Story Archive

Unnecessary War

A video shows David Pressley, 32, equipped with a semi-automatic rifle and, it seems, a tactical vest, as he fires more than 20 shots. Then there’s an explosion. Shrapnel flies everywhere. And a voice yells out: medical help is needed. Pressley has destroyed the enemy, but he’s also, medics later determined, lost his leg below the knee. Pressley’s buddies took him to a road; that was where the medics took over. Pressley was airlifted to a hospital and is recovering, but the enemy — a lawnmower that, according to a friend of his, had been packed with three pounds of Tannerite “to blow it up” — presumably isn’t. “We get a lot of calls about Tannerite,” said Walton County, Ga., Sheriff Joe Chapman. “It can be extremely dangerous if it is not used correctly.” (AC/WXIA Atlanta) ...And stuffing it into a lawnmower and shooting it from close range is not using it correctly.
Original Publication Date: 10 April 2016
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 22.

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