The Worst Internet Gun Fails #11 - The Darwin Awards 

Thanks for watching guys! Of all of the clips, which one made you cringe the most? As always if you have your own submissions you’ve found, send them my way! Get the exclusive NordVPN deal here: nordvpn.com/herrera. It’s risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee!

It's obvious how the General survived: the skeletal gentleman with the robe and scythe couldn't pronounce his name either.

So, I'm the guy who shoots himself in the foot at like 2:40. It hooked my sweatshirt on the re holster... definitely my bad. It blew my bone apart. Clean through and through. The guys there were amazing. I barely bled. Greg, the guy assessing it was a medic. He had my boot off and foot wrapped in about 45 seconds and I was in an ambulance and in a hospital within 2 hours(we were in the middle of nowhere in Idaho) It happened February 2nd this year. And I'm already back on it since April...disc golfing and everything. Can't believe I made a Darwin list!! Hahahahahaha!!!

9:35 those guys were turkey hunting so its a good chance dude took a wad of pellets to his butt cheek. Turkeys have surprisingly good eyesight and can differentiate hunters blaze orange from the natural foliage. most states require hunters to wear orange while hunting, some states give hunters the option to remove it for turkey hunting unless they are moving to or from their spot

That polish general story can be simply Explained with the quote: "Don't Worry it's unloaded... *Boom* Well it's unloaded now!"

That RSO at like the 6 minute was on it and is my hero!!! No games no Bull, minimizes the threat and takes control. Great job who ever you are!

As a polish guy I'm really proud of Mr Szymczyk. He proved there are no limits to human idiocy or absurdity.

I worked at a gun store one summer and I have to say it was enlightening. Nearly every week we would have some idiot flag the staff or each other either in the store when inspecting a potential purchase or at the in house range (much to the frustration of the RSO) Instantly kicked out purchases canceled and refunded. Do not pass go do not pay $200. Owner had a zero tolerance policy for that bs. He told me “If they want to off themselves they can do it after they kindly get the f*ck off my property, it’s to much paperwork in-house.”

Brandon, I have a short story for you. Last year I was Elk hunting with a couple of friends and a friend of one of my buddies whom I didn't know. He seemed alright and didn't wave any red flags for us, but he was from Seattle. On our second day of hunting on Weyerhauser Logging roads, we saw a herd of Elk cows coming down through the timber on their way to a grazing meadow. I knew that there would be Bulls following the lead cow after most of the other cows had checked to make sure the coast was clear, so to speak. So I set up on my tripod, so I could get a good steady aim and I looked to my left and right to make sure I didn't have something that could spook them or not give me a clear shot. I was scoping in on the 1st Bull, a 6X5 with huge horns, when a massive shot went off right next to my left ear. It blinded me for a second and left my ears ringing so loud I couldn't hear anything for a moment. As I got some of my hearing back, partially, I heard my lifelong buddy "Dan" screaming at this new guy to stay down on the ground. I turned to face them, and I realized my buddy had just Cold Cocked this ass wipe and knocked him to the ground. My ear hurt and I realized I had powder burns on it. Turns out, idiot saw the herd and seeing I wasn't taking a shot, decided he would do so while standing behind me and just up to my left. As he followed the Bull in his scope (it was moving left to right in the meadow below us and I was standing below, idiot). Idiot touched one off and nearly put a 240 grain core-lock into my skull. My buddy Dan seeing what was happening blindsided the idiot knocking him down and taking away his rifle. Needless to say, he wasn't invited to go hunting with us this year. That and he missed the Bull scaring the herd, and none of us got an Elk that day. Idiot was kicked out of camp.

Anyone else remember about ten years ago when people were “absolutely shocked” that handing a fully automatic sub-machine gun to a child was a terrible idea because she ended up shooting the instructor in the head?

Mad props to the employee at that range who immediately jumped in and grabbed the guy’s wrist when he pointed the pistol at his friend’s head. What the hell is wrong with people?

I've never shot a firearm in my life, and even I start cringing myself into oblivion whenever I see such blatant disregard for firearms safety. Great showcase as usual, Brandon.

