Via SayUncle, we have a story from over in the UK of a puppy who dug up a .50 Caliber round. Now I don’t fault anyone for calling the police in this instance, because if you don’t have the means to dispose of it properly yourself, it shouldn’t really be thrown away in the trash. But this is nuts:
The incident happened at about 7pm on Tuesday and officers cordoned off the driveway to the farm, which also has a campsite and fishing lakes, pending the arrival of the bomb disposal unit. They retrieved the bullet and took it away for disposal.
Do we really need a cordon for a small arms cartridge? I mean, we’re not talking about explosive ordnance. Could none of the police who arrived on the scene properly identify a small arms cartridge?
Happily, the puppy suffered no ill effects. Mr Foster added: “I don’t know how many lives dogs have, but she must have used up about three!â€
He used up none. The puppy was never in any danger. There was never any danger. Quick pull of the bullet, empty powder, decap, and it’s off to recycling for the components. The powder can be rendered inert with water, burned, or sprinkled in the garden as fertilizer. I have to wonder whether there would have been the same kind of reaction here, or whether even among people who don’t own guns, there’s still enough cultural familiarity with firearms to know the difference between small arms ammunition and ordnance. Certainly I think the police would have, at most, sent an officer over to retrieve the round and bring it back to the station for disposal. No need for a dog and pony show.
But that wouldn’t have provided an ooprtunity to demonstrate the plod’s efficiency via visible evidence of police action
This way they get the opportunity to scare the populace with more “OMG Guns are scary, evil, deadly etc.” nonsense.
I’m not surprised. They had a pretty big show a year or so ago over a single .22 cartridge found on the sidewalk outside some shop.
Over in the Versaiiles region, they still dig up shells and gear from WWI. They put it by their fence post and call the local authorities to come pick it up when they get the chance.
Funny stuff. I wonder what they’d do with the building housing the last gun show I was at that had thousands of .50 BMG rounds for sale. Treat it like Chernobyl and seal the area off and abandon the entire city?
I wonder what they’d think of my basement ……… ummm, before the tragic boating accident where I lost all my guns (in case the ATF is reading this).
Not surprizing when you think about it. Guns are for the most part illegal in the UK and the fascist government running that country needs to keep up the facade and continue to scare the population into submission. No use turning the people ignorant if you won’t maintain it. These people would literally pass out in fear of these inanimate objects. I have an aunt in evenston like that. So much so she won’t come to visit and has banned me from coming to her home because I own weapons. No one said these people are sensible.
ITYM “Verdun“. Versailles is a snooty castle a short drive outside of Paris. HTH.
Well… Frankly, if I found a “badly corroded” machine-gun round in an area where a connection to a war within living memory was present, I would hope someone would make at least a cursory search to see if there was more in the area. Speculation now seems to be that it was dropped by the RAF (perhaps while clearing guns on return to base?) but if from a plane in trouble the crew might have dropped other munitions to lighten the aircraft.
Can you really use smokeless powder as fertilizer? I never even considered that.
It should work, since it’s a nitrated compound.