Another "school shooting"

[Monkeyleg]

Three Houston kindergarten students were injured when a gun fell out of another student's backpack and discharged. This happened in the school cafeteria.

The reports on radio news early on said that the injuries suffered by the three may have been caused by objects struck by the bullet, or by "bullet shrapnel".

The school was locked down after the shooting.

Lockdown? Shrapnel? Sounds a bit extreme.

[charby]

I think you know the answer to your own question. Media's push to get headlines has made any event as horrible as possible with vocabulary.

[Perd Hapley]

Media: as horrible as possible, with vocabulary.

FFTY. I believe you've summed up the nature of the establishment press with great elegance and concision.

[Monkeyleg]

I think you know the answer to your own question. Media's push to get headlines has made any event as horrible as possible with vocabulary.

Yeah, but shrapnel?

[seeker_two]

Yeah, but shrapnel?

Probably something made by Cobra....they have a habit of doing that.....


http://www.cobrapistols.net/

[Hawkmoon]

The school was locked down after the shooting.

Lockdown? Shrapnel? Sounds a bit extreme.

It's the new logic. There's a shooter in the school. Lock the doors so no one can escape, thus we obtain the maximum body count for propaganda purposes.

Here's a "what if": Suppose there's a hypothetical high school and reports of a shooter. The school goes into lock-down, which means the teachers close and lock the classroom doors. (Which often have glass lights in them near the lock, or glass sidelights next to the door -- but that's a rant for another day.) A student becomes fearful and smashes a window to escape. Subsequent investigation shows that it was a false alarm.

Betcha the student gets charged for the window. And probably arrested or otherwise disciplined for destroying school property.

[charby]

Yeah, but shrapnel?

Makes it seem like war in schools. Sells headlines

[Pharmacology]

Yeah, I saw this on the news.

They had some footage of the parents, so the fact that one of those runts had a gun doesn't surprise me

[230RN]

I don't seem to have a problem with the use of the term "bullet shrapnel" or "shrapnel" to descirbe flying particles from the bullet impact.  It may seem slightly semantically loaded, but it also seems to be adequately descriptive in common parlance.

And believe me, I'm sensitive to semantic loadings in news media descriptions of firearms incidents.

(See, I even said "firearms incidents" instead of "gun incidents!" :) )

[kgbsquirrel]

I'll disagree. The correct description should be bullet fragments (if the injuries were indeed caused by portions of the bullet shed during impact with objects) or spall (if the injuries were caused by pieces of the object(s) impacted by the bullet that were broken away). Shrapnel, in my mind at least, refers specifically to casing fragments intentionally created and dispersed by an explosive charge destroying it's containing vessel. Then again I can be a real pedantic dick sometimes. As for the latter scenario where the term shrapnel can be appropriately applied, it is a distinctly more dangerous and alarming event which was no doubt taken into account by the writer and utilized to give just such an impression in the reader.

[birdman]

I think shrapnel is also incorrect (while the term has been adopted to describe controlled or random fragmentation of exploding shells with the resulting pieces explosively driven at high velocity), the term originally applied to shells that used a low velocity burster charge to disperse preformed fragments (that weren't part of the case) at range--in this case, the kill enhancement device on PAC-3, or the 35mm AHEAD round are best termed shrapnel rounds, while all others are correctly termed fragmentation rounds.  Bullet fragments or spall (as defined by kgbsquirrel) is the best terminology for this particular case.

[MechAg94]

I think shrapnel is also incorrect (while the term has been adopted to describe controlled or random fragmentation of exploding shells with the resulting pieces explosively driven at high velocity), the term originally applied to shells that used a low velocity burster charge to disperse preformed fragments (that weren't part of the case) at range--in this case, the kill enhancement device on PAC-3, or the 35mm AHEAD round are best termed shrapnel rounds, while all others are correctly termed fragmentation rounds.  Bullet fragments or spall (as defined by kgbsquirrel) is the best terminology for this particular case.

Major-General Henry Shrapnel would be proud of you.

[Matthew Carberry]

Fragments created by the destruction of the case are called "splinter".

But then, our non-flying infantry wore "flak" jackets for a long time. 

[birdman]

Fragments created by the destruction of the case are called "splinter".

But then, our non-flying infantry wore "flak" jackets for a long time. 

Oops, I stand corrected.  But considering the infantry jackets were direct derivatives of the ones for flyers, the name stayed, so that isn't quite an error in naming.  But if we are going that route, why is a helmet still called a "Kevlar"?  Why are bullet resistant armors called bulletproof?  Why do I never get a minigun from Santa?

[Matthew Carberry]

Oops, I stand corrected.  But considering the infantry jackets were direct derivatives of the ones for flyers, the name stayed, so that isn't quite an error in naming.  But if we are going that route, why is a helmet still called a "Kevlar"?  Why are bullet resistant armors called bulletproof?  Why do I never get a minigun from Santa?

It's a hard world, that's why.

[kgbsquirrel]

Fragments created by the destruction of the case are called "splinter".

But then, our non-flying infantry wore "flak" jackets for a long time. 

Splinters huh, Learned something new! Mucho gracias. (I'm presuming that case means the projectile's jacket or body and not a cartridge casing.)

Any correction to the term fragments being applied to projectile pieces shed due to impact and not a bursting charge?

[Monkeyleg]

Sheesh. Talk about picking nits.

At least she didn't say "exploding bullets".

[Perd Hapley]

But if we are going that route, why is a helmet still called a "Kevlar"? 

Aren't they still made from Kevlar?

[birdman]

Aren't they still made from Kevlar?

Some are, but Kevlar is a brand name (like Kleenex).  I think the army ACH uses the dupont product (Kevlar), but I don't know about other mfg's.

[Matthew Carberry]

You know you're a gun nut if, after feeling glad the kids are okay, you immediately wanted to know the make and model.

[Monkeyleg]

You know you're a gun nut if, after feeling glad the kids are okay, you immediately wanted to know the make and model.

You know you're a reporter if, after feeling glad the kids are okay, you immediately think you know the make and model.

[Angel Eyes]

You know you're a reporter if, after feeling glad the kids are okay, you immediately think you know the make and model of the assault weapon used.

[seeker_two]

You know you're a reporter if, after feeling glad the kids are okay, you immediately think you know the make and model of the AK-47 used.

Fixed.... 

[Matthew Carberry]

The kids are just lucky the gun didn't have an assault clip in it.

[Scout26]

Fragments created by the destruction of the case are called "splinter".

But then, our non-flying infantry wore "flak" jackets for a long time. 

Partly that's because the Germans took their 88mm Fleiger Abwehr Kanone and started using it against ground targets.