It all comes down to our good friend gravity. When a bullet goes up, it must come down and you have little control where it’s going to land. Though a falling bullet is estimated to have only 10 per cent of its original muzzle velocity, it still has a good chance of injuring and possibly even killing you.
A 30-calibre bullet falls at 322km/h, while a 50-calibre falls at almost 531km/h. And that’s why they kill people. A bullet falling at as little as 170km/h can pierce the skin, while one falling at 217km/h can travel through your skull and into your brain.
Even if the bullet falls at a rate somewhere between 160km/h and 217km/h, it still can knock you on the head and give you a traumatic brain injury. Of course the bullet can miss your head, but it could hit you in the arms, shoulders, and legs. Ouch. [Amazing Facts and The Straight Dope]
Matt
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 11:42 AMThis is one for Mythbusters!
Adam
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 11:47 AMIf you watched Mythbuster you would know this was tested years ago.
http://kwc.org/mythbusters/2006/04/episode_50_bullets_fired_up_vo.html
Matt
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 11:54 AMWell there you go, must have missed that one!
H
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 2:28 PMOut of the 187 episodes and 13 specials that Mythbusters have made, with an average of 4 myths per episode being tested, it’s pretty fair to say anyone with a life would have missed one or two.
Daz
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 11:45 AMWasn’t a child in the US killed in a church on New Years Eve a while back after some redneck firing a gun into the air from miles away?
PeterB
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 12:18 PMNever mind the story. The picture of very young kids with lethal weapons scares the hell out of me. How scarred are these kids going to grow up?
EckyThump
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 12:20 PMThe premise of this article is quite flawed! Bullets falling and killing people aside,.. we’re talking about a bunch of yahoos doing the ‘Yosemite Sam’! So the real and present danger, is just plain getting SHOT!! #[
attila
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 12:30 PMA 30-calibre or 50-calibre round would do a massive amount of damage, due to their sheer size. A .30 or .50 calibre round can also be dangerous too though ;-)
jarry
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 4:08 PMjust having one thrown at your head at 50km/hour would do alot of damage lol
James
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 12:32 PMI wonder what exactly it is, cultural or evolutionary, that makes the inhabitants of some countries seemingly never tire of firing weapons into the air, while other countries are content with other forms of celebration. It seems you can’t turn on the news any day of the week without seeing a group of twats firing into the air. Similarly, it always cracked me up when I saw photos of militants who had captured a US soldier – invariably, they pose with their weapons, but it somehow just looks silly. Two men with rifles and balaclavas, another photo cliche.
ozoneocean
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 12:57 PMEvolutionary? You can rule out that one ;)
Firing guns in celebration is just a way of making loud noise, like cheering or using fireworks. Firing them in the air is safer than firing them into the ground (because of unpredictable ricochets). But yes, it’d be better if they didn’t fire them at all… but then if they didn’t all have US and European inspired instability and subsequent revolutions then it wouldn’t be a problem in the first place.
Steve
Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 1:05 AMIt’s not just brown people doing this. White yokels fire their guns all the time in the States.
If anyone’s been in the south during Independence Day… It’s 24 hours of gunfire and illegal fireworks.
David Wilson
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 12:40 PMBullets falling at over 500km/h? Give me a break. A human in free fall can’t go much faster than 200km/h due to wind resistance. Even a bullet will have significant wind resistance as its speed increases. I’m guessing more so because it would be tumbling around. I saw the Mythbusters test on this and though it would hurt a lot you would be unlucky to be killed. That being said, seeing little kids with the guns is scary – there is nothing stopping them firing at people just for fun – what do they understand?
Lemo
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 1:02 PMMaybe they will shoot each other and save the U.S. having to do it later.
splintex
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 1:33 PMThis. They will reach terminal velocity and give you a nastry sting. I think the problem iirc was if the bullet maintained a ballistic path rather than going into freefall and hitting terminal velocity.
ignition
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 1:51 PMAnything other than pretty much straight up (which is really unlikely) is leathal
James
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 12:58 PMI think these kids are much more “mature” to the use of gunfire than the kids in western countries. Having been raised in a culture of revolution, they probably have been around guns for a while and know what the guns are capable of.
Alex
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 1:10 PMWhere is this image sourced from?
Lord Crumplebottom
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 2:31 PMNo wonder they’re always running low on ammo…
Red
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 2:35 PMDeath caused by this happens every New Year in the Philippines.
Nathan Carter
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 2:53 PMAs I understand it, dozens of people have been killed from celebratory gunfire in Iraq, thanks to the sheer volume of bullets that have fired into the air on a pretty consistent basis. Honestly don’t remember the news story I heard that from, though.
Joel
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 3:33 PMIf you’re going to give kids guns, be happy they choose to only fire them into the air.
Saga
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 3:55 PMI think there was a CSI episode that had this as a theme.
Alex
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 9:02 PMIf CSI did it, then it must be true!
Daniel
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 4:49 PMI’m just waiting for one of these yahoos in the background to fire an RPG into the air, that “Oh Sh*t” look on everyone’s face will be classic
Kendal
Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 1:38 PMI’m just concerned for the children of Libya. If some children only have revolvers, while others can afford AK-47s, let’s hope the gap between rich and poor doesn’t get any wider along with political change.