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When Does a .22 Long Rifle Become a .223?

Josey1Josey1 Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
edited June 2002 in General Discussion
When Does a .22 Long Rifle Become a .223?
Caught in the crossfire my *!
By Dennis Wagner - The Arizona Republic


Ahmed El Bohisi - Liar?
FRAUD EXPOSED by The Federal Observer (with a little help from THEM who know) of International proportions! Arizona Republic reporter as yet ignores letter from reader and refuses to publish retraction of error in his 'story'.

~ Foreword ~
The story, which you about to read, is somewhat unusual for this column. Although it does not specifically deal with 2nd Amendment related issues, it shows the biased side of reporting from the main-stream media as relates to 'facts' dealing with firearms related issues. To the average reader - and to many gun owners, the following information may seem insignificant, yet it is indicative of the lack of detail and truth addressed by the media today. Maybe the Arizona Republic and others need to return to the old type of reporter - one who had experience and knowledge of the subjects in question. I smell a follow-up to this story entitled, When is a Shotgun NOT a Rifle?

Our story aside, we wish to express kudos and a 'Job well done' to the brilliant Mesa heart surgeon, Dr. Dwight Lundell, who volunteered his services to perform the operation. No matter the political deceipt and realities of a war-torn region of the world, he stepped foprward and did the right thing. Continued success to dedicated individuals, such as Dr. Lundell. (Editor - The Federal Observer)

Arizona Republic:
Phoenix, AZ - June 15, 2002 - Ahmed El Bohisi lifts up his shirt to show a small scar on the left side of his chest where the bullet entered, just missing his heart before it lodged in lung tissue near his spine.

He is a Palestinian boy, 14 years old and going on 40, brought to Arizona by mercy workers to have the slug removed.

But right now he is having dinner in a north Phoenix restaurant and telling the story in matter-of-fact terms with neither trembling nor tears.

Ahmed says he was walking home from his grandparents' house in Gaza on Oct. 28, 2000, passing by a Jewish settlement that was separated from the Palestinian zone by barbed wire. Up ahead, he noticed some other boys throwing rocks at Israeli houses. Ahmed says he climbed onto a stone wall to see better, and one of the boys shouted, "Get down! Get down! They're shooting!"

"I thought he was just joking," Ahmed adds. "I looked and saw a woman Israeli soldier taking aim at me with an M-16 from a window. By the time I took another look, I got shot in the chest."

Ahmed says he was knocked to the ground and couldn't move. He remembers soldiers spraying the area with rubber bullets, one of which bounced off his shoe. Other boys tried to rescue him but couldn't.

After 10 minutes, Ahmed says, he saw a dust trail from approaching tanks. He got up and tried to run. Then someone grabbed him and carried him to an ambulance. Although it may seem unlikely for a boy to live after an M-16 shot to the chest, experts say that the bullet is relatively small, about the size of a .22-caliber slug, and that survivability is high unless a vital organ is damaged.

Now, 19 months and 7,500 miles later, Ahmed smiles nervously as he talks about his unlikely odyssey and his luck. Caught in the crossfire of Middle Eastern enmity, he has been brought to America for healing through the compassion of complete strangers.

1% chance of survival
He was born in Saudi Arabia and moved to the Gaza Strip at 11. He lives in a refugee camp known as Dayr al Balah (Village of the Dates) with his parents, three brothers and one sister. His father, Atef, is a cabdriver. His mom, Jazia, is a homemaker.

News accounts over the past few years tell of life in Ahmed's town: poverty, fear and bullets. On the day Ahmed left for America, Israeli tanks entered Dayr al Balah. Ahmed says nights are worst, especially after the 10 p.m. curfew: "If you stick your head out the window, you might get shot. . . . There's a lot of fear."

But life goes on, as it did on the day he was wounded. Within minutes, the El Bohisi family was told that Ahmed had been killed. "They said me and another member of my clan died as martyrs," he says.

In fact, he was in critical condition. Doctors gave him a 1 percent chance.

In Gaza Strip hospitals, Ahmed says, those who undergo surgery may die or be maimed. Because the bullet stopped just 2 centimeters from his spine, Ahmed's parents decided to wait, hoping they could send the boy to Europe.

