Display sword falls and kills Florida teen

[milky*mcgee]

March 8, 2005

Brandon, FL (AP) - A teenager who kept a 29-inch sword displayed on his bedroom wall had died after the weapon fell and slashed his shoulder and neck, authorities said. Joshua Hershberger, 15, was in his bedroom with two younger siblings Monday night when a ball they were bouncing knocked the sword off the wall, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said.

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Wow, what an awful freak accident.

I am MUCH too paranoid of a Mom to have had a freakin' sword displayed on my kids bedroom wall.

[Tenaj]

My god how tragic. Reminds me of that scene in Final Destination 3. Even if it were just for show, I agree Milky, I would never let a child have a sword, or any other weapon for that matter as a decoration. Very sad story

[A*O]

Hanging swords and guns etc on the wall as decoration is SO Braveheart sweetie. What kind of parent would allow weapons in the house even, let alone displayed in a kid's bedroom.

[miss_perfect]

Yeah I'm no parent, but I would think that sword over bed = bad.

[mklady]

WTH! We have swords and from what I understand, you don't want them so sharp that they can slice, that leaves them with a weakened edge. Now of course, I'm all paranoid because we have swords (they're not on the walls) and my inlaws have swords. Some of our friends have swords. This is going to be an issue for me...

[deckchick]

WTH! We have swords and from what I understand, you don't want them so sharp that they can slice, that leaves them with a weakened edge. Now of course, I'm all paranoid because we have swords (they're not on the walls) and my inlaws have swords. Some of our friends have swords. This is going to be an issue for me...

Dare I ask what the heck you and family are doing with them all?

Do you pull them out at family reunions to settle matters? If so, is it required to first slap your opponent with a pair of gloves?

Do you guys all where those puffy white shirts with black tights and knee-high leather boots?

I find that all strangely arousing....Can I come over and watch?

[AliceInWonderland]

Darwin Award winner!

[LynnieD]

Totally sucks....wonder who they can sue for this one??

[SVZ]

can you represent medieval blacksmiths in court?

and why didn't they have it dulled or something?

[NawdleZouss]

Dare I ask what the heck you and family are doing with them all?

Do you pull them out at family reunions to settle matters? If so, is it required to first slap your opponent with a pair of gloves?

Do you guys all where those puffy white shirts with black tights and knee-high leather boots?

I seriously laughed at that for about two minutes.

I read something like this a while ago; a fifteen year old boy was with a friend, playing around with a katana replica. Long story short, one of them swung it, the blade came off, and impaled the boy.

[mklady]

Deckchick, I will answer your questions to the best of my abilities.

Do you pull them out at family reunions to settle matters? Yes

If so, is it required to first slap your opponent with a pair of gloves? On occasion, but they might be chainmail (and you might like it)

Do you guys all where those puffy white shirts with black tights and knee-high leather boots? Sadly, yes. I wear a bodice.

I find that all strangely arousing....Can I come over and watch? Better yet baby, you can join!

http://www.markland.org/
http://www.sca.org/
http://www.horseguild.com/ (this is the kicker, this site, is put together by my FIL)

Anyway, here's the deal with the sword according to the hubby, he says that a European medieval sword was no sharper than a wood cutter's axe, maybe a little sharper than a butter knife. Because the metal was soft, the first time you hit something with it, you would get knicks and dents in the blade and it would snag up on things. It would never hold an edge. Eastern blades (China and Japan) could be sharpened because of the folding technique. This makes the metal hard and flexible at the same time. This steel would hold an edge even after striking things, so they were typically very sharp. Replica swords tend to have a fake tang which is just a threaded screw welded onto the blade, this can easily break if you ever use it but the blade may not fly out when it breaks, but possibly later. Which can result in the human shish-ke-bob! On a real, functional sword, the tang and sword are one piece and much harder to break.

Any questions?

There was a time we were young and without child and so was everyone else in the groups. Now we're all older and with, some have been more diligent about staying with it. We haven't been one of them.

[deckchick]

Deckchick, I will answer your questions to the best of my abilities.

Do you pull them out at family reunions to settle matters? Yes

If so, is it required to first slap your opponent with a pair of gloves? On occasion, but they might be chainmail (and you might like it)

Do you guys all where those puffy white shirts with black tights and knee-high leather boots? Sadly, yes. I wear a bodice.

I find that all strangely arousing....Can I come over and watch? Better yet baby, you can join!

Any questions?

I was thinking more along the lines of nice soft leather gloves...

And I still just wanna watch

ps - Did you play Dungeons & Dragons in your youth? Not that there is anything wrong with it

pps - thank you very much for your detailed response

[alcohol the honey]

What a freakish accident.

[sweetrebel]

mklady, I think that is super cool! You know how people ask if you could live during any time in history, what would it be? My first choice was always in Medieval times...and my second choice was always during the Victorian era...

And that is so very tragic for that family. I can't imagine the horror of watching this happen. My nephew has swords, but his are all pretty dull and he doesn't have them hanging...he just likes swords...

[mklady]

I was thinking more along the lines of nice soft leather gloves...

And I still just wanna watch

ps - Did you play Dungeons & Dragons in your youth? Not that there is anything wrong with it

pps - thank you very much for your detailed response

Actually, we do have some nice leather gloves somewhere, anyway, I never played D&D, hubby on the other hand, most definitely! I tried playing one of the RPG's with him and his buddies. I refuse to play after that. They picked apart my character, I'm 5'4 so I made myself a little taller and gave myself black hair. Dressed myself the same, I wasn't too creative. According to them, I wanted to look like Courtney Cox. Uhh, no. This from guys who have pop tart guts who have made themselves Greek Gods. Then as we're playing, I would speak, they wouldn't hear or would dismiss my ideas. Not 10 seconds later, it was like an epiphany and my ideas were amazing as their own. I think I called them all f*ckers and left.

If you think D&D is interesting to watch, try www.nerolarp.com. Live action role playing, scantily clad elves and all. That shit was a mess to organize and deal with. Why the hell hubby wanted to get into that I'll never know. He went so far as building structures over at the farm (there's already a castly, so why not) and putting out money to buy a chapter. In the end, he got screwed by his "business partner". The guy never put hubby's name on the paperwork and he and his wife used the checking account as a personal piggy bank.