Posted on 12/31/2007 1:39:33 PM PST by Kid Shelleen
Don't be a fool: Pumping bullets into the air on New Year's Eve is illegal, could put you in the slammer and could get someone killed. That's the annual reminder being sent out to the public by the city's top brass and by one victim of New Year's Eve stupidity who doesn't want what happened to him to happen to others.
District Attorney Lynne Abraham and Police Chief Inspector Anthony DiLacqua are expected to make this announcement at a news conference today in the D.A.'s building with victim Joe Jaskolka, who was 11 when he was struck in the head by a bullet in South Philadelphia nine years ago.
Jaskolka, now 20, remains in a wheelchair
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
It’s a Mexican tradition, Americans are embracing. Every year we hear don’t...every year people do...
Do they mean hit by a falling bullet? Mythbusters Ep:50 I thought disproved that...maybe it was not an accident...
A bullet fired at a 45-degree angle will certainly be lethal. I've seen a hole in a fender of a truck caused by celebratory shooting that came down at about a 60 degree angle. It was a .30 rifle round of some kind and was probably fired from well over a mile away.
IIRC they only disproved the myth that a bullet fired straight up can fall and kill someone. These bullets tumble as they fall backwards and have a low terminal velocity.
Bullets fired at an angle to straight up can maintain a ballistic trajectory and can be going fast enough to kill people when they come down. (I don't know what the cutoff angle is.)
“rotating at many tens of thousands of RPMs when it comes back down”. sure about that?
You can expect a 5.56/.223 round to be rotating as much as 300,000rpm at the muzzle depending on barrel twist.
Fired straight up, the bullet will lose it's velocity and fall back to Earth. It will still be spinning mightily, however.
I can tell you more about my shooting experiences in the SoCal desert on a dust plain where I witnessed just this effect.
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