The first one was an internet star in Mexico. He was always getting drunk AF and calling out the cartels. As one can imagine , he is no longer with us.

Camo'ed guy was turkey hunting, in my area you dont wear orange while hunting turkey, you also never approach a turkey. You only call them in. This avoids issues like what happened there, they probably were shooting at their decoys.

The camo guys aren’t deer hunting they’re turkey hunting. The buy behind them was most likely shooting at the decoy set and not at them.

I appreciate that you feel forced to explain the basic rules of firearm safety in these videos. Most youtubers would just hide behind the "this video is educational" montra and never touch on safety. Thank you!

In regards to the woman reaching up with her gun to retrieve her ear-protection/cover her ears, the really remarkable thing about "Tex" shooting himself in the leg earlier is...HE STOPPED AND CALMLY PUT THE GUN DOWN. The guy literally is already shot but has the presence of mind to reach down and drop his weapon before collapsing. You can say what you want about him wounding himself, but the man is an absolute master of range safety!

This is an amazing Christmas present. Welcome, to the Darwin awards ladies and gents. Merry Christmas to all and God bless.

I once got barrel swiped at chest level with a 12 gauge a few seconds after i told everyone it was loaded. Don't ever shoot with someone who doesn't take gun safety seriously, they thought it was funny.

The guy shot in the ass was NOT deer hunting. He was turkey hunting. You can tell by the extreme amount of camo (gun barrel & all), the way he is moving his mouth (working a diaphragm call), exclusive use of shotguns (reinforcing other evidence), camo patterns being darker green rather than brown (likely Spring season hunt), and the hit in the ass look to be a very tight pattern of shot rather than a high hypervelocity rifle round. Likely, the shot was much closer than the camera makes it appear. The guy shooting him hears a turkey and shoots into the "bush" - stupid, stupid move. There is no such thing as a brush shot. Just simple incompetence. BTW deer cannot see most colors but turkey absolutely can.

Love how many times I hear the range safety rules in these videos. Not sure about anyone else, but I never get tired of hearing about range safety as an adult. Keep it up, dude.

5:52 This Range Officer is legendary. I counted, and it took LESS THAN ONE SECOND from the moment he points the gun at his friend's head, for the officer to jump in and prevent this idiot from executing his friend on TikTok. Guns are serious and this Range Officer needs to be applauded for reacting so quickly. Things like this do NOT happen often, and sometimes officers can get a little complacent as a result, because MOST people aren't this stupid, but it took NO time for him to identify the threat and act on it immediately, potentially saving this dude's life.

When you mentioned Szymczyk i started to laugh unbelievably hard. As a polish person i can only say that situation makes me think even more that we tend to do dumb shit. And Merry Christmas everyone, don't blow yourself up with a "decomissioned" grenade launcher.

The best way to let another hunter know that they’re shooting at an invalid target is to shoot back

The shotgun to the arm thing always reminds me of that clip of the dude going over to someone's house and basically saying shoot me and the dude blows a hole straight through his arm and you can see daylight

That hunter one reminds me of the Tom Lehrer song, "Ten stuffed heads in my trophy room right now two game wardens seven hunters and a pure bred guernsey cow".

The first rule of firearm safety is have fun, Brandon

Brandon: educating others about gun safety. Also Brandon: Almost blows himself up when testing the gun that killed the former japanese prime minister.

“Giving a 7 y/o an AK-47 style weapon is generally, a bad move.”

Actually those two hunters are actually turkey hunting. That’s why they didn’t have orange as turkeys can see colors and will spook from orange. So the two hunters did literally nothing wrong. Also I say the other guy shot at their turkey decoys thinking them to be real alive birds.

Darwin Awards #11? A Christmas miracle indeed. Merry Christmas, Brandon!

