Sam White 21st Century American Civil War Victim
The American Civil War — fought 1861-1865 — has claimed its first Twenty-First Century victim, Sam White of Sam White Relics. Visit his website to see a photo of Sam. On that site he offers to “disarm, clean, and preserve your Civil War period and earlier military ordinance” for $20 to $35, depending on they type of weapon. He obviously recognized the danger involved, as he said:
I’ve done approx. 500 artillery projectiles and still have all my fingers (I must be doing something right, knock on wood)!
Well, he must have gotten careless, because he lost more than his fingers. News reports suggest he was killed when one of his war relics exploded, possibly a cannon-ball. The ATF, in a typical over-reaction, evacuated dozens of surrounding houses and began blowing-up all the remaining 140 year old weapons. Yes, they can still go off, but the black powder cannon balls are hardly powerful enough that you need to clear several blocks of homes, or handle them like dynamite or nitroglycerin — a real expert could have been called in to disarm them.
On the other hand, this shows that amateurs have no business digging-up, let alone trying to disarm, war artifacts. Leave it to the archaeologists boys.