Teen fatally shoots younger brother after handling antique gun

[outfieldjack]

Teen fatally shoots younger brother after handling antique gun

ANDERSON, S.C. - A 12-year-old boy has died after he was shot in the head when an antique gun his 14-year-old brother had been handling went off at their Anderson County home.

Anderson County Coroner Greg Shore said everything about Wednesday night's shooting appears accidental.

Shore said James Barrett Beck had been playing video games on his older brother's bed when the rifle fired as the teen rubbed it with a cloth.

"I've worked homicides, suicides and natural deaths," Shore said. "But this just puts knots in your stomach."

Anderson County Sheriff's investigator Rusty Garrett said more details about the shooting should be available once the autopsy was completed.

Shore said the boys' parents, Kimberly Jane Beck and Bill Ray Beck Jr., were home in an adjacent room at the time of the shooting.

Shore said other, newer guns in the house were locked up with safety locks. However, the 3-foot long heirloom rifle passed to the boys by their grandfather, was stored in the older boy's closet, Shore said.

The gun was a double-trigger muzzleloader, which "had been loaded for years " without anyone knowing, Shore said.

Shore said the older brother told authorities he accidentally engaged the first trigger and then touched the second one firing the shot, hitting his younger brother and shattering a bedroom window.

Garrett said if the death is ruled an accident, the sheriff's office probably won't file charges.

"For what the juvenile was doing, it was age-appropriate," Garrett said.

 

[MAURICE]

I feel bad for him. Poor guy will have to carry that with him forever . Stupid mistake. I am wondering how it was left loaded for years and no one knew. Also wondering if they boys' parental units instructed them in the 4 rules.

 

[El Tejon]

Well, of course they knew it was loaded as . . . ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED. Yes, even if you have "common sense", you must know the Four Rules.

Too bad Jimmy Bee had to learn the hard way. The Four Rules are life. Those who ignore them do so not only at their own peril but the peril of others.

 

[JPM63US]

It used to be quite common for somone to bring in a ML gun to a shop after a grandfather passed away and ask how much they could get for it - often upon inspection, they were found to be loaded with a charge of powder and ball. There are less of these old original guns around. They were working guns and not much use unless kept loaded and ready.

Now this would not go off, unless there was prime in a pan (flintlock) or cap in place. You would think that the parents would have at least checked this easy item!

I feel really sorry for this family - several mistakes made and a lifetime of regret.

JPM

 

[MAUSER88]

Damn shame. I 'll never understand people's carelessness when handling firearms. Education is the key but sadly it's not practiced enough or taught early enough.

 

[Jim March]

A lot of front-stuffers were percussion guns, not flintlock. A percussion cap on a nipple (state of the art from 1820ish(? - ballpark) to approximately Civil War era) would last a long time. Many were kept in use long after obsolete, since they can be made to operate with shotgun primers if original-type percussion caps are unavailable.

I'd bet good money it was percussion versus flint.

 

[Roadkill]

Buddy of mine is really into the War of Northern Aggression and cowboy stuff, went to Iraq a while back and I'm storing his guns for him, he showed me a double barrel ML percussion shotgun he got at a flea market in Tenn, said he saw immediately it had a caps on it even though they were corroded and gun was rusty, he assumed it was loaded, talked seller and local PD into walking around to back lot to try it, damn thing fired both barrels. Scared the hell out of everyone. It had been handled by folks all day.

rk

 

[Carlos Cabeza]

Man, that is a sad event that could have been prevented. Does the black powder have the ability to last that long?.........Hell, it seems if I just go outside when its damp the damn thing won't fire. Definitely Murphy...........

 

[TallPine]

Shore said the older brother told authorities he accidentally engaged the first trigger and then touched the second one firing the shot, hitting his younger brother and shattering a bedroom window.

I suppose he just accidently cocked it first also ...... ?

 

[manwithoutahome]

That is why the 4 rules are important. He broke: 1) Treat ALL guns as if they are loaded and 2) Never point the gun at anything you are not willing to destroy.

Why did he have the gun pointed at his brother in the first place?

I bet that they weren't taught the rules and that the stupid parents thought that since it was an antique, then it was just a "harmless toy" to give to their kids.

Sad . If only they would have obeyed the rules, then most likely the only thing that would have gone wrong is a hole in a wall or the ceiling.

Wayne

 

[mete]

Carlos, black powder can remain potent 100 years or more . There are many old guns that people assumed were unloaded or the powder deteriorated that went BANG!!!

 

[thumbtack]

So sad

 

[scbair]

Maybe slightly OT, but re: the "shelf life" of black powder:

A friend of mine is an avid collector of Civil War memorabilia. He once took a metal detector to the site of a train derailment during the conflict, and located several cannon projectiles. Each had a (badly deteriorated) wood plug in the base, and he (correctly) deduced they were explosive. However, these things had lain buried in the mud for better than a century! He had no qualms about keeping them as souvenirs.

He took them home, and set one on the workbench in his (attached ) garage, and began chiseling at the old wood plug. That's right, he took hammer to chisel and banged away! He planned to flush out the "caked and useless" black powder with a water hose, dry the old relics, and display them in his den.

