Tragedy Happens When People Play With a .50 Caliber

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I have a friend who jokes that a .50 caliber is for when you need to hit the robber behind the refrigerator… in your neighbor’s house. My friend is joking when he says that, but a gun using ammunition that large is no laughing matter when it is pointed at someone.

Unfortunately, two people in Minnesota didn’t know that. Hank Berrien writes,

On Monday night, a 19-year-old Minnesota woman was arrested for shooting her boyfriend to death as part of a YouTube stunt for her blog.

The criminal complaint in the case states that Monilisa Perez, who is pregnant, told police that her boyfriend, Pedro Ruiz, 22, wanted to make a YouTube video of her shooting a book while he was holding it; Ruiz thought the bullet would be stopped by the book. Ruiz had set up a GoPro camera and another camera to record the shooting.

Prior to the incident, Perez had tweeted: “Me and Pedro are probably going to shoot one of the most dangerous videos ever. HIS idea not MINE”

After she shot Ruiz, Perez called 911.  When police arrived, they attempted to save Ruiz but he died at the scene. Perez told police Ruiz had shown her a different book which a bullet did not penetrate; she acknowledged to police that she shot Ruiz from one foot away using a .50 caliber Desert Eagle firearm.

According to Tasneem Nashrulla, Perez has a YouTube channel which she hopes to be able to use to become famous. Nashrulla writes, “Perez had uploaded several YouTube videos featuring her and Ruiz, many of which involved doing ‘pranks,’ ‘stunts,’ and ‘challenges.'”

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Tragically, this couple’s obvious lack of firearm training will lead to her being famous, but not for any good reason.

It’s this kind of senseless death that should drive home how careful that you need to be as a responsible gun owner and that you should pass on safety instruction to those around you. The world doesn’t need to see another person die because people were too foolish to consider how to be safe.

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32 COMMENTS

    • I beg to differ. She obviously did!

      This guy is a prime candidate for this year’s “DARWIN AWARD”!

  1. Tragedy? Tragedy is when a bus driver has a heart attack with a bus load of preschoolers, and drives off a cliff. This is not a tragedy.
    This is two idiots kept from creating more idiots. One dead, the other prison (or asylum for the criminally stupid).

  2. Wrong bullet in picture! That’s a BMG round! Not a pistol round! if you are going to write a story about guns. The least you can do is research the subject!

  3. Give them a Darwin Award. BTW your image of the cartridge is not correct that is a 50 BMG rifle round.

  4. That should go down as training on Training&Safety gun owners manual. “Things you should consider or not attempt when demenstrating firing your weapon at another person.” This is what happens! Always practice Gun Safty! And never point a gun at someone unless you intend on shooting! I guess that was her intention resulting in death! Sensless shame! May God rest his Soul!

  5. I love self-correcting Third World social pathologies.
    Who now gets the gun ?
    It’ll languish, dirty, in an evidence locker for a long time, until the Bean Muncher Stupidity Episode is forgotten.
    Then, it will disappear…er, go home with a retired cop as Bear Medicine carried while fishing in The Great White North….where Bean Munchers, Muzzies and BLAX do not belong.

  6. A 50 cal. Is for use when all her breaks loose so if you want one buy it train to use it in its proper role and have a pistol,shotgun and rifle for regular hunting and home defense. I like three Pistol rounds .9 mm, .45acp, or .357mag., rifle .223cal, .308cal, or 30-06cal., Shotguns .410 gauge, .20 gauge, 12gauge. The .50cal. is for long-range stops and to kill enemies hiding behind obstacles, or stopping mass assaults.

    • actually the 50BMG is more for aircraft and light armor. While snipers have used it to get to targets behind walls, etc., it was not created for use against people. but I get your point.

  7. Similar but not deadly. Years ago two fellow soldiers used my Daisy air pistol without permission 0.17 cal. one doubled some two inch thick foam rubber held it in front of him while the other fired a pellet from 8 to 10 feet away. The pellet penetrated 4 inches of foam a thick sweater, t-shirt and the targets skin. They were simply lucky fools and that was only a 17 cal pellet pistol. I was not there and they used MY pellet pistol after being ordered not to even touch it. Just a pair of Drunken fools, but lucky.A fifty cal pistol bullet is roughly equivalent in power to the older 45-70 rifle cartridge and can easily go through a log cabin house or car. What complete and utter fools.

  8. My son does after-incident investigations for insurance companies where large claims are involved.
    A case he recently investigated was at a newly-built gun range wherein one of the owners friends was testing his .50 BMG rifle at the indoor range.
    The bullet trap consisted of shredded rubber tires backed by an undisclosed backstop material such as cinder block behind sand filler.
    A single shot was fired and immediately after, the shooter bolted from the range, dropping the rifle heading for the parking lot.
    When the rangemaster and owner pursued the shooter who was obviously in pain, they found that the round had ricochet’d back at nearly the same path as it had travelled leaving the muzzle.
    It hit the shooter in the arm-shoulder, cleanly exiting but wreaking significant harm and damage in so doing.
    The moral here is, be certain of what your shooting at or into before depressing the trigger.
    The range had not yet opened to the public and didn’t have all of it’s permits and insurance in place They felt confident in the range’s construction and ability to handle high powered rounds
    Not..
    The shooter is still recovering from his indiscretion.

  9. One set of genes out of the pool – another in prison for (hopefully) a long time.
    Violated two of the four basic firearm safety rules:
    #2 Never point a weapon at anything you are not willing to destroy.
    #3 Always be sure of your target, and what is behind it.

  10. If Pedro’s arms had been as strong as his brain, he wouldn’t have been able to lift a book thick enough to stop a .50 Cal. from a Desert Eagle.
    Gotta be a top candidate for “The Darwin Awards” !

  11. And this years years winner of the Darwin Award is – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – -Pedro! Pedro WAS just 22 years old and dumb as a rock when he thought a book would stop a .50 cal round from a Desert Eagle. He gave his all to earn his 15 minutes of fame on YouTube. Monilisa will still be wondering if they should have used a different book for the filming, maybe the one in the old Superman movies.

  12. There is NO cure for idiot either. ( X2 ) THAT will just give the anti-gunners another reason to want gun CONTROL. Any (NO) mention of drugs or booze involved. An old .44 Special revolver shoots a rifle cartridge.

  13. It’s interesting that a photo of a .50 BMG round accompanies the story, when its about the relatively wimpy .50 AE, which is only slightly more powerful than a .44 magnum hunting load.

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