# Was Bush in danger from the grenade attack?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-bush-in-danger-from-the-grenade-attack/339580
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 11, 2006, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-bush-in-danger-from-the-grenade-attack/339580 "2006-01-11T23:21:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@StewieGriffin420](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StewieGriffin420)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2006, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-bush-in-danger-from-the-grenade-attack/339580/1 "2006-01-11T23:21:22Z")
In the news today there was a story about a guy who got sentenced for throwing a grenade at the president. The grenade came within 50 meters of him but was a dud. If the grenade went off would he have been hurt? What is the effective range of grenades?
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### Author:  [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2006, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-bush-in-danger-from-the-grenade-attack/339580/2 "2006-01-11T23:58:11Z")
I don’t know the effective range of a grenade, but 50 meters is about 164 feet, or about 55 yards.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2006, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-bush-in-danger-from-the-grenade-attack/339580/3 "2006-01-12T00:01:53Z")
Wasn’t that a dummy?
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### Author:  [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2006, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-bush-in-danger-from-the-grenade-attack/339580/4 "2006-01-12T00:04:28Z")
According to the America’s Army computer game (which the Army claims is reasonably realistic), the hand grenade used by US troops has, IIRC a 15 meter blast radius, with half of that being the “Kill Zone” where nobody standing in the open is expected to survive. That said, I don’t know what sort of grenade this fellow was throwing, and they do probably come in all sorts of sizes and shapes, with different effects.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2006, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-bush-in-danger-from-the-grenade-attack/339580/5 "2006-01-12T00:07:09Z")
Pardon me. [Soviet “engineering grenade,” in “inactive” mode.](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/05/11/politics/main694389_page2.shtml)
> [@](#):
>
> Bezhuashvili said the grenade was found in “inactive mode.” He described it as an “engineering grenade” — one that is used for demolition or to simulate the effect of an artillery shell. Such grenades’ blast-effect can be fatal at close range, but unlike offensive grenades, they are not designed to spread shrapnel.
Dangerous enough but not at a distance.
Nobody really knows how close he got to it. It was found in the crowd. Likely the blast would have been absorbed by onlookers, if it went off.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2006, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-bush-in-danger-from-the-grenade-attack/339580/6 "2006-01-12T00:16:28Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#):
>
> Nobody really knows how close he got to it.
I’m making a [poor showing](http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/01/11/georgia.grenade/) today.
> [@](#):
>
> The would-be assassin threw a grenade into a crowd about 20 meters (65 feet) from the stage where Bush had just begun speaking…
So quite a distance . (Although certainly closer than I would care to be to the concussion – and I suppose there’s a chance that someone’s car-keys or bones or whatnot could have been propelled into his face.)