When he had reduced the plug to wood chips, he tilted the projectile to examine the interior. Imagine his surprise when the shiny, crystalline powder poured out onto the bench! He calmly (well, he told me he remained calm . . .) took the remaining projectiles outside and set them in his yard, then called the local PD to send someone over to get these @#$ BOMBS!!

 

[Hawkman]

I recently came into possession of several antique firearms dating from the late 1700's to the Civil War. I called in an appraiser and the first thing he did was remove the ramrod from each, use it to measure the bore length from the breech outside the barrel, then insert it in the barrel. One firearm was loaded, and apparently had been for who knows how many years.

He said it was very common in years past for great-great-grandpa to keep the gun loaded. When he eventually died, the gun would be passed on maybe to a family member who did not hunt or shoot, and on down the line. The gun would go through generations without anyone knowing it was loaded.

 

[Diamondback]

Terrible tragedy ! "The Four Rules " must rule !....otherwise such sad circumstances are apt to occur. Thanks to those who have helped me to understand why after all these years an antique firearm might still be loaded and fire. When it come to a gun, one just can't assume anything. Such a shocking way in which to be reminded of "The Rules".

 

[M1911Owner]

He said it was very common in years past for great-great-grandpa to keep the gun loaded.

I thought that Michael Bellesiles, in his book Arming America, proved that early Americans' having all these loaded guns around was just a myth???


[/SARCASM MODE OFF]

 

[whm1974]

You know this sort of thing could happend even to people who been around guns all their lives and handled modern firearms safely. Blackpower will KEEP a long time.

Bill MEadows

 

[twoblink]

All guns are loaded...

If this was drilled into every single person handling a gun, there would be a 99.99% drop in accidents..

Hold on, let me take that bad..

There are no accidents when it comes to guns.. Only neglect...

An accident is like the bullet in my gun suddenly exploded without anybody doing anything... When you pull the trigger, and the gun goes bang... that's lack of safety...

So sad...

 

[Mastrogiacomo]

I don't blame the boy. He may not have realized he was pointing it at his brother as he was rubbing it with a cloth. I blame the parents. You give your kid a gun to leave in the closet, you respect it like any other gun -- give it a safe, lock it up -- and before you hand it to your child in the first place -- LOOK IN THE CHAMBER TO SEE IF IT'S EMPTY!!! If they already have guns that are locked, why did common sense escape them this time?

My heart goes out to this boy that will no doubt be haunted by this moment forever.

 

[whm1974]

If they already have guns that are locked, why did common sense escape them this time?

Because it's an old muzzle loader. A lot of people don't realize that blackpower in a sealed
envirement will keep a long time and that folks back way then alwalys kept their guns loaded.
Not to mention that real old guns still shoot.

I'm not saying I disagree with you. People should always assume that guns are always loaded.

Bill Meadows

 

[Mastrogiacomo]

I'm shocked. Personally, I know nothing about those guns but if I had been given this -- I'd take to a local shop and have them check it to see if it was safe. Or -- ask whomever was giving it to me to see if anything was visable in the chamber. What an awful way to learn an important lesson...

 

[ACP230]

I read somewhere that just the residue from percussion caps on the nipple of an old gun can cause enough spark to fire a load of black powder.

I wonder if just steel against steel might do it too?

 

[M1911Owner]

LOOK IN THE CHAMBER TO SEE IF IT'S EMPTY!!!

ask whomever was giving it to me to see if anything was visable in the chamber.

I'm not a muzzleloader expert by any means, but I believe that there is no way to look in the chamber to see if it's loaded--there's no action to open like there is with our modern guns. I believe that you'd have to look down the barrel from the muzzle to see if there's anything at the other end. Which would be quite difficult to do.

My feeling is that I'm not so quick to condem them about this. Firstly, there is that issue of not being able to check if it's loaded. Secondly, it sounds like it had been around for years as a decorative heirloom. I'm guessing that there haven't been any black powder loading supplies anywhere near that gun for well over fifty years. So they could very reasonably assume that nobody in the last fifty years has had any way of loading the thing. The assumption that it's essentially a non-operating toy is natural. Deadly wrong, but natural.

 

[BluesBear]

A loaded flintlock, even with a clear priming pan, can be jarred enough over a period of time to have some of the black powder break down and a few grains enter into the flash hole. Now you may cock the frizzen and "dry" fire it several times (to watch all of the pretty sparks) and then one day a spark magages to hit that one tiny speck of powder in the flash hole and
BOOM!


Now it's unloaded.

_________________


Actually it can happen in a matter of minutes.
I saw this happen by a person in a Pioneer Renactment.
He said a flintlock was perfectly safe unless the pan was primed and proceeded to dry fire it several times.
His words were, "See all you get is a few pretty sparks."
Until the powder charge, complete with flashpaper wadding, went
BOOM!

My comment was, "Now it's safe."
Everyone saw the humor except him.

 

[TallPine]

Let me get this straight ....

The 14 year old ACCIDENTLY fully cocks the external hammer, while cleaning the gun with a cloth.

Next he ACCIDENTLY pulls the set trigger in the same manner.

Finally, he ACCIDENTLY pulls the primary trigger while the rifle is ACCIDENTLY pointed at his 12 year old brother.