no, wrong bullets!
oops
Surely when you load your weapon you can tell the difference between the pointy live rounds and the stumpy blanks.....
I'd guess he just stuck the wrong magazine in without looking.
Though why any of them would be carrying live ammo in that kind of display boggles.
But, wouldn't a professional soldier notice the lack of muzzle flash and rather more recoil from using real rounds before/while emptying the gun into a crowd
quote:
Originally posted by UncleFista
But, wouldn't a professional soldier notice the lack of muzzle flash and rather more recoil from using real rounds before/while emptying the gun into a crowd
Still, you have got to question the wisdom of firing a weapon into a crowd, blanks or not.
dave
quote:
Originally posted by dmottaway
Still, you have got to question the wisdom of firing a weapon into a crowd, blanks or not.
dave
quote:
Originally posted by dmottaway
Still, you have got to question the wisdom of firing a weapon into a crowd, blanks or not.
dave
quote:
an experienced soldier" should not be able to confuse blanks with real bullets.
quote:
Originally posted by David Jenkins
The soldier was immediately arrested - now they're trying to find out if it was intentional or accidental.
it's gotta be deliberage.
like ^^^^ said already, the bullets are different appearance to blanks. for a reenactment firing into crowds doesn;t need to be accruate just as long
as it is in the the general direction - 17 people being hits seems a bit too accurate (but then I don;t know the exact circumstances)
wouldn't t here be more recoil from the weapon (newstons law and all that).
wouldn't the screams, blood and the jerking of bodies as they got hit be a tell tale too?
seems very suspisicsious to me, even if I am having trouble spelling it.
Going back to my Military experience of some 40 years ago an automatic rifle wouldn't reload with blanks without a muzzle blocker so I wonder if
they where using plastic rounds which have a limited range and he just got too close to the crowd..
What makes me think that is the fact that there where so few fatalities although I believe that most modern military weapons are made to wound not
kill as a wounded soldier is much more demoralising and resource intensive than a dead one.
But yes - the officer in charge should have a lot of explaining to do and should have been arrested with the soldier.
don't know, last time I fired a gun I nearly fell over from the recoil, I'm sure it would have been rather obvious that something was different
quote:
Originally posted by 02GF74
it's gotta be deliberage.
like ^^^^ said already, the bullets are different appearance to blanks. for a reenactment firing into crowds doesn;t need to be accruate just as long as it is in the the general direction - 17 people being hits seems a bit too accurate (but then I don;t know the exact circumstances)
wouldn't t here be more recoil from the weapon (newstons law and all that).
wouldn't the screams, blood and the jerking of bodies as they got hit be a tell tale too?
seems very suspisicsious to me, even if I am having trouble spelling it.
As Ivan says
An automatic or semi automatic rifle relies on a small amount of the expanding gas to be returned via a small piston to push the working parts
backwards so they can engage and load a fresh round. with a blank there is no back pressure within the barrell and therefore no pressure on the
piston. to get around this a BFA (blank firing attachment) is fitted to the end of the barrell which partially blocks the end causes a pressure build
up when a blank is fired.
As for 'kick'.. there is a very small amount of kick felt when firing a blank but certainly nothing like a live round. that being said the
more modren 5.56mm rounds produce little kick anyway (bring back 7.62!)
A blank can still be lethal at close range and it is every (British) soldiers training that you NEVER point a weapon at Anyone (even when unloaded)
unless you intend to kill them!
As Dave pointed out blanks are just as dangerous as live rounds just their effective range is very small. Without the BFA on the end they will happily
strip the laces off an army issue boot at half a meter :/ Not idea why the french soldiers would even think of pointing there guns at civilians blanks
or not!
On the side of the soldier it is quiet possible he was issued with a magazine and rifle right before the display started, and if his magazine was half
live and half blank its unlikely he would have spotted the problem.
the bristish army has made the same mistake during a training excercise, resulting in the death of a young soldier. It resulted in another threat from
the HSE to turn the army upside down.
However you look at it, this stuff just shouldnt happen.
I know it's off-topic but as there seem to be a few people with military knowledge/interest here....
Has anyone read Sniper One? By Sergeant Dan Mills?
It's for sale at Sainsbury's now for about a fiver. I read it non-stop... really interesting (and dramatic!) stuff about the PWRR's
time in Al Amarah in Iraq.
Cheers,
James
quote:
Originally posted by Jon Hazan
As Dave pointed out blanks are just as dangerous as live rounds just their effective range is very small. Without the BFA on the end they will happily strip the laces off an army issue boot at half a meter :/ Not idea why the french soldiers would even think of pointing there guns at civilians blanks or not!
On the side of the soldier it is quiet possible he was issued with a magazine and rifle right before the display started, and if his magazine was half live and half blank its unlikely he would have spotted the problem.
quote:
Originally posted by Mark Allanson
quote:
Originally posted by Jon Hazan
As Dave pointed out blanks are just as dangerous as live rounds just their effective range is very small. Without the BFA on the end they will happily strip the laces off an army issue boot at half a meter :/ Not idea why the french soldiers would even think of pointing there guns at civilians blanks or not!
On the side of the soldier it is quiet possible he was issued with a magazine and rifle right before the display started, and if his magazine was half live and half blank its unlikely he would have spotted the problem.
He probably felt threatened by the 5 year old, he is french!
quote:
Originally posted by James
IHas anyone read Sniper One? By Sergeant Dan Mills?
It's for sale at Sainsbury's now for about a fiver. I read it non-stop... really interesting (and dramatic!) stuff about the PWRR's time in Al Amarah in Iraq.