Stray Bullets From Shooting Range Fly Into Home

[larrymeyer]

http://www.nbc10.com/news/15454211/d...s=phi&psp=news

Stray Bullets From Shooting Range Fly Into Home

POSTED: 6:04 pm EST February 29, 2008
UPDATED: 8:29 pm EST February 29, 2008


BUCKS COUNTY, Pa. -- A Bucks County family got quite a scare when bullets from a shooting range came flying through their home.

"It sounded like a big pop or bang," Rich Harbert said.

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That pop shattered the quiet Saturday afternoon Harbert was enjoying with his family in their Buckingham Township home.

"I came upstairs, I looked up, and there's a hole in the ceiling, and looked in my bedroom, and there's a bullet lying in the middle of the bedroom," Harbert said.

"You definitely wouldn't want that hitting you," Sgt. J.R. Landis, of Buckingham Township Police Department, said.

Authorities said two bullets hit the Harbert's home. Police said the stray bullets came from Wicen's Shooting Range, just down the road.

"The shooter was a first-time shooter. He was not familiar with the weapon. The weapon was set up to shoot at an extreme distance," Landis said.

Police said the shooter mistakenly set up his military rifle to shoot 500 yards rather than 50 yards and the bullet sailed 3/4 of a mile to the Harbert's home.

"I was probably up into the wee hours of the morning, just thinking of those kinds of things, just imagining. You can't even comprehend it," Harbert said.

Harbert said he had just taken his 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter from her bedroom, and carried her downstairs. Ten minutes later, the bullet came flying through the roof.

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"We were standing right here at this hole, opening up the gate to go downstairs," Harbert said.

"It's an isolated incident. It's the first time in my 23-year career here in Buckingham I'm aware of a bullet from the Wicen's range striking a house," Landis said.

The owners of Wicen's shooting range didn't return phone calls. Police said the owners have installed equipment to prevent shooters from aiming too high.

"We understand they've been here since 1928. I'm not looking to shut it down," Harbert said.

What Harbert does want is for Wicen's to ban rifles, or point their weapons in a different direction. He said he would appeal to state or county officials if necessary to give his family peace of mind.

"It's really not just about us, it's about the community, too," Harbert said.[

[Siobhra]

Turn it around.

What kind of father would move his family into a home down range from a shooting range?

[soberbyker]

This is being discussed, at great length, here:

http://www.pafoa.org/forum/general-2...y-wicen-s.html

The story involves one of our own.

Bill

.

[awkx]

Originally Posted by larrymeyer

Police said the shooter mistakenly set up his military rifle to shoot 500 yards rather than 50 yards and the bullet sailed 3/4 of a mile to the Harbert's home.

WTF?! As I'm sure everyone on this forum knows, guns don't have settings to select how far you want the bullet to go. As discussed on the other thread, the issue of 500 yds vs 50 yds is concerned with the sight alignment; a bullet traveling 500 yds to reach its target will accelerate downward (at 9.8 m/s^2, due to gravity) for a longer time than a bullet traveling a mere 50 yds.