Cannonball Run

This has to be one of the funniest things I've heard about in a long, long time. I can't stop laughing!

Who builds a housing development that close to a test range? Or alternatively who builds a test range that close to a housing development?

What could possibly go wrong? Oh.

I'm far from an ordinance expert, but evidently the real problem is not so much that the houses were relatively close, but that a "bomb range" is not the same thing as an "artillery range." Everyone involved screwed up, but I would pin a large chunk of the blame on the actual explosives experts on the scene.

And no, it's not funny. Someone could easily have died. The Mythbusters crew got very lucky.

No they didn't get lucky. If anything they were unlucky.

Well, let's split the difference and say that they were unlucky but not as unlucky as they could have been.

I think it was unlucky that it happened, lucky that nobody got hurt. And from checking out the map, I can't help wondering what would have happened if it'd gone in the opposite direction and busted a hole through the prison wall?

House: Busted!
Roof tiles: Busted!
Van windshield: Busted!

The families who had close calls, not so lucky. The guy/gal who's getting a new roof out of this is though.

"No they didn't get lucky. If anything they were unlucky."

You've never owned or shot any firearms, have you?

They deliberately touched the match to the powder. The responsibility for firing that deadly weapon was theirs, and theirs only. There is no "unlucky" way to fire a gun on purpose--this can't even be termed a negligent discharge, they were aiming the thing, counting down, the whole works.

I believe Geoduck was referring to the luck the damfools had in not killing or crippling somebody.

I hope this doesn't stop MythBusters production forever.

"There is no "unlucky" way to fire a gun on purpose--this can't even be termed a negligent discharge, they were aiming the thing, counting down, the whole works."

Yes it was their responsibility, but also they fired the gun on a test range. You can bet the Alameda County range operators signed off as well. And then their cannonball bounced off the berm they were using for a backstop and flew all the way out of the containment region.

You can perform all due diligence and still have shit happen. I work on Aberdeen Proving Ground. People get hurt on the test ranges. Sometimes people die. You can't know every possible outcome.

"You can perform all due diligence and still have shit happen. I work on Aberdeen Proving Ground. People get hurt on the test ranges. Sometimes people die. You can't know every possible outcome."

I absolutely do not disagree with any of that, but we aren't talking about the test range. If that projectile had actually killed or injured someone where it came to rest, which was not on the test range, don't count on the judge being a good sport upon hearing, "People get hurt on the test ranges. Sometimes people die. You can't know every possible outcome."

I think we might be talking about two slightly different things. The Mythbusters are not the Army Ordnance Corps, and the people living in that suburb never signed up to assume the risk from someone dicking around with a thirty pounder cannon.