http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/dec05/381365.asp

Hold the gunfire
It's dangerous to start off the New Year with a bang, former shooter says

Jeffrey Boler was 7 years old when his father first let him fire a gun into the air as the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve.
Boler has continued the tradition of firing shots in the air virtually every New Year's Eve since then.

Now 35, he says: "Firing a firearm on New Year's was just like getting a Christmas present. It just went with New Year's."

Indeed, firing gunshots into the air to ring in the year has become a dangerous ritual in some communities across the United States.

Boler followed his father's example and introduced the tradition to his own son when the boy was 11.

It's something he says he now regrets. The son is incarcerated, and his father says he was known to carry guns.

And as he looks back on his life, Boler - a convicted felon - wonders whether his own criminal history can at least partially be attributed to the thrill he got that long-ago New Year's Eve.

Boler has a warning: Firing guns into the air produces an addicting rush. And doing it around young people might inspire them to mimic the behavior.

"Don't do it, because that exhilaration that you get from firing a firearm - man, there's nothing like it," Boler says.

Though the message comes from a man who has repeatedly run afoul of the law, law enforcement officials and firearms experts agree it's an important one.

The National Rifle Association warns against the tradition, and Emanuel Kapelsohn, a nationally recognized firearms and ballistics expert at The Peregrine Corp. in Bowers, Pa., says people have been killed by bullets that were fired outside earshot.

"Even though some consider this a tradition, it is extremely dangerous and a violation of the law," Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. said in a statement. He went on to say: "In densely populated urban areas, this behavior is not only illegal, but it's reckless. There is no way of predicting where the bullet will land. Criminal charges for this type of offense range from Endangering Safety by Use of a Dangerous Weapon to Reckless Homicide in the event of a death, with penalties ranging from nine months to 25 years in prison."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says bullets fired into the air can return to the ground at speeds greater than 200 feet per second, which the agency describes as "a sufficient force to penetrate the human skull and cause serious injury or death."

Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney John Chisholm, head of the gun unit for the county prosecutor's office, recalls no cases in Milwaukee where people have been killed by bullets falling from the sky.

But it's happened elsewhere.

In the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, for example, about two people die and about 25 more are injured each year from celebratory gunfire on New Year's Eve, the CDC says.

Indications are that gearing up to fire guns into the air to ring in the New Year is a common practice in Milwaukee.

"I know we sell quite a bit of ammo at that time," says Victor Williams, a salesman at Badger Outdoors Inc., a gun store at 2339 S. 43rd St.

Chisholm says the tradition is particularly problematic on New Year's Eve because of the combination of firing guns and drinking.

"It's just not a healthy thing," Chisholm said.

Boler has seen that combination firsthand. He said his father, who had been drinking, shot his mother on New Year's Eve just one year after the man first taught Boler to shoot a gun.

Today, Boler works in a store on W. North Ave. that sells T-shirts reflecting America's gun obsession.

The T-shirts bear iconic images of slain rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, who glorified guns in their lyrics, and actor Al Pacino wielding a machine gun in "Scarface" - a 1983 film that is widely popular in the hip-hop culture.

One shirt shows a black man with his right arm extended and a gun in his hand. "Don't watch me," the shirt warns, adding that there are deadly consequences for being a snitch.

Boler says he does not condone the message the shirts send. But his advice for Saturday night is straightforward:

"If you have kids and live in a rough neighborhood, keep them as low as possible," he says. "Celebrate New Year's Eve in the basement."

From the Dec. 30, 2005, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Idiots.

Yep! they start as idiots and end as felons!

"check this out son,  uh, here hold my beer"

jb

Quoted: Boler has a warning: Firing guns into the air produces an addicting rush. And doing it around young people might inspire them to mimic the behavior. "Don't do it, because that exhilaration that you get from firing a firearm - man, there's nothing like it," Boler says.

This guy has ISSUES!

Send them all to Puerto Rico.

That reads like a story from some third-world country.

Boler is a mental defective!

It's OK if you use blanks  

Must have been a slow news day,,,,,,

Last year some asshat decided it would be fun to shoot the power transformer behind my house,  Im hoping that doesnt happen again. The idiots that shoot into air piss me off to, but the police cant catch  them all.

Quoted: Last year some asshat decided it would be fun to shoot the power transformer behind my house,  Im hoping that doesnt happen again. The idiots that shoot into air piss me off to, but the police cant catch  them all.

Last year I didnt have a problem with asshats shooting my transformer behind my house, the squirrels did it about once a week, usually on Monday mornings right after I walked in the house from PT to go iron my uniform, the transformer would blow and a fried squirrel would be stiff on the ground, and I would have to iron with a skillet heated from the gas stovetop.

If they do it for the noise, why not shoot into the ground instead?

Still blaming your life of crime on an inanimate object, eh Jeffy?  OOOOOO, I get such a rush by shooting in the air that I'll go rob a store!! Wonder if ole jeffy got the same feeling when bubba introduced himself the first night in prison? Dumbass!

