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Suicide with Home-made Gun


Authors: M. Šafr 1;  P. Hejna 1;  L. Zátopková 2
Authors‘ workplace: Ústav soudního lékařství LF UK a FN, Hradec Králové 1;  Ústav soudního lékařství FN, Ostrava 2
Published in: Soud Lék., 54, 2009, No. 2, p. 17-22

Overview

Three cases of suicide by single bullet injury to head by home-made guns with immediate incapacitation are reported in following article. Zip gun (home-made gun) is a improvised firearm, usually a handgun. Home-made guns are almost always single-shot, as the improvised construction sometimes makes them weak enough to be destroyed by the act of firing. Zip guns are mostly smoothbore. Zip gun injuries, although unique today, represent a special category of missile injury with atypical low velocity terminal ballistics.

Key words:
home-made gun – zip gun – gunshot injury – suicide – case report


Sources

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Labels
Anatomical pathology Forensic medical examiner Toxicology
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