Friday - March 26, 2010

Spread the Panic, Ignore the Truth

I think about a million TV news stations, newspapers, online news sites, and blogs reported that someone had taken a shot at Congressman Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) office. Panic in the streets! Wild West Redneck Rampage!! Crazy Rightwingnuts!!

Not that I have much doubt that a significant number of citizens are this close to violent revolution over this government and the health care bill.

From what I recall, our American Revolution was supported by about 1/3 of the people living here at the time. And less than 1/10 of them were actually out there fighting. One tenth of one third? That’s the 3 Percent thing you may have heard about.

Anyway, it was all over the news, with endless press coverage and attempts at political leveraging.

Here’s the truth. Don’t expect it to get much press coverage.

Bullet that hit Va. congressman’s office random

By BOB LEWIS (AP) – 16 hours ago

RICHMOND, Va. — Richmond police say the bullet that hit a window of Republican Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor’s office had been randomly fired skyward.

Amid reports of threats and vandalism against Democrats who voted Sunday for sweeping health care reforms, Cantor said at a Washington news conference Thursday that a bullet was fired into his Richmond office.

In a news release, Richmond police said that the bullet had been fired into the air early Tuesday. It hit the front window of a building that houses Cantor’s campaign office as it fell to back earth at a sharp angle.

The round landed on the floor of the office a foot inside a broken window pane. No one was in the building, and police say an investigation has yielded no suspects.

Had such a bullet been deliberately aimed, for it to have such a near vertical trajectory on impact and lack of energy means it was fired from a long, LONG distance away. Well over a mile. Here’s an example, using a very aerodynamic and accurate target bullet, fired at full velocity from a common long range target rifle.

The bullet drops nearly 1600 inches from the line of sight. 130 feet! Which means the barrel had to be tilted way way way up just to aim, and most rifle sights can’t move that much. Wind takes it’s toll as well. Even a light breeze can push the bullet more than 80 feet to the side at such a range. And all us shooters know about the transonic stability issue; accuracy degrades a lot when the bullet slows down to subsonic velocity. This bullet hit the window at about 600 feet per second, perhaps less. My ballistics software can’t calculate beyond 2500 meters (2734 yards or 1.5 miles).

So no, it was NOT a terroristic act of violent protest or anything like that. It was just a stray, pure random chance, and a rotten coincidence.

*** Can bullets shoot that far? Yes they can. And the really big ones can still hit with some power. Here’s a fun read from a military test done 130 years ago, shooting at TWO MILES. So be aware of what’s beyond your target when you go shooting. Remember that you are responsible for that bullet from the time you buy it until the time it stops moving once fired.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/26/2010 at 09:37 AM   
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control • Media-Bias •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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