Do you need something to fill the time during the weekend? Are you one of those people with a need to keep busy with projects? Are you a real, hardcore, weekend warrior in the home improvement wars? Then we have just the project for you!
Nail yourself to the nearest wall with a cheap nailgun ! Join the other 37,000 weekend warriors who do so annually.
Since 1991, nailgun injuries have risen about 200 percent, the CDC said in its weekly report on death and disease.
"This increase likely corresponds to an increase in availability during the 1990s of inexpensive pneumatic nail guns and air compressors (to power the nail guns) in home hardware stores; however, no sales data are available for confirmation," the CDC reported.
But when the CDC looked at who was getting injured, it became clear that the number of work-related nailgun injuries had stayed stable since 1998. It was consumer-related injuries that had soared.
"During the 5-year period 2001-2005, an average of approximately 37,000 patients with injuries related to nail-gun use were treated annually in emergency departments, with 40 percent of injuries occurring among consumers," the report read.
Years ago, I worked with a very early nailgun. It was heavy as heck, very awkward to use but would launch a 16-penny coated sinker a real long ways if you defeated the safeties.
Not that we ever did anything remotely like that, mind you. (Kids, don't try this at home. Go to a friend's house.)
Let’s just hope my wife doesn’t see this story. A nail-gun is on my list of “needs”, so that I can finish putting in some new baseboards.
I just think about the scene in one of the Lethal Weapon movies, where a Bad Guy(tm) gets a nail right in the forehead…
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