Who, What, Why: How dangerous is firing a gun into the air?
 

Libyan rebels have celebrated their advance into Tripoli by firing guns in the air. How hazardous is this?

It is, unarguably, an emphatic way to display one's jubilation.

Shooting an automatic weapon into the sky to signal an occasion one welcomes is a popular practice in much of the world, as the footage of Libyan anti-Gaddafi forces seizing the main square of the capital city has demonstrated.

But it is a potentially fatal activity, which regularly results in the deaths of bystanders.

"These bullets go a long way up when they're fired," says ballistics expert David Dyson. "But you don't know where they're going to land - there's always a chance of them causing serious harm or death."

Examples of fatalities due to celebratory gunfire abound.

Three people in the Philippines died due to stray bullets fired to welcome New Year's Eve 2011.

n 2010 a Turkish bridegroom killed three relatives when he fired an AK-47 at his own wedding. In the same year, Jordan's King Abdullah II ordered his country's authorities to clamp down on the practice after two people were killed and 13 more injured in one incident.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14616491


Note: 22 August 2011 Last updated at 12:19 GMT

What goes up....

....coming down

.....but only at terminal velocity.

Lets go to Iraqi soccer game to find out. I hear when somebody scores a goal, the AKs come out.

Maybe a Raiders game would be closer.:dead:

Problem being...the Raiders don't score very often :O:

Actually the AKs come out after a wedding in Iraq.My brother did two tours over there and until they get used to it the new guys who have never been get antsy on I think it is either Fridays or Saturdays when most weddings are hearing AK shooting in the air is normal(every house hold is allowed one AK or similar long arm.) Of course the bullets could still be deadly if you where in there path I suppose.I am going to assume that they are not using blanks.

Of course during New Years,4th of July and similar events I hear guns going off and I am pretty sure that they are being aimed skywards and I live in rural Florida.Well I know they are not being used safely because I can sometimes hear someone yell out in slurred English "**** yeah" or "Now we can party".

And here I go again.
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/faq...._item_language

There was an incident a few years ago, when at a wedding in Bosnia they fired AK's into the air and shot down a low flying Cesna on aproach to an airstrip. No one was killed luckly, the pilot managed to put the aircraft down safely

Not too many civvies can claim an anti-aircraft kill today.:D

Bullets dropping out of the sky fall no faster than they would if they were dropped from a 3 story building.

Like a penny dropped from the Empire State building they accelerate to terminal velocity and that's it. At that speed they are not likely to kill anyone.

What exactly is terminal velocity for a bullet? For a battleship shell it's still supersonic. Of course a bullet doesn't weigh almost a ton, either. Just wondering.

Depends entirely on it how heavy it is what size and shape it is and which way it is falling.
A heavy but narrow bullet falling pointy end first will have very little drag and so will achieve a higher terminal velocity than the same bullet falling backwards

two identical pennies dropped from the empire state building can have very different terminal velocities....and that's it

:hmmm: we had this discussion almost exactly a year ago: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show....php?p=1463682

I linked a surgeons report there, which states that a falling bullet can indeed kill you: http://ats.ctsnetjournals.org/cgi/content/full/83/1/283

@Steve:

If bullet falls directly downwards then propably but often that is not a case. When people shoot to air they rarely take care that they are shooting exactly upwards. If there is even a little bit angle then bullet flies in arch like artillery shell.

No not probably, not at all really.
A bullet that is able to reach its terminal velocity when it travels the equivalent height of three story building will do so, a bullet that travels the same distance but doesn't reach its terminal velocity in that distance will continue to accelerate until it reaches its terminal velocity.
Same as with the Empire State penny, there are too many variables to even consider Augusts two claims as accurate.

Unless the bullet was fired at a perfect 90 degree towards the sky then the bullet will travel in a manner that will still make it deadly if someone happens to be in it path.For your statement to be true the barrel would have to a perfect 90 deg upwards something that would be very hard for a person to do without some rigging.Anyone who fires guns in celebration or for what ever reason into the air they are never firing it perfectly 90.

In most photos you will see the person holding the weapon closer to 60 deg that bullet will for 100% certainty kill or injure anyone who should happen to be along its path.Perfect 90 or close likely not but are you willing to stand in the predicted line of fire of a weapon while someone fires it into the air? I no am not.I bet that was the case at the Turkish wedding or perhaps the guy actually hit people above and across from him.I do not think very many people get hit by bullets truly fired anything near upwards to be honest even the ones that are coming down hard so to speak.

A question to the Americans: How is the availability of blanks in the most common calibers in your local gun stores? Are they usually on sale or do they have to be ordered? And how much is the price compared to live ammo? Here blanks are usually cheaper, but this could be due to supply & demand.

You can buy them but I never paid much attention I mainly own semiautomatic weapons and for those you will also need a blank adapter or the weapon may not cycle at least this will be the case with most rifles.

There are entire websites devoted to selling blanks if that answers your question.

I wouldn't want to be hit by a badly thrown punch for that matter but once a bullet or anything else has bled off it's initial velocity it's not very dangerous at all.