Cannon launched at baby shower leads to the death of a guest and people are fed up
Baby showers typically include cake, gifts and silly games, but one thing you don’t expect to find at these parties is dangerous explosives. Unfortunately, times have changed, and potentially dangerous pyrotechnic devices are becoming a common part of new baby celebrations. Now, a Michigan man has died after being struck by shrapnel following the unexpected explosion of a baby shower cannon.
The cannon was fired multiple times during a baby shower in Gaines Township, Michigan. The cannon was supposed to produce a loud noise and some smoke. Instead, the device exploded, sending shrapnel flying as far as 25 feet, according to local police.
The flying projectiles struck three nearby parked cars, pierced the garage of the home where the party was taking place and hit Evan Thomas Silva, a friend of the expectant parents, in the chest. Silva was taken to the hospital and later died from his injuries.
It’s become popular to celebrate pregnancies and new babies with increasingly more outlandish, daring and dangerous stunts. Many baby showers and gender reveal parties now include fireworks, smoke bombs and other pyrotechnic devices. On YouTube, there are videos of skydiving gender reveals, parents launching themselves off of giant water slides through clouds of colored smoke and even someone who built their own miniature airplane to drop smoke bombs from the sky.
Unfortunately, the increase in “extreme” showers and reveals has also caused a string of deadly and destructive incidents linked to baby celebrations. In 2019, a grandmother was killed by debris from a homemade gender reveal pipe bomb.
Baby celebrations have also caused multiple wildfires, including one that turned deadly. The 2020 El Dorado fire in Yucaipa, California, was sparked by a gender reveal smoke bomb that ignited nearby grass. The fire ultimately burned over 22,000 acres and resulted in the death of one firefighter. In 2017, a similar incident in Arizona started a fire that burned over 47,000 acres and caused $8 million in damage.
On social media, many are fed up with the increase in extreme stunts and asking why these outlandish parties even need to be a thing.
“At my baby shower decades ago, we had a luncheon in a private room at a restaurant & opened gifts,” one person writes on Twitter. “I thought it was wonderful. What is wrong with people?”
“So a 26-year-old man is now dead because in America everything has to be a viral moment and having a happy/healthy baby isn’t good enough,” another person adds. “Police need to start charging these people for these stupid stunts.”
Having a baby is exciting, and it’s totally understandable that parents want to celebrate their unborn kids in a big way, but people have been doing that for generations with simple showers and small family gatherings that don’t put their loved ones or communities in harm’s way.
Baby celebrations shouldn’t have a death toll, but these extreme showers and gender reveal parties do, and it’s largely because the need for a “wow” factor has caused people to participate in increasingly risky stunts that don’t prioritize safety. Sadly, unless something changes, the injuries, deaths and disasters linked to these parties are only likely to increase.
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