They are funny.. yet a 22 is packed with propellent, it is unimpressive when not discharged in the confines of a barrel, The bullet wouldn't go far or with much of any force, the expanding gasses spilling out to the sides... Likewise, lighting residual powder in a muzzeleloader barrel would not cause it to discharge the bullet.. the act of seating the bullet is very tight and has crisco or similar packed in the hollow back of the mini ball to help it all seat right . and any resulting spark would have to make it past this seal. I wouldn't look down the barrel myself, there is nothing to see.. and I am a survivor of such Darwin-esque episodes myself to spot such pitfalls!...

Third the guy who got the phone call... if he was by himself, how does anybody know the phone rang?...and if there was a witness, they should be a suspect or report the suicide, or follow the life insurance payout!

However I laughed at them! Thanks!

Here they are: the 2014 Darwin Awards !

Better than the Academy Awards!

Nominee No. 1: { San Jose Mercury News}:

An unidentified man, using a shotgun like a club to break a former
girlfriends windshield, accidentally shot himself to death when the
gun discharged, blowing a hole in his gut.

Nominee No. 2: {Kalamazoo Gazette}:

James Burns, 34, (a mechanic) of Alamo, MI, was killed in March as he was
trying to repair what police describe as a "farm-type truck." Burns got a
friend to drive the truck on a highway while Burns hung underneath so
that he could ascertain the source of a troubling noise. Burns' clothes caught
on something, however, and the other man found Burns "wrapped in the
drive shaft."

Nominee No. 3: {Hickory Daily Record}:

Ken Charles Barger, 47, accidentally shot himself to death in
December in Newton, NC. Awakening to the sound of a ringing
telephone beside his bed, he reached for the phone but grabbed instead a
Smith & Wesson 38 Special, which discharged when he drew it to his ear.

Nominee No. 4: {UPI, Toronto }:

Police said a lawyer demonstrating the safety of windows in a
downtown Toronto skyscraper crashed through a pane with his shoulder and
plunged 24 floors to his death. A police spokesman said Garry Hoy, 39,
fell into the courtyard of the Toronto Dominion Bank Tower early Friday
evening as he was explaining the strength of the buildings windows
to visiting law students. Hoy previously has conducted demonstrations
of window strength according to police reports. Peter Lawson, managing
partner of the firm Holden Day Wilson, told the Toronto Sun newspaper
that Hoy was "one of the best and brightest" members of the
200-man association. A person has to wonder what the dimmer members of
this law firm are like.

Nominee No. 5: {The News of the Weird}:

Michael Anderson Godwin had spent several years awaiting South Carolina's
electric chair on a murder conviction before having his sentence
reduced to life in prison. While sitting on a metal toilet in his cell
attempting to fix his small TV set, he bit into a wire and was electrocuted.

Nominee No. 6: {The Indianapolis Star}:

A Dunkirk, IN man, using a cigarette lighter to check the barrel of a
muzzleloader, was killed Monday night when the weapon discharged
in his face, sheriff's investigators said. Gregory David Pryor, 19, died
in his parents' rural Dunkirk home at about 11:30 PM.
Investigators said Pryor was cleaning a 54 caliber muzzle-loader that had
not been firing properly. He was using the lighter to look into the barrel when
the gunpowder ignited.

Nominee No. 7: {Reuters, Mississauga, Ontario}:

A man cleaning a bird feeder on the balcony of his condominium
apartment in this Toronto suburb slipped and fell 23 stories to his death.
"Stefan Macko, 55, was standing on a wheelchair when the accident
occurred," said Inspector Darcy Honer of the Peel Regional Police.
"It appears that the chair moved, and he went over the balcony," Honer said.

Finally, THE WINNER!!!: { Arkansas Democrat Gazette}:

Two local men were injured when their pickup truck left the road and
struck a tree near Cotton Patch on State Highway 38 early Monday.
Woodruff County deputy Dovey Snyder reported the accident shortly after
midnight Monday. Thurston Poole, 33, of Des Arc, and Billy Ray Wallis, 38,
of Little Rock, were returning to Des Arc after a frog-catching trip. On an
overcast Sunday night, Poole's pickup truck headlights malfunctioned.
The two men concluded that the headlight fuse on the older-model truck
had burned out. As a replacement fuse was not available, Wallis
noticed that the ..22 caliber bullets from his pistol fit perfectly into
the fuse box next to the steering-wheel column. Upon inserting the bullet
the headlights again began to operate properly, and the two men proceeded
on eastbound toward the White River Bridge. After traveling approximately
20 miles, and just before crossing the river, the bullet apparently overheated,
discharged and struck Poole in the testicles. The vehicle swerved sharply right,
exited the pavement, and struck a tree. Poole suffered only minor cuts and
abrasions from the accident but will require extensive surgery to repair
the damage to his testicles, which will never operate as intended.
Wallis sustained a broken clavicle and was treated and released.
"Thank God we weren't on that bridge when Thurston shot his balls off,
or we might be dead," stated Wallis "I've been a trooper for 10 years in this part of
the world, but this is a first for me. I can't believe that those two would admit how
this accident happened," said Snyder.
Upon being notified of the wreck, Lavinia Poole (Poole's wife) asked how
many frogs the boys had caught and did anyone get them from the truck?

Though Poole and Wallis did not die as a result of their misadventure as
normally required by Darwin Award Official Rules, it can be argued that Poole did
in fact effectively remove himself from the gene pool.