Reenactor injured.....

[archieclement]

Was in my newsfeed this morning.

Civil War reenactment actor injured in Rubidoux

No arrests have been made and investigators believe the cause of the man’s injuries was accidental.

www.pressenterprise.com

 

[Kurtlg]

So what exactly is an "artificial firearm " ?

 

[captaindrew]

So what exactly is an "artificial firearm " ?

That's a new one on me. Pretty vague information, not much to deduct from that article.

 

[Lampasas Bill]

People ignorant of actual terminology tend to use their own speculative names for things. I would guess "artificial firearm" was meant to imply a reproduction firearm used to fire blanks? When I worked at the Missouri State Museum, a poorly informed part-time assistant was cataloging bayonets as "gun knives"! Close, but no cigar . . . .

 

[scooter748driver]

I would think that shooting the spectators would tend to dampen attendance

 

[lupaglupa]

Hopefully this isn't serious

 

[johan_steele]

Having acted as a safety officer at some events I can say there have been some mighty stupid things done. But we were very very diligent about safety checks. If a man refused to be present for one he was not allowed on the field. In one case an entire unit was refused as the stupid idiots couldn't sober up enough to show up for the safety inspection.

 

[Mrs. V]

I've seen folks taken from the field because someone didn't fire thier musket into the air, and they got "flashed" in the face. But hit by some sort of projectile makes me wonder if someone didn't clean their gun after target practive..or some joker poked something hard down someone's musket…

 

[WScott]

An "artificial firearm" is what you get when your gun no longer works like it used to and a surgeon has to replace it.
Re-enactments are always a delicate balance and I can thankfully say the I have never be to or been involved with a re-enactment where there was an accident.

 

[General Casey]

I've seen folks taken from the field because someone didn't fire thier musket into the air, and they got "flashed" in the face. But hit by some sort of projectile makes me wonder if someone didn't clean their gun after target practive..or some joker poked something hard down someone's musket…

I remember when I reenacted, we used to do an event at Monmouth Battlefield in New Jersey. One year (1998, IIRC) a reenactor got shot in the head. Turns out the projectile was a tompion (wooden plug) that someone had forgotten in their musket after the tactical that morning and apparently fielded without going through a safety check. The tompion fractured the guys skull but thankfully didn't penetrate his brain, but the reenactor needed intense physical therapy to recover

 

[Library Lady]

On the other hand . . . murder at a Civil War reenactment is a theme in mystery books. See Leslie Wheeler's Murder at Gettysburg, for example.

Murder at Gettysburg - Leslie Wheeler

For the devoted, some might say obsessive, Civil War reenactors, authenticity is key—right down to the specifics of dying on the battlefield. Except for real bullets. So when hard-core Confederate reenactor Wiley Cross dies during the annual Fourth of July reenactment of Pickett’s Charge, foul...

www.lesliewheeler.com

 

[7thWisconsin]

I really hate when, after reading a news article, you still don´t know any more than you did after reading the headline. Actually, I´m nursing a minor injury from an event last weekend, and a buddy of mine needed 4 stiches from a weapon malfunction. So, yeah, it can be a bit of an extreme sport.

 

[Patrick H]

Very unfortunate. I hear terms like "artificial firearm" read by uninformed news commentators all too frequently.

 

[thomas aagaard]

At Gettysburg 135th in 1998 a guy was shot by a revolver...
There have been cases of tompions hitting people, by dirt/stones that ended up in the barrel by mistake.

Proper training, inspection of arms before and after their use... and actually keeping a realistic combat range would deal with most of this.

 

[captaindrew]

At Gettysburg 135th in 1998 a guy was shot by a revolver...
There have been cases of tompions hitting people, by dirt/stones that ended up in the barrel by mistake.

Proper training, inspection of arms before and after their use... and actually keeping a realistic combat range would deal with most of this.

99.9 percent of the time they do deal with it, those types of injuries are extremely rare considering the number of people who've participated in events over the years. Now out of shape guys passing out when it gets over 80 degrees is a whole other story.

 

[DixieRifles]

So what exactly is an "artificial firearm " ?

If it was a national news covering this, they would have called it an "assault rifle" — which is somewhat accurate.

 

[General Casey]

I was just watching my local news and a story came on about a Revolutionary War reenacting group here in Massachusetts. They were drilling at a museum in preparation for Patriots Day (3rd Monday in April which commemorates the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775) and apparently one of the Minutemen fired his musket that was loaded by live ammunition and the shot went through the ceiling and pierced the floor of the room upstairs. Thankfully no one was in the upstairs room but the police came and confiscated the reenactor's musket.

 

[archieclement]

I was just watching my local news and a story came on about a Revolutionary War reenacting group here in Massachusetts. They were drilling at a museum in preparation for Patriots Day (3rd Monday in April which commemorates the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775) and apparently one of the Minutemen fired his musket that was loaded by live ammunition and the shot went through the ceiling and pierced the floor of the room upstairs. Thankfully no one was in the upstairs room but the police came and confiscated the reenactor's musket.

That story hit my news feed.

Redirect Notice

 

[thomas aagaard]

I was just watching my local news and a story came on about a Revolutionary War reenacting group here in Massachusetts. They were drilling at a museum in preparation for Patriots Day (3rd Monday in April which commemorates the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775) and apparently one of the Minutemen fired his musket that was loaded by live ammunition and the shot went through the ceiling and pierced the floor of the room upstairs. Thankfully no one was in the upstairs room but the police came and confiscated the reenactor's musket.

And again, this could be stopped by the NCOs doing their jobs and inspecting all arms before their use.

 

[7thWisconsin]

And again, this could be stopped by the NCOs doing their jobs and inspecting all arms before their use.

Yeah... that´s a clearly preventable accident.