It happens every New Years Eve.  As soon as the clock strikes midnight it seems everyone who owns a gun has to go outside and fire 100 rounds into the air.  It's over in about 5 minutes.

Our local police who are on duty all go to the first level of a two-level parking garage next to the Wells Fargo bank building and wait for it to end before they come back out.  There will be half dozen police cars under there.

All those bullets have to come down someplace.  I stay inside because I don't want that someplace to be the top of my head.

The character Puck said it best in Shakespear's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' when he addressed his king.  "Lord, what fools these mortals be."

Noel

Same here, Noel!  'Merikins have a natural instinct or need for explosions of any sort, be it fireworks or shooting guns into the air. Our next door neighbor in East Los Angeles would go out at night on July 4th and shoot is pistol into the air.  My mom confronted him about it and his answer was "Oh, I don't aim it straight up, I shoot at an angle!"  Duh!  Bullet's still gotta come down somewhere!  Ain't never gonna stop.

Think about it...our National Anthem!  "The rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air"!  

They get it from old Westerns where a dozen cowboys ride thought town shooting their 150 shot revolvers to and fro.  

But I gota admit that every Chinese New Year Leon and I would go to China Town and try and get some firecrackers.  One year I had a whole string left over and made a bomb out of a section of a bamboo pole I exploded in the middle of Larkin Street.  Luckily the angels that protect stupid kids made sur no car was coming down the street.  A big white plume of smoke rose in the air and it began raining bamboo slivers.

Windows opened up and down the street in our predominantly Italian neighborhood and the women started yelling at each other in their native language.

When I joined the Marine Corps and got into EOD I got that explosion nonsense out of my system.

Noel

I would bet that everyone remembers Piccolo Pete in the "safe and sane" fireworks boxes.  Light 'em off and the loud whistle until it burned out.  We discovered, as kids, that if you take a pair of vice-grips and squeeze the P in Pete, it would whistle down to that point and explode like a cherry bomb.

 

3 hours ago, charliearon said:

 "Oh, I don't aim it straight up, I shoot at an angle!"  Duh!  Bullet's still gotta come down somewhere!  Ain't never gonna stop.

 

 

That's worse! If you shoot straight up then it loses velocity and falls under gravity, so less likely to kill.

At an angle, especially less than 45 degrees then it retains velocity.

 

On 1/2/2023 at 8:11 PM, birdguy said:

It happens every New Years Eve.  As soon as the clock strikes midnight it seems everyone who owns a gun has to go outside and fire 100 rounds into the air.  It's over in about 5 minutes.

 

Do the authorities warn people not to do it, warn of the dangers?

Average inteligence is extremely low unfortunately. 

I suppose it's not as much fun firing blanks rather than live rounds.

1 hour ago, martin-w said:

Do the authorities warn people not to do it, warn of the dangers?

Yeah...That'll work!  About as well as authorities telling people to obey speed limits.

Noel

Hey, I'm a happy camper. I used to live in the barrio near downtown Phoenix. Every year I'd hear automatic weapons on New Years. I moved out to  Apache Junction in 2006, and only heard the usual handguns. Moved here to Oklahoma City last year, and mostly heard fireworks, only 10 0r 12 rounds of pistol fire. No AR 15s firing, I'm happy...

On 1/2/2023 at 8:11 PM, birdguy said:

All those bullets have to come down someplace.

 

So, a bullet fired into the air has enough velocity come back down to penetrate the skin of an aircraft.  That means it has enough velocity to penetrate the skull of a human being, a dog, a cat, or almost any earthbound creature perhaps an elephant of rhino.

Noel

1 hour ago, birdguy said:

So, a bullet fired into the air has enough velocity come back down to penetrate the skin of an aircraft.  That means it has enough velocity to penetrate the skull of a human being, a dog, a cat, or almost any earthbound creature perhaps an elephant of rhino.

Noel

Sure makes one think, doesn't it.

2 hours ago, birdguy said:

So, a bullet fired into the air has enough velocity come back down to penetrate the skin of an aircraft.  That means it has enough velocity to penetrate the skull of a human being, a dog, a cat, or almost any earthbound creature perhaps an elephant of rhino.

Noel

 

No! It reaches terminal velocity. 

Acording to Mythbusters, no, if its fired directly up. Not lethal they say. For the calibre they tested.

It has to retain some of the velocity of the shot to be lethal.

The aircraft wing penetrated probably wasn't fired directly up, thus retaining velocity.

 

 

Edited January 5, 20233 yr by martin-w

At the end of the video they say that firing a weapon straight up in the air is illegal almost everywhere.

I cannot view the video Martin.

VIDEO UNAVAILABLE

This video contains content from Discovery Communications who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.

Noel