Houseman: I'm really not quite sure, truth be told. On one hand, the Masked Magician revealed a lot of secrets that were not his to reveal, which broke a lot of trust. On the other hand, there are performers like Misty Lee who were driven to create better stuff by it. So, I can't really say that I've formulated an opinion beyond what appeared in Fooling Garwulf #2, other than "it's complicated."
kimiyoribaka: Any magic trick tends to be something unnecessary - in fact, sometimes doing things that no sane person would do for the sake of an effect is part of being a magician. But, bullet catches are dangerous in large part because they're dealing with bullets. The Prestige described one of the dangers when using a muzzle loader quite well - somebody trying to be funny could actually put a bullet or some small object in after the original bullet is removed. In the American west, one of the dangers was that an armed audience member would think that the magician really was catching a bullet, stand up, say "catch this," and open fire (and I think a couple of magicians did die that way). And, Chung Ling Soo was paranoid about safety and his equipment - prior to and after the show, he was the ONLY person allowed to handle the rifles, and he took care of the maintenance personally, to make sure it was done right. He died because something he didn't realize could wear out slowly corroded and wore out, and the bullet was actually fired.
So, it's not that there are that many reckless performers - it's a trick that VERY few people do, largely because of just how dangerous it is. But, it is a trick where when it goes wrong, somebody either gets badly hurt or dies.
runic knight and AveAtqueVale: Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying it!