6:05 I love how the RSO immediately slams the guy's hand down onto the table and puts a hand on the back of his neck. Probably saying "nah bro, you're done, GTFO". 🤣

5:59 the was he just nonchalantly says this while staring directly into the camera the entire time is just hilarious

went looking, that kid did an interview for cabellas. you can see the man fire behind him, the bullet ricocheting off the T post, after they remark they think they hear a hunter after a few weird turkey calls. the bullet hits his vest with some turkey callers inside and they explode injuring him but the bullet did not enter. he was saved by a wooden gobbler

I'm from Poland and the "general" actually blew a hole in the floor into the office bellow🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

11:45 It is worse... it was not a grenade launcher... IT WAS A FUCKING RGW-90/MATADOR... He was given a fully-functional single-use 90mm recoiless rifle that works in anti-structure and anti-vehicle modes. And used it against a structure he was currently residing in, collapsing a fucking ceiling on another person.

I live in country with relatively no guns at all but the pointing gun at themself or others just.. makes a feeling in my stomach *sinking. *

Not only do you educate the noobs of firearms, but you help keep the learned ones humble.

Brandon actually says to know your target and what is behind before keeping your finger off the trigger. He may be the only RU-vidr that gives situational awareness the priority it deserves.

With the guy pointing the gun at his friend, he did know his target. He knew his target very well.

The "point the gun at my buddy" effect only ever happened to me with people who were already screwed up in the head, either by terrible upbringing or drugs. No half-sane adult would ever think to do that.

Man, I have a strong tendency to point the kitchen knife downwards when I'm walking around kitchen with it, so I don't accidentally trip and drive it into my family member or myself. Same with anything else that's sharp, I'm super conscious of possible risks. Thus said, I cannot imagine how some people fuck around with loaded GUNS, which have more chances to kill than just injure. How do you not think when pointing it at someone, immediately spells "they could literally die if I pulled the trigger" in your head?

Ok so the hunting video is actually a guy who was turkey hunting (its why they had shotguns and no hunters orange on) so he was peppered with turkey loads and it was the completely the shooters fault for shooting at the sound of a turkey call and not the hunters, bc people shoot at noises is one of the reasons why we have hunters orange however turkeys aren’t color blind or at least not to blaze orange so you can’t wear it if you are hunting turkey

A lot of guys lose their Christmas ornaments to Darwin awards every year. Be safe, and be responsible!

My dad is a military vet here in the UK and even with bb guns and air rifles he always taught me like it was a real gun. Never to point it at someone, never keep your finger on the trigger unless ready to fire, be aware of your surroundings and when finished empty the mag and any rounds left in the gun same goes for checking the gun to see if its live whenever going to use one. So it shocks me as someone from the UK who has never held a real fire arm to see people trained in this breaking those rules so effortlessly especially the polish guy. Love your videos and just wanted to add I know exactly the dudes your talking about when it comes to guns. I like sharing my knowledge that I learn because I'm a fan of war, history and weapons so whenever I learn something that's new to me I enjoy sharing it with those who wish to listen. But I have met a few morons in my time who like you said held a gun once or fired a bb gun and think they are ww2 heroes who know all about it or something. The worst is the ones who claim to be gun experts and tell you about their tours or escapades but then get so much information wrong which tells you they have no clue.

That first guy used to be a huge social media guy in Mexico. He was known for partying, drinking excessively and, using copious amounts of party drugs like cocaine. He got smoked by one of the cartels for talking crap about one of the leaders while he was at a club.

As a former Paramedic, I can verify those Darwin Award winners are true! Just like the one where the guy was playing with a .22 rifle and his wife told him to put it away. The guy said the safety was on and squeezed the trigger and actually hit the lower part of his right femoral artery. By the time we got there, he was just about gone, but we started out protocol hitting him up with 2 large bore (12 gauge needles) IV's of LR. We got him to the ER, still alive, but after 1 day he went to play with more guns in heaven.

At 5:30 in the video - this was at Top Gun Range in Houston, TX.

Merry Christmas Brandon! Thank you for being a massive voice for gun safety!

The calmness is the best thing when helping a injured person. Gotta give props where due

This wasn't a 40mm grenade launcher, it was an anti tank one. Along the lines of N-Law or something. That's why when it discharged, it punched through two floors. The general got deafened for a while. When it happened in my beloved country , I knew it's gonna end up in Brendon's video - I wasn't wrong, hahahaha :D

I had a healthy dose of fear while handling my first gun...and ive kept that with me long after using many more. I think it's something everyone should have. It's not a "quake in your boots" fear but a respectful fear. They may be fun, but I think some people forget or dont appreciate the power they are playing with.

