Shooting with oxygen?
- Thread starter Tom Servo
- Start date
Years ago when I was a fireman we went to many medical calls and arrived to see someone on oxygen smoking a cigarette. We gave them the standard warning, always to no avail. I've also been on more than one call when the cigarette provided the spark that lit the cannula on fire, and the smoker ended up with a burn marks from the melting plastic on their face, neck and sometimes chest.
In my opinion you should not allow someone on oxygen to fire a gun. The chances of something bad happening are remote at best, but in your case you would be responsible, and maybe even somewhat liable for it.
In my opinion you should not allow someone on oxygen to fire a gun. The chances of something bad happening are remote at best, but in your case you would be responsible, and maybe even somewhat liable for it.
I think that before simply excluding someone who uses one of those oxygen accumulator devices from a shooting range, the range owner better find out if he would be violating the ADA. Isn't that sort of like excluding someone who uses a wheel chair from shooting ranges? Maybe....maybe not..... Who wants to be the test case?
Maybe just get your lawyer to draw up a "special" release for folks with accumulators to sign.
Maybe just get your lawyer to draw up a "special" release for folks with accumulators to sign.
spacemanspiff
New member
As range operator, assuming you have Liability insurance, may wish to look at the policy exclusions.
Uncle Buck
New member
My mother is on oxygen (uses a tank or an accumulator) and shoots with us once in awhile. Never had any problems.
Carry_24/7
New member
I've got nearly 20 years experience in emergency services, including HAZMAT specialist, fire inspector and investigator.
The only way this becomes an issue is if an open flame was exposed to the increased O2 level...the flame would be larger and hotter.
Firearms do produce flames. I've never tested the flame from a firearm and its interaction with medical oxygen being used by the shooter.
If someone were to ask me or if I were called to testify on this i'd say the risk of a larger, hotter flame from the fired weapon is there simply due to the chemistry...its there.
The overall risk would depend on alot of factors; how many liters per minute of O2 is being emitted, % of O2 total in the space (gas monitor), area ventilation, proximity of O2 to flame, etc...
The chance of this resulting in harm is probably very low, but it is there; Chemistry is law. Personally, when i'm old and on O2...i'm still going to the range.
The only way this becomes an issue is if an open flame was exposed to the increased O2 level...the flame would be larger and hotter.
Firearms do produce flames. I've never tested the flame from a firearm and its interaction with medical oxygen being used by the shooter.
If someone were to ask me or if I were called to testify on this i'd say the risk of a larger, hotter flame from the fired weapon is there simply due to the chemistry...its there.
The overall risk would depend on alot of factors; how many liters per minute of O2 is being emitted, % of O2 total in the space (gas monitor), area ventilation, proximity of O2 to flame, etc...
The chance of this resulting in harm is probably very low, but it is there; Chemistry is law. Personally, when i'm old and on O2...i'm still going to the range.
gunslinger2000
New member
This is an interesting thread! Wish I still had access to high speed photography equipment. I have a couple of medical oxygen concentrators sitting here so could see what happens when a gun is fired in an oxygen enriched atmosphere. I wouldn't expect to see much, if anything. Gunslinger
Aguila Blanca
Staff
I really don't think a portable oxygen concentrator is going to create an "oxygen rich" environment in a space as large as a shooting range. We're talking about those things that put two tiny nozzles into the user's nostrils to provide a trickle of supplemental oxygen for breathing.
buck460XVR
New member
I wonder if putting two small nipples on the barrel and attaching those little hoses would increase the velocity of the bullet fired? Kinda like Nitrous in a race car! But then, maybe if you substituted Nitrous for the Oxygen..........
Strafer Gott
New member
Oxygen in air is something like 18%. Without getting all scientific and whipping out my handy dandy H-Nu meter, somewhere around 22% oxygen, you get a fire that's very hard to extinguish. Those nostril fires can really get messy. Just sayin'.
gunslinger2000
New member
Not totally sure, but think at normal use rates the oxygen output of the concentrators is the same rate as from bottles. The unit my wife had for a while actually recharged bottles. Neither is likely to raise the oxygen level in a large area.
Since propellants contain their own oxidizer, it is doubtful that additional oxygen would do much. Good question though.
Since propellants contain their own oxidizer, it is doubtful that additional oxygen would do much. Good question though.
That's what I'm thinking. Powder reacts with itself, not oxygen in the atmosphere. It shouldn't be a problem.
Of course, when a reaction does involve oxygen, a higher concentration of O2 will cause a hotter flame. Like an acetylene torch- no hotter than a cigarette lighter until you add oxygen.