.50 cal hits woman at Texas Motor Speedway Sunday

[JKTex]

I'm surprised this hasn't come up yet. Especially since the husband has vowed to work to a ban on .50 being sold to consumers because of it.

cbs11tv.com - Woman Talks About Being Shot At TX Motor Speedway

Woman hit by stray bullet at Texas Motor Speedway | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News

I'm waiting for a DWI victim that goes after a full out ban on a specific model of vehicle because that's what a dumb ass drunk was driving.

Still, whoever shot this thing needs their nuts in a sling. And there are a couple of ranges within 5 miles or so, besides a whole lot of open land.

 

[Texas1911]

There is an obvious error in judgment on behalf of someone. The gun had to have been fired into the air for it to travel into the infield where the RV's are located. It would have had to clear the stands all around the track.

Stupid people are going to possibly cause stupid regulations, and ruin it for everyone.

 

[DrBart2]

Typical knee-jerk reaction. The husband wants to outlaw .50 's. As said above, a 30'06 could have done the same thing. If it had been that caliber would the husband call for a ban on them? And how can anyone say that it was no accident? You can't know that without talking to the individual who fired the round. It was probably someone just being careless. Also, who decided it was a .50 cal? Do they know that for sure or is someone just assuming? Is it a police investigator saying it is a .50, or is someone guessing. Unfortunately, the only info we have here is from the press and we all know how accurate they can be!!!

 

[kville79]

I'm having a mind boggling time trying to figure out the plausible trajectories and distance on this one.

The origination of the shot would more than likely have been North/North East of the Track in the wooded area around Denton creek. That's my guess, considering the person who shot it would more than likely be popping off a few in an area further from population. That's also the only plausible location considering the trajectory (creak area is recessed, so who ever took the shot was angled upward when firing), and the damage... very light damage considering the size of the caliber indicates the shooter was more than 1 mile away and the Denton creek area is 1 1/2-2 miles away.

Well that's just my speculation.

As far as banning .50 cal? Is the guy ignorant? For all intentional purposes everything above .50 Cal is banned to begin with, why add restrictions upon already too restrictive gun laws. The size of the bullet had nothing to do with the shooters negligence in being aware of his point of aim. I'd like also to say that the commentary of the unnamed "Gun expert" in the second article was far from accurate, the military doesn't use the .50 cal for AA, well they did when the planes where low flying prop fighters... that comment gives the wrong impression.

 

[Texas1911]

You could easily measure the entry hole and remove the bullet to determine it's caliber. That being said, a .30-caliber bullet would have yawed and / or tumbled at that long of a range and could impart a larger than normal hole.

.50 BMG isn't exactly remotely near a .30-06 so it's rather distinguishable.

I think the key here is that it still had enough inertia to punch through the RV roof, an arm, and then embed itself into the wall. That is a wee-bit more than a .30-caliber bullet would maintain at over a mile. With a downward trajectory of that magnitude you are pretty much relying on gravity for the energy.

 

[djspump2003]

Yeah, the military only uses .50 cal to take down planes...that's why so many are mounted on turrets on Humvees! I forgot that the terrorists had air support over there.

 

[SIG_Fiend]

That definitely appears to be a .50bmg or something very close in size to one at least. It's tough to say for sure without knowing the size of that person's hands, however looking at the size in relation to their fingers you can tell it's definitely quite a bit bigger than a 7.62x51 or any other regular sized rifle round.

 

[JKTex]

They have the round. It came through the roof, through her arm and lodged in the wall of the RV and was pretty much in tact.

So they have angle of entry so they can tell which direction it came from and can likely estimate distance based on that to some degree.

Anyone that knows that area knows there's tons of open land that's easily accessible by the public. There's also a couple of ranges in the area. One I go to is maybe 5 miles north. There's also a private one to the east, but it's a small pistol range.

It just seems unlikely someone that would have a .50 cal would be careless enough to let it AD or ND or to even fire it into the air knowing what it could do.

We'll see what they find.

Oh, and I agree, even a .22 might have been able to do serious harm to her. But the .50 just has more potential.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

The range 5 miles to the north is more like 3.5 miles north as I recall and does not allow .50 BMG, FMJ, and its ranges are oriented with firing from south to north.

I know of no other public or club ranges in the area.

FYI, here is an update on the shooting...

Benbrook man says his bullet may have hit woman at Texas Motor Speedway

03:55 PM CST on Tuesday, November 4, 2008

By DAN X. McGRAW / The Dallas Morning News

Fort Worth police are investigating reports from a 49-year-old Benbrook man who says he may be responsible for the stray bullet that hit an Arlington woman Sunday morning at Texas Motor Speedway.

Kennith Jaramillo contacted Fort Worth police on Monday after hearing that Jill King Moss, 62, was hit in her arm by a .50-caliber bullet that pierced the roof of her RV, authorities said. Ms. Moss was taken to Harris Methodist Hospital and is expected to recover from her injuries.

Given the bullet’s trajectory, Fort Worth police investigators believe the bullet came from a long distance away.

Mr. Jaramillo told police he was target shooting five miles away from Texas Motor Speedway between 10 and 11 a.m, said Lt. Paul Henderson, a Fort Worth police spokesman. Mr. Jaramillo fired five or six rounds at a berm, a mound of dirt, with his .50-caliber Vulcan single shot rifle.

Fort Worth police confiscated his weapon for ballistics tests. If tests confirm the bullet was fired from his weapon, Mr. Jaramillo could be charged with deadly conduct for recklessly firing a weapon, Lt. Henderson said.

Mr. Jaramillo has not been arrested or charged in the incident.

 

[40Arpent]

If it turns out that Jaramillo fired the round, does that mean he gets the $3,000 reward offered by the husband?

Seriously, though, if it was truly an accident (i.e., unintended negligence), I wonder how many people here would have turned themselves in if they'd fired that shot.