Bullets fire up into the air is not safe.

[Telstra]

I wondered how many people got killed like this in history.

Especially in the US.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/6641521/boy-killed-church-falling-bullet

 

[exergonical]

physics fails me here....

 

[gsdx]

The Sun reports the bullet was fired by someone celebrating New Year's Eve before it came down through the church and struck Marquel Peters in the head.

[snip]

A ballistics expert with the Georgia State Crime Lab estimated the gun to be a AK-47 assault rifle, fired 3-5 kilometres away at an angle of 30 degrees.

The only way to ring in the New Year.

If the guy who shot that 'AK-47' has any balls, he'll turn himself in to the authorities.

 

[CumAlong]

Unless the bullets are fired at an angle, as is in this case, it is very unlikely to produce lethal force. Horrible luck to get hit this way...

 

[Yooper]

A tragedy. What goes up must come down. Didn't anyone hear that?

Sadly, there are several of these each year. There was one a year ago in Denver.

(But the story begs another question. What was the kid doing with his Nintendo game in church???)

 

[Horschallen]

When I was a small child, I used to hear repeatedly about how a dime dropped from the top of the Empire State Building could kill a pedestrian below.

 

[jaycee style]

A tragedy. What goes up must come down. Didn't anyone hear that?

Sadly, there are several of these each year. There was one a year ago in Denver.

(But the story begs another question. What was the kid doing with his Nintendo game in church???)

being an individual.

 

[CumAlong]

When I was a small child, I used to hear repeatedly about how a dime dropped from the top of the Empire State Building could kill a pedestrian below.

Which isn't true. The terminal velocity of a dime is far too small to pierce the skin. Hurt and scare the shit out a someone? Yea...but not lethal.

 

[hotb0d]

wow...I didn't something like this is possible. I thought churches have thick walls.

 

[CumAlong]

wow...I didn't something like this is possible. I thought churches have thick walls.

It likey came through a window. It is unlikely it could retain deadly force after travelling nearly 5km and going through a roof. Making that even more of a case of bad luck...

 

[miaedu]

Boy shot in Miami during New Year's celebration

MIAMI -- Police say a 6-year-old Italian boy was struck by a stray bullet while celebrating New Year's in Miami.

Miami Police spokeswoman Kenia Reyes says the boy was shot once in the chest early Friday while he and his family, visiting from Italy, were dining in a restaurant courtyard.

Family members and the restaurant's owner rushed the boy to a hospital. He underwent surgery and is expected to survive.

Miami police detectives say the boy appears to have been struck by a stray bullet that came from an unknown direction.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/1407317.html

 

[jizzeater]

Stray bullet mars otherwise happy New Year's Eve in Long Beach
http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_14108471

 

[hotb0d]

It likey came through a window. It is unlikely it could retain deadly force after travelling nearly 5km and going through a roof. Making that even more of a case of bad luck...

yea VERY bad luck. I feel sorry for the kid. My physics mind doesn't want to believe this.

 

[gsdx]

Whatever happened to tossing confetti and popping champagne corks?

Is this a new fad? I've never heard of guns being used to ring in the New Year before.

 

[Lukeee]

Is it legal to fire bullets into the air like that?

There was a CSI (lv) episode where that happened and they said it was illegal to fire a gun in the city (without a good reason)

 

[CumAlong]

Is it legal to fire bullets into the air like that?

There was a CSI (lv) episode where that happened and they said it was illegal to fire a gun in the city (without a good reason)

Yes it is illegal, however when you've had a few too many, it seems like a good idea at the time...

Person probably feels like shit knowing what he/she did...

 

[Kulindahr]

When I was a small child, I used to hear repeatedly about how a dime dropped from the top of the Empire State Building could kill a pedestrian below.

The odds are vanishingly small. IFF by some odd chance the air conditions were just right so that the dime fell with an edge toward the ground, and IFF it cam at an angle between about 30 and 75 degrees, and IFF it struck orthogonally to the soft part of the temple, it might kill someone.

Just guesstimating figures.... the odds are 45/180*30/180*1/180*1/10^6 = 1350/5832000000000 ~ 1 in 4,320,000,000. Oh -- and multiply that by the chance it would actually hit someone in that small area, say one in a thousand, and you get the odds of a dime killing someone if thrown off the Empire State Building at one in four trillion and some.

yea VERY bad luck. I feel sorry for the kid. My physics mind doesn't want to believe this.

We had a discussion about this before here, and someone ran the numbers. It won't happen with a lot of ammunition, and it won't happen with a lot of more ordinary weapons.

I always wonder: haven't these people heard of blanks?

 

[swerve]

I was in Laredo, TX on 12/30...

While in the waiting room when my truck was getting fixed -- I noticed that they had PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT ads from the police TALKING about this...

EXPLAINING in either THEORY or MYTH how bullets can travel for MILES and KILL people -- even though you're only shooting the gun in a celebratory manner...

Now -- I've NEVER shot a gun in a celebratory manner -- so -- I'm assuming it is a cultural thing -- and maybe it happens in Mexico (Laredo is a border town)...

I've never seen ANY AD like that in my life...

 

[Kulindahr]

I was in Laredo, TX on 12/30...

While in the waiting room when my truck was getting fixed -- I noticed that they had PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT ads from the police TALKING about this...

EXPLAINING in either THEORY or MYTH how bullets can travel for MILES and KILL people -- even though you're only shooting the gun in a celebratory manner...

Now -- I've NEVER shot a gun in a celebratory manner -- so -- I'm assuming it is a cultural thing -- and maybe it happens in Mexico (Laredo is a border town)...

I've never seen ANY AD like that in my life...

In my hunter safety course, the instructor was a former Marine officer with sharpshooter awards in just above every weapon a Marine might ever use. In his section addressing backdrop, he put up a chart showing the physics of the situation. He asked each of us what rifle and load we'd be using, and marked us on his chart, showing how far our weapons could be lethal.

I was hunting with a weapon that could chuck a bullet 5.5 miles, with lethality out to nearly 2 (depending on conditions).

The sad thing was that a lot of guys thought it was kool how far their lethality range was.



I've seen guns fired "in a celebratory manner" several times, but always responsibly:

• with blanks
• over the ocean
• into a mountainside on private property
• up and out over an empty lake
• shotgun rounds with confetti

The last one is my favorite. A BATFE bulletin I saw does, sadly, render it illegal these days. I find that irresponsible; they'd do better to design specifically celebratory rounds. Consider the AK-47 involved here: it's entirely possible to design rounds that would be just as loud (or quieter; most celebrators aren't going to notice, but the neighbors would), but with no bullet, that would shoot colored flame; or a round that fires a bullet built with cavities in it that whistle -- a design that would guarantee the impossibility of it killing someone.

For that matter, if they really wanted to they could come up with celebratory rounds with selected smells......

 

[Drebin]

It's so sad when people die as a result of a foolish and dumb ritual. Is it suppose to bring good luck?