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Yet another Freeper thread devolves into a morass of confirmation bias and self-adulation.

Back to the original topic, (ahem), the chance of a .22 LR fired in celebratory fashion inflicting a lethal wound is like Powerball lottery odds.

A bullet fired vertically has little to no horizontal velocity and its vertical velocity briefly falls to zero at its maximum ordinate before falling back to earth. Which means a bullet dropped from a platform of the same height would return to earth with the exact same velocity and force.

In Ch. 11., “Bullets from the Sky,” of his seminal “Hatcher’s Notebook,” Gen. Julian Hatcher gives details of three separate and unconnected experiments in which military rifles and machine guns were fired vertically and different methods used for measuring the velocity of the bullet on return. All three put the velocity of .30-cal bullets on impact at about 300 fps.

The figure is so low, despite the fact these bullets fell for more than 30 seconds before impacting the ground, because of aerodynamic drag. Acceleration due to gravity might (and does) increase at the square of time, but aerodynamic drag occurs at three times the change of velocity. So the two nearly cancel out, with gravity having a modest edge, with only 300 fps to show for more than a half minute’s fall.

The Army long ago determined that the minimum bullet energy required to give a “debilitating” injury was 60 FPE. For a 40-grain bullet, that would mean a velocity of about 820 fps. And a round-nosed or eliptical-nosed rimfire bullet has a far lower ballistic coefficient than any military spitzer bullet, which means a .22LR fired vertically would be at something less than 300 fps when it fell back to earth. Probably A LOT less.

40 grains at 300 fps makes about 8 FPE, far under the Army’s floor for dibilitating injury, about what a standard-velocity 40-gr .22LR would deliver at 1200 yards. Yes, 1-2-0-0 yards. It might break the skin, but only if it hit you at a spot that was unclothed. For it to kill you, the gods would just have had to wish you dead.

I’m sure this won’t come as a shock to you but the writers of CSI are full of ca-ca.