Citation

Lee JY, Goo JH, Lee SH. Korean J. Leg. Med. (2007) 2012; 174-177.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Korean Society for Legal Medicine)

DOI

10.7580/KoreanJLegMed.2012.36.2.174

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Unlike the United States, cases of firearm suicides in Korea are rare and are usually limited to military soldiers and policemen. In addition, there is no case report of a suicide by a homemade handgun in Korea. The present victim was a 24-year-old soldier with a fascination for firearms. He had a history of depression and social phobia during his military service. He constructed a homemade handgun from a plastic model gun, also known as a BB gun. During the vacations, he committed suicide with the homemade gun, which caused a penetrating gunshot wound to his chest. The structure and ammunition of the homemade handgun is demonstrated in this report. We have also discussed a few details of the forensic investigation and evaluation of the homemade handgun fatality.

Language: ko

Keywords

suicide; military; handgun; homemade