What Goes Up ...2

Left Leaning Lady showed the way to the Discovery Channel show, "Mythbusters," and how the results of their investigations could be obtained online without seeing the show. So, in the case of the falling bullets that I already mentioned a few days ago, here are their conclusions:

Bullets fired into the air maintain their lethal capability when they eventually fall back down.

busted / plausible / confirmed

In the case of a bullet fired at a precisely vertical angle (something extremely difficult for a human being to duplicate), the bullet would tumble, lose its spin, and fall at a much slower speed due to terminal velocity and is therefore rendered less than lethal on impact. However, if a bullet is fired upward at a non-vertical angle (a far more probable possibility), it will maintain its spin and will reach a high enough speed to be lethal on impact. Because of this potentiality, firing a gun into the air is illegal in most states, and even in the states that it is legal, it is not recommended by the police. Also the MythBusters were able to identify two people who had been injured by falling bullets, one of them fatally injured. To date, this is the only myth to receive all three ratings at the same time.

Hmm. This can be serious business after all. The probablities are still light, but they can be jacked up when, for instance, you have dozens of men firing into the air all at once to celebrate a victory or some other joyous occasion, as I have often seen in video shots taken in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran. That has to drop innocents now and then on the fringes of the crowd.

A simple "hoo-rah" ought to work just as well. Somebody should tell them.