Over time, he got back on his feet. He returned to school, the only student in a class of 45 to have been shot. He likes to play soccer, tennis and baseball. But he gets tired easily, and the pain is relentless.

Ahmed says he already was saved once by "a miracle from God," so now he was looking forward to an operation, more anxious than frightened.

Mission of mercy
The Palestine Children's Relief Fund secured an airplane ticket to the United States and helped coordinate Ahmed's trip. Healing the Children, a humanitarian organization that provides medical help for sick and injured kids from around the world, handled arrangements in the United States.

Johanna Ricketts, Arizona director, makes it clear that this is a mission of mercy and hope, not politics. This is a boy who needs help, and no one cares why. Banner Health Systems donated a hospital room, medications, nurses and other resources. Dr. Dwight Lundell, a Mesa heart surgeon, volunteered to do the operation. Sid and Iman Ishmail of Phoenix agreed to be host parents, bringing Ahmed into their home.

But the logistics were difficult. Once Ahmed got a U.S. visa, his mother tried to take him to the airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, for his flight. They were turned away twice at military checkpoints.

Weeks later, they headed toward Cairo and were allowed through. Ahmed boarded a jet to Germany with an acquaintance, then flew unescorted to Phoenix.

He shrugs, saying it was no big deal flying alone to see strangers halfway around the world: "I wasn't afraid. It's normal. Don't worry, I'm a man."


AHMED'S 22 LONG RIFLE BULLET
He speaks little English but carries himself with a dignified politeness.

Sid Ishmail, who has two younger boys, shakes his head in wonder at the maturity. "I asked him if he wanted cream and sugar in his coffee," Ishmail said after Ahmed's first morning in Arizona. "And he said, 'No, I drink it black.' "

Ishmail translates from Arabic as Ahmed answers questions between bites of pizza. The food is good, he says, just like pizza from a shop in the Ramallah refugee camp that was destroyed last month.

He says that life back home is dominated by politics and war and that it is a subject of constant discussion even among teenagers.

"Our struggle is first and foremost," he explains. "My generation will free our country. . . Peace can happen."

Asked about the soldier who shot him, Ahmed pauses thoughtfully. "I'm mad at her for being the occupier of my country," he says, "but not for shooting me."

When told that American boys his age are more interested in girls than politics, Ahmed laughs: "I'm not into material things, weaknesses of the human. Girls are friends only." After 35 minutes of questioning, he tells Ishmail, "That's enough." Then he reaches out to shake the reporter's hand and says with a smile of finality, "Thank you very much."

A miracle of life
Lundell shakes his head while studying X-rays. After entering the boy's chest, the bullet apparently veered left, struck a rib and penetrated his lung. Yet it caused negligible damage. "The entrance wound is right over his heart. . . . " Lundell says. "One way or another, it's a miracle that he's not dead."

It is 7:30 a.m. on Thursday, the day of surgery, at Desert Samaritan Medical Center in Mesa. Ahmed has been in the Valley 11 days. He smiles nervously as a nurse explains what will happen, nodding yes even though he cannot understand.

Ahmed stays close to Sid Ishmail, who says, "He's anxious to get it over. I promised I'd take him to the zoo. He wants to see a lion."

The operation is quick and simple. After Ahmed is anesthetized, Lundell inserts a needle into his back to locate the bullet, then makes an incision. Thirty-five minutes later, he reaches in with a pair of forceps and withdraws the slug. Scar tissue and damaged pieces of lung are removed before the wound is closed.

On Friday, post-surgical agony brings out the child in Ahmed. Ishmail says the boy tearfully asks, "Why me? Why does it happen to me?"

Despite the pain, the boy is also filled with gratitude toward those who helped him and vows to carry a torch of charity (as well as a souvenir bullet) when he returns to his home.

"He's humbled, very humbled," Ishmail adds. "He told me, 'I want to do the same thing for people. . . . I will never turn my back on anyone hurt.' "

Contact Dennis Wagner- but NOT before you read the rest of the story!


Caught in the crossfire - You've been had!
Dear Dennis,

I read your story this morning, entitled "Caught in the Crossfire." It's a great story, except for one thing: The bullet in the picture did not come from an M16 rifle.