Spent 22 years in the Army, and two things here brought back memories and a laugh. I grew up around firearms, my father a 30-year Marine made sure I knew safety as I hunted with my cousins starting at 11 and lived on a farm in the summers and holidays. Anyway while in basic in 1983 during a weapon class for the M16 A1 the instructor said " Keep your booger hook off the bang switch" All I heard was booger hook and I had never heard that term before. For some reason, my brain locked up and I committed a regrettable mistake and asked what a "booger hook" was. Needless to say for the rest of the day if my right hand was free my finger was up my nose. That was until my squad ratted me out and said I was a left-handed shooter and with DI logic if either hand was free a finger up the nose and both hands were free, well I became a mouth breather, ah the good old days. Lol. Many years later as I had heard and it was a given we all wanted soldiers who had never picked up a weapon as they had developed no bad shooting habits ( well the crap they saw on TV did not help) or know-it-all attitudes and thus easier to teach.

Reminds me of the story where a Polish guy goes to the DMV to get his drivers license. After completing the written test he's asked to do the vision test. On the board are the letters SZYMCZYK. The instructors askes" Can you read those letters?" The Polish guy replies" Read them! I know the guy".

As a Pole I laughed especially at that first place :D Almost as much as at the "Gangnam Style" reference, so I guess I'll see you in hell.

My wife and I were in Vietnam at the Cu Chi tunnels and we paid so shot an M16... my wife's on the first shot reaction stopped the range as everyone including the ROs were reacting to her "flip me sideways". Flip had a few letters changed... but said in a high pitched voice and never having fired a firearm it was a shock to her. She loved the remaining bullets and didn't care about the target!

Merry Christmas Brandon, thanks for this anxiety inducing video of people being stupid.

When in USN Boot I had a guy point a drill rifle (a welded up M1) at me. I put him on the deck with a rifle butt shaped bruise on his head. He complained and the Company Commander told him he was LUCKY I didn't kill him in JUSTIFIABLE SELF DEFENSE and proceeded to give him the 30 minute ass chewing on gun safety. Didn't matter the action being welded shut, you NEVER point a gun at another person you do not intend to kill, ever. The sad thing about the Polish granade launcher is they decommissioned a launcher to give the General but somehow he ended up with an active weapon...Meaning some poor trooper is out there on the front line thinking his weapon is operable....

Merry Christmas Brandon- Thanks for another great video to take the mind off of real world issues.

4:05 Herrera's Law: when you hand a full-auto AK to a 7 year old girl, only load it with one round.

11:50 There's possible explanation to that: supposedly, round didn't exploded in his office* but punched trough floor to room below and exploded there. *Because safety inside round makes it armed after certain distance. Also, idk where you got info that grande launcher he got is one from the photo but Polish media got "unofficial info" (read as: it might be fake) it was RGW-90 But take both those infos with grain of salt. The things we know for more or less for sure: Guy got granade launcher as present in Ukraine. Came back with it to Poland Shoot it in his office. Caused explosion. Survived.

That range accident video made be very happy. They handled that situation so well. No freak outs, no yelling, and I saw a few IFAKs on their belts.

Everytime you say "I know I am going to hell" I always think: "Cool fan-meetup!". I wonder what darwin actually would have thought of this video-series... I'm sure he'd had loved it.

The wounding of the turkey hunter reminded me. My house is 40 feet from my neighbor's border. They rent a large portion of their land to a hunting club. I have lived here 30 years. I have never had an issue with turkey or deer hunters, but I have seen birdshot drop in my pool from quail or partridge hunters. Once I told some rabbit hunters that they were too close and if they discharged their shotguns that close to my house I fully intended to return fire. They derided me for being a whiner, but left immediately.

6:00 I’m with Brandon, we could have known each other for our entire lives but you do what that guy just did and I will hospitalize you and feel no remorse.

