Bullet hits White House Window

[Tx4obama]

Source: NBC

The Secret Service is investigating how a bullet hit an exterior window of the White House. A round was stopped by ballistic glass behind the historic exterior glass. The Secret Service also tells News4 that one additional round was also been found on the exterior of the White House.

The investigation started after an incident on Friday where gunshots were heard near the White House. Police have since been searching for a suspect in that case, 21 year old Oscar Ortega Hernandez. The Secret Service has not yet conclusively connected Friday's incident with the bullets found on White House grounds.

The rounds were discovered Tuesday morning, and the investigation is ongoing.

Read more: http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/breaking/Bullet-hits-White-House-133938568.html

---

BreakingNews Breaking News
Secret Service confirms bullet hit the White House and was stopped by ballistic glass - @nbcwashington bit.ly/rvmfY0
11 minutes ago
http://twitter.com/#!/BreakingNews/status/136668022529200128

[frazzled]

1. Whoa

That is truly scary.

[gateley]

2. Agree. I didn't think a gnat could get that close. Whoa is right. nt

[krispos42]

5. Rifle bullets can easily fly in excess of a mile.

Aim 20 or 30 degrees up and let loose... you'd get a mile or a mile and a half with a generic deer rifle.

Even a pistol bullet can travel several hundred yards.


Accurate shooting takes place at much shorter ranges, of course, but back in the WWI era, the bolt-action battle rifles had sights that were graduated to 2,000 yards or more (a mile is 1,728). The intention, apparently, was that battalions would be able to smother a distant enemy position by firing en masse. Dunno if it was every used, but the rifle could do it.

Nowadays those rifle cartridges are common and popular hunting rounds.

[gateley]

8. Interesting -- In my mind (clueless) I figured you'd have to be standing

right at that fence and taking aim. A mile! :scared:

[krispos42]

11. Easily a mile. The .50 BMG (biggest you can legally get) can travel 4 miles,

And the rest go down from there. It depends on bullet shape, bullet weight, bullet diameter, and muzzle velocity. Long, thin, heavy, sleek, and fast fly much farther than short, fat, light, square, and slow.

I'm not saying you can aim and hit something at 4 miles... the record is about a mile and a quarter by army snipers in Afghanistan sniping at Taliban. A Canadian, I believe.

But yeah, in theory I can get a protractor and a deer rifle and drop bullets on the White House from Theodore Roosevelt Island Memorial Park.

Not accurately, mind you, but I's probably be able to hit the grounds.

[iverglas]

21. the Canadian's record got broken

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Furlong

Rob Furlong (born 1976), is a former corporal of the Canadian Forces, who held the record for the longest confirmed sniper kill in combat, at 2,430 metres (2,657 yd, 12.08 furlongs, or 1.51 miles).<1> Furlong's shot exceeded the previous record of Arron Perry set in 2001 just before Furlong's record by 120 m or 130 yd.

Born in Fogo Island, Newfoundland, Furlong taught himself to fire a rifle ambidextrously.

http://www.itstactical.com/shooting/longest-sniper-shot-record-broken/

British Super Sniper Craig Harrison has uprooted the Canadians for the longest sniper shot on record, 1.54 miles!



Strange thing to hold a record for, longest distance for killing somebody at, but there it is.

[krispos42]

35. I knew there were longer shots, but I thought the longest was held...

...by a sniper with a .416, not a .50. Guess not!

[Tx4obama]

20. The police found a AK-47 with a scope on it in the abandoned car ...

of the shooter last Friday night.

[iverglas]

22. but ...

... and I speak for the large and active population of the Guns forum here ...

Rifles are not used for committing crimes / killing people!

Especially not AK-47(clone)s ...

[hack89]

24. Not quite accurate

rifles are rarely used for crimes - not "never" but rarely.

But you knew that.

[krispos42]

26. Lemme fix that for ya...

Rifles are not rarely used for committing crimes / killing people!

There, all better.

[iverglas]

28. but as you say, when you want to hit a target long distance

... like, say, a doctor in Canaa who provides abortion services ... a rifle you pick up in some southern state pawn shop is just the ticket.

And AK-47ish things, why, they're purely for sport! No drug dealer has ever been apprehended with one in their trunk / back seat / closet / field ...

[krispos42]

34. Very true, at least the first part

If I did want to shoot a Canadian abortion doctor at long range, a rifle would be my first choice. Fortunately, I harbor no such desire, but if I did, I could simply go to my closet for my rifle.

