least we dont have to worry about this one
Posted on 12/27/2003 10:33:50 AM PST by Holly_P
PHOENIX (AP) -- With the approach of New Year's Eve, police departments are urging people not to fire weapons into the air, issuing the reminder that what goes up, must come down.
Law enforcement across the state and the region are reaching out to residents through fliers and advertisements warning people about the dangers of stray bullets.
"Rounds eventually will come down. And when they do come down, they're not particular about where they end up," said Deputy Dawn Barkman, a spokeswoman for the Pima County Sheriff's Department in Tucson.
Sgt. Randy Force, spokesman for the Phoenix Police Department, believes that people fire weapons into the air for a thrill.
But being under a falling bullet is "just like stepping in front of one. When bullets fall back to earth at great heights they are traveling at sufficient speeds to cause injury or death," Force said.
In June 1999, 14-year-old Phoenix resident Shannon Smith was killed after being struck by a stray bullet while in her backyard.
The girl's death galvanized the community and resulted in statewide passage of "Shannon's Law" which made firing a weapon into the air a felony.
"Shannon was a beautiful young woman walking in the safety of her own backyard at 9 o'clock at night talking to a friend on the phone. She was killed by a bullet that had been fired over two miles away," said Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon.
The girl died just two blocks away from Gordon's home. A Phoenix city councilman at the time, Gordon and Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley were among those who urged passage of the law.
"Shannon's Law has made a difference. Last year alone, over 120 people in Maricopa County were convicted," Gordon said.
Passed in 2000, Shannon's Law increased the penalty for firing a gun within a municipality's boundaries from a misdemeanor to a felony. Conviction can carry a $100,000 fine and six months in jail.
Romley said that from January through November of this year, 110 cases have been pursued under Shannon's Law.
"Of that, we have convicted 95 individuals and the judges are also beginning to give some jail time with this," Romley said.
Romley said that in several cases, those convicted have been sentenced to between 30 and 90 days in jail along with probation.
And police are using different technology to help catch those who randomly fire weapons, whether or not someone is gravely injured.
Suburban Glendale is the only city in Arizona and one of just a few in the nation that uses remote-sensor technology marketed by Mountain View, Calif.-based ShotSpotter Inc., said Officer Matt Brown, a Glendale police spokesman.
Often, noise from gunfire carries, making it difficult for police to track down the location of the incident and those responsible, Brown said.
"The good thing about the ShotSpotter is that it can differentiate between loud noises. In one case, it will alert us to the sound of firecrackers or the backfire from a car. It's very accurate," Brown said.
Brown said that the technology alerts authorities to sectors where actual gunfire has occurred, allowing police to target an area and reach out more quickly to potential witnesses.
In the week before New Year's Eve, Glendale police will visit 1,400 homes and distribute fliers in areas where there have been reports of celebratory gunfire in the past, Brown said.
But Shannon's Law has not brought an end to those wounded by stray bullets.
Phoenix police and other leaders will hold a news conference Monday outside the home of a boy who was struck by a stray bullet as he slept in his bed on Dec. 13.
The boy, Ivan Ochoa, remains hospitalized, but is expected to recover, Force said.
By publicizing the dangers of random gunfire, Romley said it's less likely that celebratory gunfire will happen.
But when it does, people are also more apt to report it and cooperate with police "which is really the way we solve these cases."
"I may be prosecuting you for random gunfire. But on the other hand, I may be prosecuting you for murder," Romley said
least we dont have to worry about this one
I'm curious about the physics of this. I would think that if you fire a gun pretty much vertically, straight up into the air, the gun will propel the bullet up, up, up, until the bullet "runs out of gas" and then falls to the earth--but just like any other object would fall, at the same rate of speed, which, admittedly, could be serious or even deadly, but not as fast as a bullet just shot out of a gun. In other words, I'm guessing that a bullet would be propelled out of a gun at an incredible rate of speed, but that it would fall at not nearly that same speed. Does this make sense?
a bullet that had been fired over two miles away
Now in regard to a bullet shot just slightly above horizontally, how far (unimpeded) can it travel, and how much more slowly would it be going after two miles?
It's called a cultural activity.
Well, IMHO, a lot would depend on which -- if any -- minority was holding the rifle.
In America 80% of the population is conditioned
to freak out when a civilian has a weapon.
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