Celebratory gunfire - a potential safety hazard!

[penpusher]

If memory serves me right,a woman had died at Benazir Bhutto's wedding from clebratory gunfire as well.

Law does not specifically prohibit firing in public places.The terms of the license however prohibit a person from" taking a firearm to a fair,religious procession or other public assemblage".So you can take a firearm to a public place as long as it is not a public gathering and can also discharge a firearm,provided it is for a legitimate purpose.However, the licensing authority can also grant an exemption to a licensee from these restrictions. Now whether a wedding is a public assemblage within the meaning of these provisions or if firing in the air is something that is allowed,is something that only a lawyer can answer.

penpusher

[Haroon]

Guys, is aerial firing safe....are fire crackers a better option during celebrations.....your feedback / opinion will be appreciated......cheers

[Mack The Knife]

Guys, is aerial firing safe....

This practice gets a big thumbs down from me.

Mack The Knife

[dev]

No aliens have been known to shoot back and their lasers are more destructive than our bullets.
Secondly, ever thought of what happens to your bullet after you let loose at the sky? Not everyone likes to walk around with an extra hole in the head humming," it's raining men."
So be a good guy and stop doing it.

Regards,

Dev

[Vikram]

H Haroon, We had a big discussion on it earlier.It is not a safe practice seem to be the general consensus.

Best-
Vikram

[kanwar76]

Hi,

Are you Haroon Lala from Pakistan Hunting Community?

Please post an intro and welcome to the forum.

-Inder

[Olly]

It is definitely a NO. Dev is right... just put yourself on the receiving end of a falling piece of lead or shot... that too from a vey considerable height... i shudder to think of it... so why do it for anyone else to get hurt... TOTALLY UNSAFE AND OUTRAGEOUS...

[Haroon]

hELLO gUYS,
tHANKS for the feedback....I have just joined your wonderful team...its gr8....Hi Inder ! thanks for the welcome.....I am not from Pak hunting community....Cheers

[cottage cheese]

Read somewhere that during the celebration of the downfall of the Najubullah regime (Post-Soviet), scores of people were killed or maimed by a rain of celebratory bullets returning from the sky. I'm sure most of us saw AK's all over being fired off by the magazine loads into the air, many in pretty shallow trajectory.

All the advice given by folks here are valuable.

[mundaire]

IIRC the previous discussion we had on this topic and the final consensus that came out of it -

1) What goes up must come down
2) Bullets usually come down bottom first
3) While the energy of falling bullets is no where close to their muzzle energy and is generally considered lower than what is required for a "clean kill" - it is still enough to cause serious injury/ damage to someone unfortunate enough to be at the receiving end!
4) A large number of serious injuries/ deaths caused by celebratory gunfire are due to the fact that guns are almost always let off at an angle and that means that anyone who is at even a slightly higher elevation than the shooter is at risk - think bridegrooms at weddings/ other revellers on balconies/ higher floors etc.

IN CONCLUSION AS MENTIONED IN THE POSTS ABOVE - THIS IS A HIGHLY UNSAFE PRACTICE!

Cheers!
Abhijeet

P.S. - For those in India, this practice is cause enough to have your arms license revoked PERMANENTLY... SO THINK AGAIN before doing it.

[sa_ali]

It is mentioned on the license book for license issued from delhi, that the license can be revoked for firing in air for any undue reason.
I personally know ppl resorted to firing in air after marriage and one of the jerks didnt notice what was above him, he fired a 12 bor and that brought down tent portion as that blew away the bamboo hold the tent, luckily no one died. So absolute no, if u have to, go to range and fire there.

Ali

[mundaire]

Thread now merged with the older thread (on the same topic).

Cheers!
Abhijeet

[penpusher]

I am sure that a rifle bullet falling back to earth would not have the velocity to kill anybody.Have never heard of anybody getting killed or even injured like that.For that you would need to up the caliber.We are talking about artillery here.A artillery shell would do the job but not a piddly rifle bullet

penpusher

[cottage cheese]

I am sure that a rifle bullet falling back to earth would not have the velocity to kill anybody.Have never heard of anybody getting killed or even injured like that.For that you would need to up the caliber.We are talking about artillery here.A artillery shell would do the job but not a piddly rifle bullet

penpusher

Well its probably true, but I'm not going to be the one trying to prove the theory it right or wrong
In fact nobody should!

Hi penpusher haven't seen you a while.

[mundaire]

I am sure that a rifle bullet falling back to earth would not have the velocity to kill anybody.Have never heard of anybody getting killed or even injured like that.For that you would need to up the caliber.We are talking about artillery here.A artillery shell would do the job but not a piddly rifle bullet

penpusher

penpusher - since you've been around since the Yahoo group days, wonder if you read the link that I'd posted (on the Yahoo group) to the study conducted by the US military on this subject. IIRC the genesis of the study was to figure out if they could (potentially and effectively) fire machine guns in the air at an angle, with the view of raining bullets on the enemy - causing enough damage/ injury to the soldiers on the other side. The study used standard .30-06 ammo and concluded that while the falling bullets could indeed cause injury, their energy was not sufficient to cause debilitating injuries or death - except in rare/ freak cases. HOWEVER, the fact remains that there is INDEED the potential for needless injuries (whether debilitating or not) AND also the fact that most of the serious injuries are caused by bullets on their way up and not on their way down - simply because a large number of these incidents occur in populated areas with the person firing the gun on the street and (invariably) the person being injured (or worse) being at a higher elevation...

It is an unsafe practice no doubt and one which should be strongly discouraged!

Cheers!
Abhijeet

P.S. - As CC mentioned, haven't seen you online in a while...