M16 rifles use full metal jacketed 5.56 NATO caliber bullets, which are pointed, spitzer shaped on the front and boat-tail shaped on the rear -(unless it is a tracer round, and then the bullet still has a point on the front.)

The bullet in the picture is round nosed and hollow based, and is most likely a .22 long rifle bullet, which has a round nose and hollow base,and about a third the velocity of the M16.

Little Ahmed is being less than forthright with the truth. He was NOT shot with an M16, and was likely wounded by "friendly fire."

I am sending you a page comparing a .223 cartridge with a .22 long rifle cartridge.

Mark Terry
http://www.federalobserver.com/index.php?section=The+Right+to+Keep+and+Bear+Arms


"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878

Comments

  • will270winwill270win Member Posts: 4,845
    edited November -1
    Open mouth, insert foot. Bad reporter, go to your room for a time out!


    ~Secret Select Society Of Suave Stylish Smoking Jackets~
  • AlpineAlpine Member Posts: 15,092 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I hate to intrude to this love fest, but would a normal human reaction to a rifle pointed at you invoke any other reaction, but to get down, and get down fast behind the hardest cover you could find? I find any other reaction to cause me to question Ahmed's veracity.
    But hey, what do I know?

    "If you ain't got pictures, I wasn't there."
    ?The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.?
    Margaret Thatcher

    "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
    Mark Twain
  • 4GodandCountry4GodandCountry Member Posts: 3,968
    edited November -1
    Heading of the article should have read, " Future Terrorist Lives To Kill Another Day ", or " Poor Placed Shot Sends Future Terrorist To American Hospital".

    When Clinton left office they gave him a 21 gun salute. Its a damn shame they all missed....
  • BullzeyeBullzeye Member Posts: 3,560
    edited November -1
    quote:
    Heading of the article should have read, " Future Terrorist Lives To Kill Another Day ", or " Poor Placed Shot Sends Future Terrorist To American Hospital".


    Amen to that, brother.

    quote:"I'm not into material things, weaknesses of the human. Our struggle is first and foremost....my generation will free our country"

    Ohhhh yeah, he's just a regular puppy-eyed UNICEF poster child.

    He must have forgotten to mention he had just emptied the mag in his AK before he was shot, and the reason he couldnt see was because his green guerrilla bandanna fell over his eyes.

    Hope his button-mashing thumb didnt get damaged. He'll probably be using it as soon as he gets back to Gaza.
  • gruntledgruntled Member Posts: 8,218 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Bullseye you need to start drinking tomato juice instead of blood.
    What could cause you to be filled with such hate?
  • 4GodandCountry4GodandCountry Member Posts: 3,968
    edited November -1
    "SAVE THE WHALES BULLSEYE". lol...* bya my lord, * bya, lol...

    When Clinton left office they gave him a 21 gun salute. Its a damn shame they all missed....
  • BullzeyeBullzeye Member Posts: 3,560
    edited November -1
    If he is supposedly such a tragic victim of senseless Israeli butchery, then why is he lying about who shot him?

    My guess: He caught a .22LR round from a Palestinian hooligan firing wildly in the street, and had his story entirely fabricated by his parents and the PLO.

    Just reading about the kid gives me the chills. He was probably on an ammo run for his parents when he caught that bullet
  • whiteclouderwhiteclouder Member Posts: 10,574 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    bullz:

    Your collection of action comic books must be astounding.

    Clouder..
  • BullzeyeBullzeye Member Posts: 3,560
    edited November -1
    There's a good one, tapeworm.

    I cant remember the last time I read a comic book.

    The Palestinians certainly are comical though, arent they? Thinking in their ignorant little brains that they could possibly pull off a stunt like this to cast aspersions on the Israelis.
  • 4GodandCountry4GodandCountry Member Posts: 3,968
    edited November -1
    Tapeworm! Now thats funny! ROFLMAO
    Dont hug that tree so tight you guys, you'll cut off circulation to the limbs and kill it....lol.....

    When Clinton left office they gave him a 21 gun salute. Its a damn shame they all missed....
  • whiteclouderwhiteclouder Member Posts: 10,574 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    That's the best ya got Bullz? That's weak. I guess a hairy palm ain't the only thing ya get.

    Clouder..
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