Ohioan clearing gun charged in death of Amish girl

[SecularMotion]

MILLERSBURG, Ohio — An Amish man who fired a shot into the air as he cleared his rifle was charged Tuesday with reckless homicide in the shooting death of a 15-year-old girl who was driving a horse-drawn buggy home from a Christmas party more than a mile away when she was struck.

Holmes County prosecutor Steve Knowling said the third-degree felony count against 28-year-old Marion R. Yoder comes after examining recently completed ballistics evidence and an autopsy report on Rachel Yoder, of Fredricksburg. The two aren’t related.

Authorities said Rachel Yoder was driving a horse-drawn buggy home in Wayne County from an employee party last December. She dropped off a friend before she was shot around 10 p.m., about three miles from her home. Police said she fell out of the buggy after the horse carted her home. Her brother noticed the horse and buggy going in a circle and found the unresponsive teen on the ground. She died a day later.

Authorities first thought she might have fallen from the buggy and hit her head, but an autopsy report concluded she died of a gunshot wound to the head and ruled her death a homicide

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/ohioan-clearing-gun-charged-in-amish-girls-death-as-she-drove-buggy-home-from-christmas-party/2012/05/29/gJQAclCczU_story.html

[exboyfil]

1. He had to have had the gun with a horizontal vector

when he fired it. Contrast with the nitwits looking at/selling a gun in the closet of a church that went off in Florida. They were not charged.

[Ian David]

2. Bullets fired into the air maintain their lethal capability when they eventually fall back down.

Bullets fired into the air maintain their lethal capability when they eventually fall back down.

busted / plausible / confirmed

In the case of a bullet fired at a precisely vertical angle (something extremely difficult for a human being to duplicate), the bullet would tumble, lose its spin, and fall at a much slower speed due to terminal velocity and is therefore rendered less than lethal on impact.

However, if a bullet is fired upward at a non-vertical angle (a far more probable possibility), it will maintain its spin and will reach a high enough speed to be lethal on impact.

Because of this potentiality, firing a gun into the air is illegal in most states, and even in the states that it is legal, it is not recommended by the police.

Also the MythBusters were able to identify two people who had been injured by falling bullets, one of them fatally injured.

To date, this is the only myth to receive all three ratings at the same time.

More:
http://mythbustersresults.com/episode50

[slackmaster]

3. Even Amish kids should be offered basic gun safety instruction in school

Somehow, somewhere. I remember very well my dad telling my brother and me that you never under any circumstances fire a handgun or rifle into the air.

[dipsydoodle]

4. A tragedy.

.

[PavePusher]

5. A $5, 5-gallon plastic bucket....

and a few shovel-fuls of sand and/or dirt would have prevented this.

If you have firearms, please have a clearing barrel in your back yard. PLEASE.

Simple, XL version here:

[krispos42]

6. Good idea... n/t

[Hoyt]

7. Very sad for everyone. n/t