This is why I stay in my house on New Year's Eve

[old lady new shooter]

Apparently it doesn't occur to some people that bullets are subject to the law of gravity.

A Texas state representative was hit by a stray New Year's bullet.

http://www.breitbart.com/border/2017/01/01/texas-state-rep-hit-stray-new-years-bullet/

excerpt:

The shooting of State Representative Armando Martinez (D-Weslaco) was first reported by The Mcallen Monitor. The Texas politician was struck in his head by what authorities believe was a bullet that had been fired into the air. The stray bullet landed near Weslaco where Martinez had been celebrating. The Texas State Representative is receiving treatment at a local hospital and is expected to recover.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Statistically, there is far less hazard from stray, celebratory bullets that from all the hazards in your home.

 

[Grumulkin]

It's interesting that "authorities believe" it was a bullet. Don't they know if it was a bullet?

 

[jmorris]

He's a democratic, what else could be evil enough to fall from the sky?

Pretty sad though when otherwise (hopefully) responsible gun owners do stupid things like discharge a rifle or pistol into the air when they don't own the land where the projectile will fall.

How about go buy or load some blanks? People do die from celebratory gun fire.

Then again sometimes, the idiot, not the innocent, gets it.

 

[GBExpat]

A Texas state representative was hit by a stray New Year's bullet.

I wonder what the odds are on that happening.

I stay home to avoid having to deal with intoxicated people ... especially the ones driving cars.

 

[bannockburn]

GBExpat

I stay home to avoid having to deal with intoxicated people ... especially the ones driving cars.

Same here! More than the usual number of impaired drivers on the road is a good enough reason for me not to go out on New Years Eve.

 

[Panzerschwein]

This is why they have M80s and cherry bombs.

 

[red rick]

Years ago a 9 year old boy was killed in my area from a .40 caliber bullet , shot into the air , on 4th of July . They never found the person responsible and even went door to door within a 2 mile radius questioning people . The police tested a person .40 caliber pistol , but it was found not to be the gun used .

 

[Jim Watson]

Based on my history, the drunk driver is a greater risk, but the drunk shooter is not to be forgotten. If for nothing more than that anything involving a gun will get us more bad publicity than the drunk driver gets Ford.

 

[old lady new shooter]

Statistically, there is far less hazard from stray, celebratory bullets that from all the hazards in your home.

I don't know where the Texas rep lives, but in an urban area like where I live I think the statistics are different than for folks in rural areas. Besides which, the probability might be low but if you're the one hit it's 100%.

 

[old lady new shooter]

Years ago a 9 year old boy was killed in my area from a .40 caliber bullet , shot into the air , on 4th of July . They never found the person responsible and even went door to door within a 2 mile radius questioning people . The police tested a person .40 caliber pistol , but it was found not to be the gun used .

I can't even imagine the feelings of the parents.

4th of July is the other time I don't go outside.

It's interesting that "authorities believe" it was a bullet. Don't they know if it was a bullet?

I read that as they believe it had been fired into the air (as opposed to aimed at him).

 

[red rick]

I was mistaken it was a 7 year old boy named Brendon Mackey . It happened 4th of July 2013 . His dad took him to see the fireworks show .

Virginia passed a law in 2015 , The Brendon Mackey Law . It makes a conviction for celebratory gunfire in which a person is wounded a class 6 felony .

I support this law .

 

[rfwobbly]

Virginia passed a law in 2015, The Brendon Mackey Law. It makes a conviction for celebratory gunfire in which a person is wounded a class 6 felony.

I support this law.

Just one more reason to deport BHO's Syrian refugee friends.

 

[huntsman]

When my kids were small we let them ring the "farm bell" to celebrate New Years, I never felt the need to waste ammo but I have neighbors who do but we live rural so I think the risk would be lower.

 

[old lady new shooter]

When my kids were small we let them ring the "farm bell" to celebrate New Years, I never felt the need to waste ammo but I have neighbors who do but we live rural so I think the risk would be lower.

