I am not referring to a scenario where one cartridge has a bullet in it. I have read of a specific case where a blank cartridge was fired and yet the person still died. If no bullet was in the round, how could it kill someone?
In: 4
The cartridge of a blank round still contains gunpowder and creates a similar explosion within the chamber as what would propel a bullet down the barrel. The most obvious danger is the powerful blast of gasses exiting the barrel; even without a projectile that blast is capable of causing serious and even fatal wounds at relatively short range. You would not want to be within several meters of the end of a barrel firing blanks for that reason alone.
Another major issue is that even though there may not be any bullet in the blank cartridge, anything within the barrel becomes a projectile. The range of possible barrel obstructions is limitless, but imagine for example there is a scene being filmed where an actor fires a few blank rounds then drops their pistol to the ground. The first time the scene is shot it goes flawlessly, but when the pistol was dropped to the ground a piece of gravel made its way into the barrel and got wedged so it didn’t fall out on its own. Now the second time the blanks are fired through the pistol the piece of gravel is ejected at high speed as a potentially lethal projectile.
Even the round itself can provide substances that can become projectiles. A blank often has an end which is simply the crimped together metal of the casing. Perhaps as the blank round is fired and that crimped metal is blown open it tears, and a jagged shard of the casing is thrown out the barrel. Or perhaps even just some unburned gunpowder becomes the projectile.
Latest Answers