Posted on 01/03/2015 4:44:02 AM PST by marktwain
Last night, new year's eve, I waited for midnight, listening intently. I was in North Dallas, and I had heard that celebratory gunfire was sometimes practiced in the area.
About 10 pm, I heard 4-8 gunshots, (or good facsimiles there of). They were distant, so I could not be certain. From 12:01 am to 12:20 am, I heard about 50. Most were clearly gunshots. They fit the pattern of gunshots. There is a certain cadence that is different from firecrackers or random loud noises. In addition, the timing, just after midnight seems much more than coincidental.
It is a really bad idea to fire projectiles larger than bird shot into the air in an urban center like Dallas. While shots fired close to vertical pose little danger of serious injury or death, if they are fired at a more acute angle, they can easily kill. Even a .22 fired vertically will have enough terminal velocity to damage automobile paint or star a car windshield.
Celebratory gunshots are fired for a variety of reasons. Communicating various sentiments to those who can hear, such as; "I am armed", "You cannot control us", "This neighborhood has guns", "So does this one", and "Happy New Year", all seem likely.
Celebratory gunfire can be practiced safely. People could use blanks or fire bird shot into the air. The terminal velocity of bird shot is so low that it will not even damage car paint. The major problem is the same as with any activity. Drunken idiots who engage in it are likely to cause problems. Virtually all deaths associated with guns fired into the air occur because the gun is fired at an angle enough from the vertical to retain damaging velocity when it impacts.
Theoretically, single projectiles could hit a low flying aircraft accidentally, but I have yet to hear of such a case.
The number of fatalities from celebratory gunfire is very low, in the low single digits per year.
They could all be prevented if people used a little common sense. But in a nation of 300+ million people, there are bound to be those who make very stupid mistakes that cost other people their lives. Whether it is taking your eyes off the road for 10 seconds while traveling at freeway speeds, or firing a rifle or pistol into the air at a 45 degree angle, in a densely populated urban environment, it happens.
Staying under a roof at midnight means your chances of getting hit are so close to zero as to be meaningless.
©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch
Nobody gets hurt if you shoot into the dirt. (Just don’t shoot your foot.)
“Celebratory gunfire can be practiced safely. People could use blanks or fire bird shot into the air”..
Lets not be too hasty......I recall a time when I was much younger, my dad had some 12 ga. “blanks” which he used to demonstrate that a blank can and WILL cause serious injury or damage when fired towards an object or person. He fired his 12 ga. at a limb of a tree some 15-20 feet away. That particular limb was about 2-3 inches in diameter and when the smoke settled, that same limb fell to the ground, completely blown off the tree. Tell me that “Blanks” are safe. As I stated, that WAS a “blank” cartridge.
And it is a damned dumb idea. Arizona has completely cracked down on celebratory gunfire, even triangulating the sound of gunfire, so they arrest the dumbasses doing it, hopefully before they hurt somebody.
“Arizona Revised Statute 13-3107, respectfully called “Shannon’s Law,” (after a child who was killed this way) makes it a felony for anyone “who with criminal negligence discharges a firearm within or into the limits of any municipality” in Arizona.”
Importantly, they didn’t just pass the law, they have an advertising campaign to warn people not to do this. And
for the most part, it has worked.
Although mom and dad kept no firearms in the house when I was growing up, most of the other adults in my life did... and celebratory shooting into the air was simply not done. I suspect it was due to a combination of the (then) standard farm/small town Iowa deportment combined with a depression-influenced reluctance to waste ammunition.
OBLIGATORY THREAD DRIFT ALERT!
The accompanying photo shows a shotgun which strikes me as a bit unusual… it looks like a plated (Marine Magnum?) 870 with a rather long barrel fitted with an adjustable choke. That is a configuration I have not seen until now.
Mr. niteowl77
Girl likes to Party.
Hilarious. I want one.
It is a 20 Remington 870, probably made about 1965. Nearly all of the finish has been removed for some reason. It has a Polychoke installed.
I grew up with a very similar 870, and I seem to shoot them better than other shotguns.
This one is being modelled by Tia, a young woman that I met at church.
20 should be 20 gauge
Maybe, but I suspect our “historical reference” was old Western movies.
Ammo was likely neither cheap nor plentiful and probably not wasted much.
In the South everybody fires off their gun at midnight. On New Year’s Eve people were shooting starting about 9:00 PM in our area. Some guy blew through a whole mag from his AK. That’s what I like about the South. :-)
You’re right. Anyone that thinks blanks are harmless needs to google Jon-Erik Hexum. Not to speak ill of the dead, but this genius killed himself with a blank.
Well that explains it. I remember hearing people complain about the looks of the Poly-Chokes and the Lyman Cutts', but lots of "one gun for everything" families swore by them. It seemed like every other pump or bolt shotgun standing by a kitchen door or in a rack on someone's back porch had one.
Mr. niteowl77
I still remember hearing when actor Jon-Erik Hexum was fooling around with a blank loaded gun on the set. He put it to his head, and pulled the trigger.
Dead Hex.
I also remember when Perry Mason used a blank loaded pistol in the courtroom. Nothing happened.
And I believe it was MAVERICK who also used a blank loaded pistol to show how it would not hurt you.
These last two were scripted into the program and people might have gotten the wrong idea that blanks will not hurt you.
I talked with an old gun dealer in Little Rock AR years ago and he gave me several boxes of practice plastic cased wax bullets which used only the primer to fire.
He warned me about pointing them at anyone because the bullet would hurt! I pointed one at a pasteboard box, and the wax bullet went right through it.
Tell you what, MT, you could not possibly come up with a better poster, and a better caption, for those of us in the God-Guns-&-Anti-Gay voting coalition.
Hats off to you!
I heard a lot on New Year’s eve in Fort Worth, but not as bad as I used to hear in New Orleans.
Yes it is. A very sad story about a little girl from the little PA town I work in:
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.