For folks in rural areas, I don't understand why they can't shoot at something on their property, as opposed to into the sky.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

I don't know where the Texas rep lives, but in an urban area like where I live I think the statistics are different than for folks in rural areas. Besides which, the probability might be low but if you're the one hit it's 100%.

Okay, let's try to keep a realistic grasp of the celebratory gunfire risk.

27,000,000 people in Texas and 3 were injured by celebratory gunfire.
310,000,000 people in CONUS of which 6 people were injured by celebratory gunfire.

Now let's look at that home in where you were seeking refuge. I stopped counting at 50 Google results for CONUS and there were a lot more.

So if you use the logic that you stay in your home because of your fear of celebratory gunfire on New Year's, then you should be in more fear of your home catching on fire while you are in it, sheltering from the celebratory gunfire.

 

[Reloadron]

This is not the first and won't be the last time celebratory gun fire resulted in an injury. As to the odds? The odds of getting struck by lightening are slim to never going to happen but every year people are struck by lightening. Heck, several years ago, out to the east of me, an Amish girl was struck in the head and killed by a bullet. A mile away an Amish youngster was clearing his muzzle loader. He fired the muzzle loader into the air to clear the gun and a mile away a girl in a buggy dropped dead. Think of the odds that the bullet would hit her and have enough energy to kill her. Miles of open farmland and that bullet managed to not just hit this girl but kill her in a moving buggy.

Ron

 

[huntsman]

For folks in rural areas, I don't understand why they can't shoot at something on their property, as opposed to into the sky.

To be honest they may very well be doing that and a couple of shots may be a shotgun.

 

[J-Bar]

Okay, let's try to keep a realistic grasp of the celebratory gunfire risk.

27,000,000 people in Texas and 3 were injured by celebratory gunfire.
310,000,000 people in CONUS of which 6 people were injured by celebratory gunfire.

Now let's look at that home in where you were seeking refuge. I stopped counting at 50 Google results for CONUS and there were a lot more.

So if you use the logic that you stay in your home because of your fear of celebratory gunfire on New Year's, then you should be in more fear of your home catching on fire while you are in it, sheltering from the celebratory gunfire.

I like your analysis, but you have left out a time factor. Those 6 people killed in CONUS by celebratory gunfire were outside for what, maybe 15 minutes at midnight. So that would extrapolate to about 24 an hour or about 576 a day, if the celebratory gunfire continued for that long, and folks were (brave? stupid?) enough to stay outside that long. So with the time factor considered, the risk of injury during celebratory gunfire is probably higher than staying inside. I barely passed my statistics course in school, so my math is probably weak, but you get the idea. I think I will either stay inside or keep the eaves over my head if I go outside and listen to the noise next New Year's.

 

[GBExpat]

For folks in rural areas, I don't understand why they can't shoot at something on their property, as opposed to into the sky.

From my experience (limited to the ancestral farm in northern VA where I live) that is the case. Those folks who cannot resist the urge to squeeze off some "celebratory" gunfire aim at hills, trees or the like.

We were always taught that shooting in the air is a big No-No since those bullets have to return to earth in parts unknown.

 

[bikemutt]

GBExpat



Same here! More than the usual number of impaired drivers on the road is a good enough reason for me not to go out on New Years Eve.

We do the same, wife refers to it as amateur night.

 

[ironworkerwill]

I live in an area that would give city folk a case of crippling panic.

I hear gunshots almost every evening. People around me shoot....ALOT. it sounds like 'MERICA!

 

[Kendal Black]

I personally do not shoot off guns to celebrate New Year's Day, or the Fourth. If I did...I have a box of 12 gauge blanks around here somewhere, they were cheap and would seem just the thing to use.

I stay in on New Year's Eve because of the drivers.

 

[Ks5shooter]

I don't know why people do stupid things. I guess I will never know. It does not make us responsible gun owners look well.

 

[huntsman]

I live in an area that would give city folk a case of crippling panic.

I hear gunshots almost every evening. People around me shoot....ALOT. it sounds like 'MERICA!

Same here but when you hear shots then roll over and the alarm is reading 12:05 it's new years driven.