Quoted: Still blaming your life of crime on an inanimate object, eh Jeffy?  OOOOOO, I get such a rush by shooting in the air that I'll go rob a store!! Wonder if ole jeffy got the same feeling when bubba introduced himself the first night in prison? Dumbass!

Bubba was shooting in Jeffrey's butt, no foul!

Quoted: That reads like a story from some third-world country.

Milwaukee IS a third world country.

You guys should see the celebratory fire in Baghdad.  A couple of weeks ago, the Iraqi soccer team won a game and the sky was filled with tracers from all finds of heavy machineguns.  It looked like CNN footage of Desert Storm.  You could hear rounds impacting all over the place.  It went on for like a solid 20 minutes.

Quoted: You guys should see the celebratory fire in Baghdad.  A couple of weeks ago, the Iraqi soccer team won a game and the sky was filled with tracers from all finds of heavy machineguns.  It looked like CNN footage of Desert Storm.  You could hear rounds impacting all over the place.  It went on for like a solid 20 minutes.

Ive got the video that was posted over on some hawaii forums I frequent, from Hawaii Natl Guard guys.

Quoted: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says bullets fired into the air can return to the ground at speeds greater than 200 feet per second, which the agency describes as "a sufficient force to penetrate the human skull and cause serious injury or death."

 If you are going to shoot then it wouldn't hurt to use blanks, but to outright lie about the danger of a falling bullet is weak.  You would think that the CDC would actually base its recommendation on science.  

A bullet falling straight down at its terminal velocity cannot break the scalp, let alone go through the bone.

In the cases I've read of people being injured or killed by bullets 'fired in the air', the bullets were in fact fired at a low angle or ricochet off a hard object.      

Quoted: If they do it for the noise, why not shoot into the ground instead?

Waaaaaay too dangerous.  If someone wants to shoot for noise, they should use blanks if possible.  Even then they should direct the muzzle away from anyone/anything they do not want to destroy, in keeping with the 4 Golden Rules of safe gun handling.  

Quoted: You guys should see the celebratory fire in Baghdad.  A couple of weeks ago, the Iraqi soccer team won a game and the sky was filled with tracers from all finds of heavy machineguns.  It looked like CNN footage of Desert Storm.  You could hear rounds impacting all over the place.  It went on for like a solid 20 minutes.

Yes, but it's okay when they do it, because we're trying to understand them and they were oppressed by the Zionist pigs and they live in poverty with no advantages and they're of the Religion of Piece and...

Not many free falling bullets will kill a person, it may hurt your head a little but it is not enough to do more than possibly break skin in a similar manner to someone throwing a piece of gravel at you.  It definitely will not break through your skull, at least not any bullet under 300 grains or so.

Quoted: Quoted: You guys should see the celebratory fire in Baghdad.  A couple of weeks ago, the Iraqi soccer team won a game and the sky was filled with tracers from all finds of heavy machineguns.  It looked like CNN footage of Desert Storm.  You could hear rounds impacting all over the place.  It went on for like a solid 20 minutes. Ive got the video that was posted over on some hawaii forums I frequent, from Hawaii Natl Guard guys.

well............


how about a link?

you cant bring that up and link to it..

Quoted: Quoted: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says bullets fired into the air can return to the ground at speeds greater than 200 feet per second, which the agency describes as "a sufficient force to penetrate the human skull and cause serious injury or death."  If you are going to shoot then it wouldn't hurt to use blanks, but to outright lie about the danger of a falling bullet is weak.  You would think that the CDC would actually base its recommendation on science.   A bullet falling straight down at its terminal velocity cannot break the scalp, let alone go through the bone. In the cases I've read of people being injured or killed by bullets 'fired in the air', the bullets were in fact fired at a low angle or ricochet off a hard object.

Sure but none of these idiots are making sure to point the gun straight up, they're just pointing up somewhere which easily make it a low angle shot that can kill someone. A bad idea any way you look at it.

oh and then there is this..

linky

THE NATION
Police Say Soldier's Stray Bullet Kills Woman in New York
The Army private was drunk and celebrating his return from basic training, authorities say.
By Luis Perez and Rocco Parascandola
Newsday

December 30, 2005

NEW YORK — A mother of two peering out her living-room window was killed by a stray bullet that police said was fired by a drunken Army private celebrating his homecoming.

Selina Akther, 28, approached the window to investigate what her family and other witnesses described as several loud bangs that sounded like gunshots just before midnight Wednesday.

The bullet shattered the window and struck Akther in the right eye, officials said.

She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Five stories below on the sidewalk, a group of young men who had been drinking were hollering.

One of them, Danny Carpio, 23, who lives two blocks away, police said, confessed that he fired the gun.

Later, at the station house, Carpio lamented that he had done a "stupid thing" and that he wanted to die, a police source said.

Charges were pending Thursday night, police said.

The victim's husband, Golam Maola, 40, said he was in the bathroom when he heard a loud crash and came out to find out what had happened.

"I held her in my hands and screamed," Maola, a food vendor who preceded his wife to the United States from Bangladesh 15 years ago, said Thursday.

"My kids were screaming in the bedroom. I called 911, and I didn't know what to do."

