Ventura teacher's hand severed when paperweight (40mm round) explodes

[PinnedAndRecessed]

VENTURA, Calif. (AP) - Part of a teacher's hand was blown off when a 40 mm round the instructor used as a paperweight on his desk exploded in his classroom.
Robert Colla struck the round with an object Monday afternoon while teaching 20 to 25 students at the Ventura Adult Education Center on Valentine Road.

Part of Colla's right hand was severed and he suffered severe burns and minor shrapnel wounds to his forearms and torso, fire Capt. Tom Weinell said. No one else was injured.

Colla was taken to Ventura County Medical Center, where he was described only as stable.

"It was just a horrible accident," said Dennis Huston, who teaches computer design alongside Colla. Huston said he had his back turned to Colla and was only about three feet away when he heard a loud bang.

Colla found the 40 mm round while hunting years ago, Huston said. He used it as a paperweight and "obviously he didn't think the round was live," Huston said.

The center is operated by the Ventura Unified School District.

http://www.modbee.com/state_wire/story/12014741p-12773671c.html

 

[only1asterisk]

Bet he doesn't do that again.

David

 

[Stainless Chili]

And he is getting Felony Possession of a DD charges to boot!

 

[Polishrifleman]

I just read that, Live Ammo In a California Classroom.

Found it out hunting what and where?

 

[ABTOMAT]

How were those shells usually fused? Even if it didn't blow up I'd be scared half to death if I found out that a 40mm AA shell with a live timer or prox fuse had been sitting on my desk for years. Yikes!

Found it out hunting what and where?

He read some of the THR "what gun for bear?" threads.

 

[Devonai]

Foolish man, you don't pick up a UXO. You kick it a few times, then call in EOD.

 

[hjrocket]

shrapnel ???????????

Newspaper writer should find out what shrapnel is, Teacher was wounded by shell fragments not shrapnel which is a specific kind of cannon ammunition named after it's inventor, an English artilleryman named Shrapnel IIRC.
Reporters make all long gund assault weapons and all fragmentation wounds shrapnel----ain't si in either case.

 

[hjrocket]

sorry for the typos

Henry Shrapnel invented his projectile in 1784, and it hasn't been made in a long while.

 

[kirkcdl]

Probably dove hunting in the SoCal desert,lots of military activity out there,for a lot of years...

 

[Sam]

that 40mm ammo is setback saftied and spin armed, theoretically takes roughly 18.6 yards (sorry folks I completely reject the metric thing) to do the trick, depending on the specific munition. It has a real high rate of duds though. If someone was going to pick one up and get hurt the 40 would be the guilty party.

Sam

 

[rero360]

yeah, IIRC I was taught that they arm with approx. 60 revolutions, mainly to prevent rounds from explodeing in soldiers faces firing in heavy vegitation. Very bizarre situation.

 

[hillbilly]

I've always thought that 40mm was a bit too much gun for bugs.

hillbilly

 

[kjeff50cal]

This was already posted earlier....
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=2362520#post2362520

 

[DevLcL]

Newspaper writer should find out what shrapnel is, Teacher was wounded by shell fragments not shrapnel which is a specific kind of cannon ammunition named after it's inventor, an English artilleryman named Shrapnel IIRC.
Reporters make all long gund assault weapons and all fragmentation wounds shrapnel----ain't si in either case.

Actually, If you read carefully, fire Capt. Tom Weinell said 'shrapnel'. Not the news paper. But in a more direct response to your response: If it looks like shrapnel, smells like shrapnel, and tastes like shrapnel...well then its shrapnel. Why make a big fuss? To me a piece of sheet metal flying through the air is shrapnel. I guess the correct term is 'debris' but I'm not gonna waste my breath to argue about the right word is. As long as people understand what your talking about then it's all gravy.

-Dev

 

[CrazyIrishman]

Whether he thought it was live or not he shouldn't have it in the classroom.


BTW, what kind of animals are in Kali that ya need a 40mm for?

 

[carp killer]

BTW, what kind of animals are in Kali that ya need a 40mm for?

homo sapiens

 

[Creeping Incrementalism]

It went off when he used it to squash a bug walking across his desk.

 

[panzermk2]

what a dip sh&t There's this years Darwin winner

 

[Zundfolge]

Bet he doesn't do that again.

Well he could do it one more time, but then he'll be out of hands

And he is getting Felony Possession of a DD charges to boot!

A 40mm round is not a DD ... the gun that fires it would be an NFA item, and a 40mm grenade would be a DD, but a round is just a round.


Still, wouldn't it count as a "weapon" in the zero tolerance world of public education?



I really don't want to be too hard on this guy though ... he kept the thing on his desk when most other NEA members would treat it as a talasmin of evil, plus he hunts so he's probably one of the few non anti gun teachers in the Ventura Unified School District

 

[LAK]

Just on the the aside; I think terminology is important.

If one can correctly call shell fragments "shrapnel", one can say the same of bird or buckshot. Or cluster bomblets. Shrapnel, like case, was a specific type of shell designed to behave in a particular controllable manner.

------------------------------------

http:ussliberty.org
http://ssunitedstates.org

 

[RyanM]

Newspaper writer should find out what shrapnel is, Teacher was wounded by shell fragments not shrapnel which is a specific kind of cannon ammunition named after it's inventor, an English artilleryman named Shrapnel IIRC.
Reporters make all long gund assault weapons and all fragmentation wounds shrapnel----ain't si in either case.

If you're going to argue that shrapnel is that specific, you might as well yell about the usage of "gun." Gun is a very specific type of heavy artillery, with a low, flat trajectory. As opposed to mortars, with a high, arcing trajectory, and howitzers, which are somewhere in between mortars and guns.

 

[Don't Tread On Me]

Being that BATFE has an "E"...will they lace them jack boots on and get involved?

 

[Nightfall]

Why on earth would somebody just assume a fully intact round they found was inert? I would think one would assume just the opposite... of course think is operative word here.

 

[TexasRifleman]

Why on earth would somebody just assume a fully intact round they found was inert? I would think one would assume just the opposite... of course think is operative word here.

And he is teaching the future leaders of California....

If you haven't moved out of that place already, here is another reason.....

 

[RioShooter]

Shrapnel Definition

shrap•nel

Pronunciation: (shrap'nl), [key]
—n.
1. Mil.
a. a hollow projectile containing bullets or the like and a bursting charge, designed to explode before reaching the target, and to set free a shower of missiles.
b. such projectiles collectively.
2. shell fragments.

Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.