# Shooting Blanks

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shooting-blanks/270617>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [October 22, 2004, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shooting-blanks/270617 "2004-10-22T16:47:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![trupa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@trupa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trupa)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2004, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shooting-blanks/270617/41 "2004-12-06T21:07:37Z")

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> [@Padeye](#):
>
> A revolver has a small gap between cylinder and barrel about as wide as the thickness of two sheets of paper. Visible flame comes out but so briefly it can easily be missed as it might be between frames. Smoke is often not apparent with modern “smokeless” propellant.

[Cool picture of this](http://www.fbi.gov/publications/leb/2004/oct2004/oct04leb.htm#page_15)

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**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\
**Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shooting-blanks/270617/42 "2004-12-08T14:14:54Z")

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> [@Nonsensei](#):
>
> “For reasons that have never been made clear, on October 18, 1984, the 26-year-old Hexum took a .44 Magnum revolver loaded with blanks, pressed the barrel to his head, and fired a single shot.”
> 
> He died from TV. More correctly, he died because of something he saw on TV.  
> At the time Steven Bochco’s highly rated cop drama “Hill Street Blues” was featuring a sub-plot about SWAT Team Captain Howard’s bout of Depression. At the end of the previous weeks episode Howard had placed his 44 Magnum to hia head. The screen goes dark and the sound of a gunshot is heard, then the closing credits roll.  
> The following week (Oct. 17th) Howard appears in the squadroom with a large bandage on his temple but otherwise unharmed. Later on in the show it’s revealed that his friends on the force had replaced the bullets with blanks in anticipation of a suicide attempt.  
> The next day (in real life) Hexum was joking around between takes on the set of his show when he imitated what he saw on TV the night before.

**Nonsensei** , I confess that I missed this post as I’ve been out of town a great deal the last month. I can’t verify the dates (although I did remember very well the Howard episodes you mentioned, and the “controversy” over whether Bochco pulled a punch and re-wrote the next episode to bring Howard back…) but if that lines up, that is a very compelling case you have for one greatly influencing the other.

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