On the street below, a witness who lives in the building said, the flurry of five shots was interrupted by the crash of broken glass and a young man yelling, "What are you, crazy?"

The witness said one of the young men replied, "Yeah, we're crazy," followed by the slamming of doors and squealing of car tires.

As Akther's family — including her daughter, Tasnia Tanas, 10, and son, Tamjid Tasin, 5 — planned for a funeral two days shy of the slain woman's 29th birthday, police searched for a suspect.

Seven hours after the shooting, a witness led detectives to Carpio, police said.

It had been a night of celebration for the young Army private, who had just returned from basic training at Ft. Hood, Texas.

"We believe he was out partying with his girlfriend and he comes upon his friends," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said at police headquarters.

"He approached his friends, and that's when he fires the shots in the air."

They call that "Clapping" right?

Quoted: Quoted: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says bullets fired into the air can return to the ground at speeds greater than 200 feet per second, which the agency describes as "a sufficient force to penetrate the human skull and cause serious injury or death."  If you are going to shoot then it wouldn't hurt to use blanks, but to outright lie about the danger of a falling bullet is weak.  You would think that the CDC would actually base its recommendation on science.   A bullet falling straight down at its terminal velocity cannot break the scalp, let alone go through the bone. In the cases I've read of people being injured or killed by bullets 'fired in the air', the bullets were in fact fired at a low angle or ricochet off a hard object.

Got me to thinkin...

http://www.loadammo.com/Topics/March01.htm

Bullets in the Sky

We frequently get questions about firing bullets vertically into the air. The most frequent question is, "Will bullets fired into the air return to the earth at the same speed they left the gun?" Other questions asked are; "How far does the bullet travel when fired vertically and how long does it take to come down, or does the falling bullet have enough energy to be lethal should it strike someone on the ground?"

Some have tried vertical shooting, but very few have had any luck hearing the bullet come back and strike the ground. When a bullet is fired vertically it immediately begins to slow down because of the effects of gravity and air drag on the bullet. The bullet deceleration continues until at some point the bullet momentarily stops and then it begins to fall back toward earth. A well-balanced bullet will fall base first. Depending on bullet design, some bullets may tumble on their way down and others may turn over and come down point first.

The bullet speed will increase until it reaches its terminal velocity. The bullet reaches terminal velocity when the air drag equals the pull of gravity or stating it another way, the bullet weight and drag are balanced. Once this velocity is achieved the bullet will fall no faster.

In 1920 the U.S. Army Ordnance conducted a series of experiments to try and determine the velocity of falling bullets. The tests were performed from a platform in the middle of a lake near Miami, Florida. The platform was ten feet square and a thin sheet of armor plate was placed over the men firing the gun. The gun was held in a fixture that would allow the gun to be adjusted to bring the shots close to the platform. It was surmised that the sound of the falling bullets could be heard when they hit the water or the platform. They fired .30 caliber, 150 gr., Spitzer point bullets, at a velocity of 2,700 f.p.s. Using the bullet ballistic coefficient and elapsed time from firing until the bullet struck the water, they calculated that the bullet traveled 9,000 feet in 18 seconds and fell to earth in 31 seconds for a total time of 49 seconds.

As a comparison, the .30 caliber bullet fired in a vacuum at 2,700 f.p.s. would rise nearly 21.5 miles and require 84 seconds to make the ascent and another 84 seconds to make its descent. It would return with the same velocity that it left the gun. This gives you some idea of what air resistance or drag does to a bullet in flight.

Wind can have a dramatic effect on where a vertically fired bullet lands. A 5 mile per hour wind will displace the 150 gr. bullet about 365 ft based on the time it takes the bullet to make the round trip to earth. In addition the wind at ground level may be blowing in an entirely different direction than it is at 9,000 feet. It is no wonder that it is so difficult to determine where a falling bullet will land.

Out of the more than 500 shots fired from the test platform only 4 falling bullets struck the platform and one fell in the boat near the platform. One of the bullets striking the platform left a 1/16 inch deep mark in the soft pine board. The bullet struck base first.

Based on the results of these tests it was concluded that the bullet return velocity was about 300 f.p.s. For the 150 gr. bullet this corresponds to an energy of 30 foot pounds. Earlier the Army had determined that, on the average, it required 60 foot pounds of energy to produce a disabling wound. Based on this information, a falling 150 gr. service bullet would not be lethal, although it could produce a serious wound.

Many other experiments have been made to find the amount of air drag on a .30 caliber bullet at various velocities and it was found that the drag at 320 f.p.s. balances the weight of the .021 lb. (150 gr.) bullet and terminal velocity is achieved. For larger calibers the bullet terminal velocity is higher since the bullet weight is greater in relation to the diameter. Major Julian Hatcher in his book Hatcher’s Notebook estimates that a 12 inch shell weighing 1000 pounds and fired straight up would return with a speed of 1,300 to 1,400 feet per second and over 28 million foot pounds of striking energy.

Watch our web site for the next topic of interest "How Far Will My Gun Shoot." Until then, shoot safely and know where you bullets are going.

Sincerely,

The Ballistician