"Celebratory Gunfire"....WTF??

[tosh]

A young Lancaster County, Pa. girl who police say was hit by a stray bullet during New Year’s Eve celebrations in Maryland died on Thursday, according to authorities.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/03/16327163-police-girl-10-struck-by-celebratory-gunfire-on-new-years-eve-in-maryland?lite

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- An 8-year-old boy is recovering after being hit by a stray bullet police believe came from someone firing a gun to celebrate the new year.

http://www.actionnewsjax.com/content/topstories/story/Child-shot-in-foot-after-celebratory-gunfire/xf4T1Y9wakqkmgRAnwzOsA.cspx

ST. PETERSBURG — A woman watching fireworks from a second-floor balcony of the St. Petersburg Yacht Club was hit by a falling bullet shortly after midnight Tuesday.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/accidents/stray-bullet-finds-woman-watching-fireworks-display-from-yacht-club/1268534

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Can someone please explain?

[Wait Wut]

1. Yep.

The 'cowboys' here in AZ were out celebratin' at midnite. I sat in my living room and waited for sirens. The cops were flying up and down my street trying to find out where they were coming from.

Idiots. These are the same tools that insist that 'law abidin' gun owners don't do stupid shit...like shoot their mother in the leg when the gun falls from his sweatpants inside an Albertson's.

[gejohnston]

5. I guess Wyoming has a better class of "cowboys"

because I've never seen that shit. Not even in Florida, that's saying something.

[Wait Wut]

8. Probably real ones.

Here, they're really just misplaced, transplanted, angry old men that never got to play cowboys and indians as kids so they're taking it out on the rest of us.

[jody]

9. Don't pick a fight with an angry old man too old to fight, he might just pull out a CCW & you lose.

[holdencaufield]

16. I prefer to play the Indian

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

14. Did I miss something?

Was Plaxico traded to the Cardinals???

[holdencaufield]

17. The ultimate cowboy does not approve ...

... of your tomfoolery

?w=450

[Douva]

2. It's an (unforunate) yearly occurrence.

We see these stories every year. There really is no good explanation, beyond some people refusing to let go of at stupid two-hundred-year-old tradition and the gene pool needing a bit more chlorine.

[djean111]

3. It would be nice if the denizens of that particular gene pool shot each other;

the problem is, they shoot other people.

[gejohnston]

4. what goes up, must come down

and is as stupid and irresponsible as anti self defense advocates who say "just shoot over their heads". Even small towns in Wyoming ban shit like that, and for good reason. I'm as pro gun as some of the others here, but if you get caught, you pay the fine. Bullet lands on someone a couple of miles away and they prove it was your bullet, negligent homicide.

[slackmaster]

6. It's a cultural thing around here

Particularly among immigrants from certain parts of Southeast Asia who came here in the 1970s after being subjected to years of senseless war. They brought their attitudes and some weapons with them.

[jody]

10. Southeast Asia! In South East states they're from Central and South America. Can't outlaw stupid.

[2naSalit]

7. In some communities

midnight on NYE and 4th of July sound more like a combat zone. I used to hear bullets raining down on my roof in one city I lived in in Idaho. Kept my pets indoors during the whole melee too. And for someone with PTSD, it's a rough time to get through. Even in the tiny place I live in now, the fireworks were enough to send me up the wall as they were close to my abode and went on for hours... the good part is that I didn't hear actual gunfire or bullets on my roof.

But one has to wonder why it is that so many want to celebrate something like that with stuff that sounds like a war zone rather than peaceful reflection.

[jody]

11. Don't have real PTSD but gunfire makes my body head for a bunker and mind says calm down. Its been

40+ years since Vietnam but the instincts are still there.

[Glaug-Eldare]

12. Stupid, stupid tragedies.

Reading about the poor girl in Elkton just breaks my heart. The only solace I can take is in the apparent painlessness of her passing. I have no problem whatsoever with an education requirement that includes stories like this. Gun owners need to be aware of the awesome power they possess to take life through negligence or complacency. I remember taking a rifle safety course two years ago, and the instructor told us about a hunter who took a shot at a deer standing on the top of a hill -- he missed, and his bullet passed over the mountain and wound up striking a home on the other side, very nearly striking a baby in its crib. I'm never going to forget that.

[enough]

13. This is very common in my half-rural half suburban neighborhood

in Chester County PA. In the old days it was just on New Year's Eve. Now there's "celebratory gunfire" after dark on 4th of July, Memorial Day, sometimes Thanksgiving.

There was also some of this same type of after-dark shooting this year a couple of days before Christmas. I couldn't think of any reason for it except that people may have been inspired to assert their right to shoot whenever they want after the anti-gun backlash following the Newtown massacre.

[ileus]

15. Who would waste ammo considering how the supply has dried up.

[krispos42]

18. You would think they would shoot blanks

Or at minimum, the smallest birdshot they could find. That stuff can't hurt anybody on the way down, and it's pretty cheap.

[oneshooter]

19. New Years this year the usual...............

4 blank shots ( 1lb of Fg black powder, wet newspaper wad) from a 4 pounder Napoleon.

Lots of fire, smoke and blast. No damage. Had a 200yd clear zone taped off down range.

Great Fun!!