[AT] O.T.--shootin' skunks (357 vrs 38)

[Ken Knierim]

      Here in AZ there's a law about not shooting in the air. It's
named Shannon's Law after Shannon Smith, a 14 year old girl that was
killed by a falling bullet from someone who thought it was cool to
fire off ammunition into the air over a densely populated area.
       It's been a real problem and now there are actually
triangulating microphone systems in operation in the metro Phoenix
area to locate where these folks are shooting from. It happens in many
of the Hispanic areas during 4th of July  and New Year's every year
(sometimes even full-auto). The new law and the microphones are
finally getting the word out that this isn't acceptable behavior...
plus the fact that they've been showing the areas where the gunfire is
coming from on TV (screenshots from the microphone systems from the
look of the data). they are able to show WHERE in someone's back yard
the sound came from, within what looked like 5 feet or less. While
it's still hard to figure out which rocket scientist did the shooting
if there's a big gathering, it gets the point across. And I'm sure
that if someone fails the attitude test, the police will provide them
with room and board for a while.

Yeah, falling bullets DO kill. And whoever fired it is legally
responsible for any damage or death from it.

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon's_law_(Arizona)

Ken in AZ

On 8/28/06, Mattias Kessén <davidbrown950 at gmail.com> wrote:
> I can remember one actual case of a guy being killed by a falling bullet
> here. It was some years before my military duty 1992/1993 so maybe I won't
> get everything right but it was all over the news.
> Anyway there was this guy that travelled down the road when the other
> trafficants saw him... (can't remember how dramatic the stop was but he
> didn't totally crash or so) He had a small hole in the side of his forehead,
> temple(?) and showed no signs of life. This was in an open area and no
> shooter could be seen. So investigations begun.
> The investigators found out that more than 6 miles away was a military
> shooting range. There had been some practising with KSP 58 (a Belgique
> machine gun, but I don't now it's real trade name but it's much like a M-60,
> cal 7,62x55mm). One of the guys practising got the wonderful idea of target
> shooting at 100 meters range from the hip,the gun raised and the rest is
> appearent. It was later said that the bullet wouldn't have been fatal if
> hitting somewhere else. Further more it was even said that the force of the
> bullet was so low so that if it not had been such a hot day that the driver
> had lowered his side window, the window would have slowed/stopped the bullet
> enough to save his life.
>
> So what do we learn from this ? It takes maximum bad luck that something
> like this will happen but no way that I would take chances like letting go
> of bullets that I don't now where they stop.
>
> A shot nevr fired is never regretted.
>
> Mattias
>
> P.s.I've also heard some reports of people being killed by falling bullets
> when people have celebrated by firing several rounds in the in places like
> Kabul, BUT THIS I DON'T NOW FOR SURE.
>