Golf Ball Boy

[clide]

We got a new guy who decided to look down the barrel, this time with a golf ball in it.

http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx? ... ntID=27258

Schoolboy loses eye in spud gun accident
28th April 2007, 7:00 WST

Connor Negus has been robbed of the sight in one eye after a freak accident with a homemade spud gun.

The 13-year-old Kinross boy was checking his handiwork a fortnight ago and placed a golf ball in the gun when it accidentally fired and hit him in the eye.

His parents, Chris and Debby Negus, rushed him to Princess Margaret Hospital where ophthalmologist Anita Tandon and colleagues operated for four hours in an attempt to reconstruct the eye.

“It (the golf ball) launched right at his eye at high speed and a golf ball just sits directly within the orbit so the eyeball itself sustained a massive blow at high speed and that caused the eyeball to rupture,” Dr Tandon said.

“We were able to reconstruct the ball itself but there was such a lot of damage to all the internal structures of the eye that they were completely disrupted and once those structures are disrupted you can’t put the eye back functionally. So we made the decision not to put it back, it’s better to remove it.”

Connor has an implant as a temporary measure before a prosthesis or a glass eye is inserted in five weeks.

Dr Tandon said any form of projectile was dangerous when an ejected object had the potential to hit the eye directly at high speed.

Connor’s parents supervised their son as he made the gun the day before the accident because they were worried if they did not help he would turn to the internet for information.

They want his accident to be a warning to other parents and children of the dangers of homemade devices.

DEBBIE GUEST

I'm surprised that they didn't attack spud guns much in the article, although that last sentence should be "They want his accident to be a warning to other parents and children of the dangers of looking down the barrel of loaded weapon"

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Tragic

Sadly, you can't legislate against stupidity

[JDP12]

Yea I definitely agree with you..He shouldn't have looked down the barrel...ANY time you inspect it, if its combustion it should be ventilated and the chamber open...If pneumatic decompressurized and valve open.....AND NEVER EVER LOAD A PROJECTILE AND LOOK DOWN THE BARREL...I don't feel that they should have blamed the spudgun in the last sentence of this article...They are perfectly safe as long as you know how to build them correctly and handle them correctly..

I feel sorry for that kid..

[mega_swordman]

I concur. Regardless if it is charged, never EVER look down the barrel of the gun. And yes, it isn't the fault of the cannon, but the user.
I do feel sorry for him; but as much as I hate to say it, he had it coming by being so unsafe.

EDIT: However, this could be looked at from a different angle. When he's older, he can pick up girls by saying "Yea, I lost my eye 'cause I got shot in the face!" Look at it like showing off battle wounds, just don't tell people its self inflicted.

[Flying_Salt]

He's only 13 years old! He lost his eye and still has his whole life to live. I feel bad for him. It said he had just built it, so he probably didn't go onto this web site and have people tell him not to look down the barrel. I know its common sense and common knowledge not to look down barrels, but can you say you've never done it?

[BC Pneumatics]

Personally, I don't feel a whole lot of sympathy for him. Sure, he was only 13 and everything, but that is gross negligence plain and simple. Why hadn't his saviors-from-the-internet parents taught him not to look down the barrel, loaded or not?
(And if they did in fact tell him, then at least he will likely be more inclined to listen to them from now on.)

[lukemc]

i feel bad that my first instinct was he deserved it. i know thats very harsh and only part of me feels that way the other part feels that this is a tragic mistake and is in no way fair. however either way you look at it it was a inocent mistake one that could happen to anyone. if you listen to many spudder almost all will say they almost got seroiusly hurt from a dumb mystake. to call him stupid would be like calling a 7 year old with their first bike that falls over and gets hurt stupid. yes he was much older but probly was just as excited to have built some thing by himself and for a second lost common sense and caution and it cost him

[BC Pneumatics]

I have to disagree lukemc. By the age of thirteen, anyone that is building a potentially lethal device should be well aware that you never look down the barrel. I cannot see the connection between falling off a bike, and loosing an eye to blunt trauma. Your analogy would be better written "Falling off a bike is a lot like gluing on the wrong fitting!" or "...like assembling a cannon without a valve!" To compare this mishap would be more along the lines of "This is like a seven year old getting a new bike, and riding it into oncoming traffic going down the I-86"

[frankrede]

I have to disagree lukemc. By the age of thirteen, anyone that is building a potentially lethal device should be well aware that you never look down the barrel. I cannot see the connection between falling off a bike, and loosing an eye to blunt trauma. Your analogy would be better written "Falling off a bike is a lot like gluing on the wrong fitting!" or "...like assembling a cannon without a valve!" To compare this mishap would be more along the lines of "This is like a seven year old getting a new bike, and riding it into oncoming traffic going down the I-86"

I couldn't have put it better.
His parents should have let him go to the internet so he would have found this site and actually learned some safety.

[Pete Zaria]

I think this is a perfect example of why we need to teach GUN SAFETY in schools, not just preach about gun control and school shootings.
Show kids of a reasonable age (say, 8th grade or so) how to make sure a gun is unloaded, and the very basics of firearm handling rules (I.e, keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire, never point a weapon at anything you don't intend to destroy [even jokingly, when you're sure its unloaded], always be sure of your back stop, etc....).

Off topic, but kind of connected: I also think condoms should be available in highschool bathrooms. It would cut down the teen pregnancy rate, and any right-wing-conservative-republican that wants to bitch that "it would encourage teens to have sex" is on crack; they're encouraged every time they turn on the TV. Offering them condoms gives them the opportunity to do it safely instead of risking pregnancy and STDs, it doesn't make them more likely to do it in the first place.

Peace, from your resident forum liberal,
Pete Zaria.

[BC Pneumatics]

Better yet, his parents and him should have searched around together.

Around here, every HS has condoms for free from the nurse. (Yeah, ya gotta go in and get em, but still, there policy is to not ask questions)
Now, lets stay on topic.

[sgort87]

I liked the article up to this point:

"They want his accident to be a warning to other parents and children of the dangers of homemade devices."

That is one very ignorant statement. Well, the other one about the internet wasn't so good either, but this one... It should be a warning to other parents and children of the dangers of handling something like this responsibly. Homemade or not, these are dangerous along with plenty of other things in this universe.

Freak accident my ass...

[chaos]

yer i agree with you sgort

I liked the article up to this point:

"They want his accident to be a warning to other parents and children of the dangers of homemade devices."

thats a load of crap and sooo one sided.

[sgort87]

They weren't so one-sided until the end. I have to admit that I've seen some bogus spud gun articles and this isn't one. They were not in any way trying to put our hobby down, but it was an ignorant comment at the end there.

[Velocity]

I don't care how stupid of an action it was, I feel bad for this kid. All of us, excluding no one, have made mistakes in the past. Stupid mistakes. Potentially dangerous mistakes. This guy just unfortunately received a serious injury from it. Imagine in one of the spudfiles forum members had accidentally been hit with a projectile? Sure, it was stupid to look down the barrel of a loaded weapon, I am not denying that. However, like Pete Zaria said, most schools don't have gun control programs, and therefore kids are not aware of this type of thing (even though common sense should suffice...)

Done rambling for the moment.