able to defend themselves and to understand this simple truth ... THERE IS NO SAFE FIREARM. The term is an oxymoron.

They will pass it on to theirs ... as I did to mine.

[Ben Bolt]

Shooter , I dont know what you have done in the past to have a post or reply removed . I'll thank you to not apply your standard to the mods in the future with FReegards to me .

I hardly think I'm worthy of being deleted . Thanks for having the balls to at least admitting to what you did . 'Tis a fancy to have a Heineken indeed .. Good day Sir !