Many years back, hunting turkey in the back 40 of Ft. Campbell, I had my decoy obliterated by a “lost” hunter who managed to wander into my assigned area. I had a sitting hen with a standing Jake set out about 30 ft in front of me in a little opening in the woods, heard a loud gobble from my left, started to answer and boom. Even had my orange vest wrapped around the tree I was sitting against about 5 ft up. Dude figured out what happend and booked it, I got back to my truck before him, followed him back onto main post and I was able to flag down an MP. Scared the living shit out of me.

I like how this series teaches gun safety through real cases where people aren't as aware as it'd benefit them to be.

3:35 I had this open on a diffrent monitor, Playing Minecraft in another, Imma just brewing some potions, I glance over...AND THAT IS WHAT I SEE, GOD ALIVE

The basic rules of gun safety exist for a reason, and thank you for continuing to reiterate them. I check the chamber every time I pick up or put down a gun, and one time I did a chamber check, but didn't realize that I pulled the slide far enough to load a round. So I was glad that my routine of checking it existed, because the next time I picked it up, checked it and realized it was loaded, even though I didn't think it was. No one is perfect, everyone fucks up, which is why we have these rules.

2:50 Seriously, the level of calm clarity these guys have show that this is not the first time this has happened, or at least they are prepared properly. Good stuff.

The guys hunting are turkey hunting, and since turkeys aren't colorblind, you can't wear blaze orange (safety orange) or else you'll be spotted a mile away. This is where knowing your target and what's beyond it is incredibly important, more so than it already is.

First casualty of the Canadian Forces deployment to Afghanistan was blue on blue, buddy didn't clear his weapon was performing maintenance as the story goes and his weapon discharged. Killed a fellow soldier two tents over. Safety is no joke.

As a Polish guy it's so sad for me that the uber-chief of the Police can shoot a granade launcher and not only not be faced with any charges, but also be labeled as a victim, while a regular guy like me cannot even buy a Glock without hella paperwork.

Does anyone else have it absolutely etched into their soul to immediately clear a firearm that someone hands you, even if the person handing it to you just clears it in front of your face?

After range training in the Marines I realized that people can make serious mistakes even when they’re highly trained and supervised by true experts. Then I attended the police academy and wow it’s clear that there’s a huge difference in people who served and were trained by the military and people who went to college. I never thought there’d be that many people who knew nothing about firearms safety. Take training seriously.

I remember an old biker once told me "you need to have little fear of the bike to respect it" same goes for firearms. Like a bike, fast car or even a dangerous power tool you need to respect it and have that little bit of fear at the front of your mind for what it can do.

Any time someone tries to say "I've shot a gun before" to me as some kind of qualifier that they're competent, I immediately don't believe them. A close buddy of mine said this to me when I handed him a handgun that I just cleared. Bless his heart, his method of trigger discipline was gripping the entire grip with his index finger as well and he was clearly too afraid to rack the slide. He knew to keep his finger off the trigger and keep it pointed in a safe direction at least, but I knew he was puffing smoke with that disclaimer.

I really appreciate the fact that your videos still contain education. Its sad to think that some people are so stupid that stuff like this happens, but hopefully it'll save at least 1 life with what you're doing. Kudos.

As someone from Poland I will say this: A) The General is damn lucky B) His wife got a cleaning robot so in Poland we are waiting for a mine to explode C) Apparently the General fired a MATADOR grenade launcher which broke through the wall and exploded in the second room. (if you think the general's name is hard to pronounce, know that we had a fictional character named Grzegorz Brzęczyszczykiewicz)

Based on the surroundings and the gear the guys who were hunting had, it's very possible that they were hunting turkeys. In which case you can't wear orange, because turkeys can see color and have really good eyesight. It's often compared to a person looking through an 8x scope.

9:11 fuuuuuuuuck I laughed way too hard at this one bro (also holy shit that clip was 😬)

When I was a kid, there was an overlap of quail season with the first week of rifle deer season. Heard many rounds going through the trees over our heads. We stopped hunting quail during that time. Too many idiots in the woods.