It's not an AK-47ish rifle, though... is that okay?

Second part, well, I don't think that needs comment.

[alp227]

3. wow again? doubt it's a lone nut

then again, some have said that Lee Harvey Oswald wasn't a lone nut

[gateley]

4. It's happened before?

[IdolHans]

15. It has happened before

It's happened before----back in 1995 an idiot unloaded a whole rifle magazine into the front of the White House before bystanders bravely tackled him and took him into custody. Its a scary world!

[gateley]

30. Wow - I didn't remember that at all. Thanks. And welcome to DU, IdolHans!

(your username makes me smile)

:hi:

[ieoeja]

32. October 1994 about 6 weeks after someone hit the White House with a plane.

12-Sep-94 : unemployed man kills himself intentionally crashing a stolen Cessna into a corner of the White House

29-Oct-94 : man sprays White House using a semi-automatic SKS, the Chinese version of the AK-47; receives 40 year sentence

17-Dec-94 : someone fires at least four bullets at the White House, one penetrates a dining room window; unsolved

Dec-94 : four separate incidents of people jumping the fence

22-May-95 : man jumps the fence with a gun

25-May-95 : unarmed man jumps the fence

[gateley]

33. I remember the plane but not all the gun incidents. Boy,

amazing people attempt that. Even more amazing is jumping the fence -- do they think they're going to get anywhere once they're on the other side? :eyes:

Thanks!

[jberryhill]

6. He should move to a better neighborhood.

[gateley]

7. Okay, shots were fired on Friday, they didn't find the round

until Tuesday? Maybe I'm too influenced by the spy novels and movies but I thought they had some kick-ass super-secret ways to locate the shooter immediately and if not, zoom in on the round in no time at all.

[Behind the Aegis]

9. This is very scary.

I have issues with Obama, but I sure as hell do not want to see him assassinated! I hope they find the person(s) responsible, and very quickly.

[JDPriestly]

10. Horrors! How could that happen?

[DeSwiss]

12. Whoops!

- Does anyone really know where Cheney was???

K&R




''I’m for truth, no matter who tells it.'' ~Malcolm X

[Rochester]

13. I will be interested to see how the investigation turns out. ...

...It may turn out to be an ordinary criminal or a gang banger fired a shot that went wide.

[IdolHans]

14. That's Horrible---Catch the perp!

I really hope that they catch the idiot who pulled this mindless stunt----must have been a TEA party guy right?

[obliviously]

16. if you know who did this

maybe the secret service needs to talk with you.

[Tx4obama]

19. Oscar Ramiro Ortega of Idaho Falls, is mentally ill -- See comment #18 n/t

[tawadi]

17. I remember the "false report" Friday

So now it wasn't a false report, I guess.

Odd.

[Tx4obama]

18. UPDATE from ABC News

Update:

ABC News has further information on the alleged shooter:

ABC News has learned authorities are increasingly concerned that a man sought in connection with a bizarre shooting incident on the Washington Mall last week may pose a threat to President Obama.

The Secret Service now suspects that a bullet fired in this incident may have hit the White House after a bullet round was found in a White House window, though the round had not yet been conclusively linked to the incident.

Police believe the suspect, Oscar Ramiro Ortega of Idaho Falls, is mentally ill. Local News 8 broke Ortega’s connection to Idaho Falls on Sunday night.

Ortega has an extensive record, ranging from domestic violence to drug charges. Sources say a police investigation has uncovered evidence suggesting Ortega has a fixation on the White House.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/secret-service-reports-a-bullet-hit-a-white-house-window/


AND more info here: http://www.localnews8.com/news/29781254/detail.html?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

[JoeyT]

23. So for once it actually was a lone nut.

We've heard it so often it's almost a shock when it actually is.

[knitter4democracy]

27. We know from our own history the damage one lone nut can do.

Bobby Kennedy, Reagan, etc.

[Ian David]

25. Probably another "isolated incident" of TeaTerror.

More TeaTerror:

http://tinyurl.com/TeaTerror
http://tinyurl.com/TeaTerror2

"To the Victims of This Tragedy We Send Our Thoughts and Prayers" by Roy Zimmerman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8ouBFh04DU

The Outsiders (The Rise of 'Isolated Incidents' of Right-Wing Violence)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x606317

[Blue_Tires]

29. Having lived in D.C., it wouldn't surprise me if they were just stray bullets

[ocd liberal]

31. Let me guess...

There is a new hero at Free Republic today and it's the shooter?