The picture you used for our dear general's incident is a massive understatement. The polish term is somewhat all-encompassing and may be translated to just "grenade launcher", but what it actually was was more in nature of an RPG. And according to sources - most specifically A FUCKING MATADOR 90MM ANTI-ARMOUR WEAPONS SYSTEM. It was supposed to be a spent empty tube but it would seem that someone made a bit of a goof in that regard. edit: It also explains how the guy survived the incident, as it is a modern system and the projectile simply did not arm as it was shot point blank at floor/wall, so the worst the guy could've gotten was back blast reflection and debris from a 90mm projectile slamming into concrete in front of his face.

wearing plates while hunting seems like a good idea, especially if you hunt on public land.

5:35 I went to a range for the first time a few months ago and they made us watch a 10 minute video about gum safety before we where allowed on the range

I've been handling and shooting guns for coming up on 4 decades and I still have a healthy fear of guns. As for the second to last one, that's the EXACTLY reason I won't step onto public land during hunting season. I was working as a Paramedic in a county that has a large WMA (Wildlife Management Area) where idiots from Atlanta always show up and try to land themselves on the Darwin awards. I ran a guy who was walking back after a turkey hunt with more than the required amount of orange on and low and behold, some idiot sitting about 15 years off the road, facing the road, shot at the orange. Luckily the victim was only peppered by some #8 shot from a 410 that had passed through a fair amount of brush and limbs but still had around 20 bb's in him. The guy who was shot was doing everything right but the idiot with the 410 had seen some turkeys crossing the road there on his drive in so he parked about 100 feet down the road and sat waiting for them to cross back and the first thing he saw move was the victim. Yeah, I won't hunt public land because I was raised that if someone shoots at you, it's only polite southern manners to shoot back and if I'd been the one who was shot, I would have certainly shot the idiot and then there's a bunch of paperwork and explaining to do.

@9:45 Theyre turkey hunting. Surprisingly this is a very common thing that happened to these guys. People dont double check what theyre aiming at and we have things like this happen. This was a part of my hunting safety course i had to do. Edit: They're not wearing orange since you don't have to during Turkey season

I have held jobs where I had to carry a rifle since I was 19. At 21 I was allowed to carry a Glock 17. Even today over a decade later I carry a little apprehension just so I can make sure myself and my partner are safe. Anyways great video and thank you for the awesome content.

As a Pole i love that General Bazooka has been mentioned here. But you need to know that his way of defence was that he thought that the launcher was a bluetooth speaker lmao

8:45 You could say he _disarmed_ himself.

I had some doubts when I started watching your channel, but I now see you are really dedicated to fire arm safety and training. As a certified NRA instructor focused on youth and safety, hats off to you for your efforts.

As a gun owner and enthusiast, I have to say along with practice its always good to see such videos. Not paying attention for a few seconds or minutes can change your future permanently.

Hand guns in other peoples' hands scare me. The arc of fire when someone is waiving it around is colossal. Glad to see you're pushing The Golden Rules every video. Plus, my dark side humour appreciates it. [From UK vet]

It wasn't just a granade launcher... it was fucking RGW-90 and he is still alive only because the projectile was smarter than him and pierce through the flor instead blow up the user. Greetings from Poland

I shit my pants when Gangnam style came on 9:07

@10:41 would it be wrong for the buddy to return fire, rather than just hold a fist up?

You know that polish dude acted all cool coming back with that grenade launcher, the second his office door closed we started playing army man with it and pulled the damn trigger 😂

For those who don’t know, you generally don’t wear orange when turkey hunting. Hunters camo up and sit still, because while turkeys are stupid they have very sharp eyes. That’s also why they have those turkey hunting vests with the built-in seat cushion.

For the video with the hunters. It looks like they are turkey hunting and you don't have to wear orange cause of the great eye sight turkeys have. Basically what I can see is he was making a turkey call and the guy that shot heard it and decided to take a blind shot at a sound

As I sit here in a cold tent in Poland, I thought to myself just today “it’s been a while since I’ve seen a Darwin Awards video.”