Gun owners - do you shoot guns off to celebrate things?

[stevegrab]

Was reading a story in the local news about a person who was shot (Canton Ohio) by police responding to shots fired just after midnight on New Year's day. They showed up, somebody behind the fence started shooting, cop felt threatened and shot them thru a fence they could not see thru.  The wife claims 

“My husband and I both went out there to shoot guns in the air, like everybody does to celebrate,” Williams said.

 

Really, I don't do that (I don't own guns), neither do any of my neighbors (surely some of them own guns). People are told every year by police this is dangerous and illegal. I'm usually home on NYE, I never hear guns being fired, I live in an urban area that immediately adjoins the city of Akron. If I heard gun shots I'd call the cops. (Where my brother lives in rural eastern Tennessee hearing guns go off at various times including late at night is not uncommon.)

 

If "everybody" did it why did somebody in the neighborhood call the cops.

[League_Champion]

Hell no! Have you seen the price of ammo lately? 

[League_Champion]

1 hour ago, stevegrab said:

“My husband and I both went out there to shoot guns in the air, like everybody does to celebrate,” Williams said.

 

I wonder if it was 223 or 556 NATO rounds? 🤔

[rajncajn]

At a range,  at a designated target area that I know is safe,  at an animal I intend to eat,  at anything threatening my life/safety or that of my family. These are the only things I shoot at. 

[stevegrab]

Thanks for the replies, this was a serious question, not some trolling or attempt to bait gun owners into a debate.

 

I did expect that most responsible gun owners do not do this.

 

The "everybody does it" statement sounded pretty insane to me. The only time I fired guns was at a shooting range, the idea of just randomly shooting guns into the air has always seemed stupid to me. I recall a local story where an Amish girl was killed by somebody who was cleaning a rifle, and discharged the round by shooting it into the air. The bullet traveled well over a mile before striking her. This was in the middle of nowhere, not in a crowded urban area. 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sheriff-ohio-man-cleaning-gun-killed-amish-girl/

[Big John]

When I lived in Georgia, that was commonplace.

[League_Champion]

45 minutes ago, rajncajn said:

At a range,  at a designated target area that I know is safe,  at an animal I intend to eat,  at anything threatening my life/safety or that of my family. These are the only things I shoot at. 

 

Exactly 💯

[League_Champion]

18 minutes ago, LordOpie said:

 

yeah, I doubt that. muzzle-loading rifle firing a shot that traveled more than a mile? The angle and wind would have had to be improbably friendly for that to happen. The physics is suspect

 

Down range MAYBE 300 YARDS max. Up in the air 150 yards max if lucky?? Definitely not a mile 

[League_Champion]

5 minutes ago, LordOpie said:

34 minutes ago, League_Champion said:

Down range MAYBE 300 YARDS max. Up in the air 150 yards max if lucky?? Definitely not a mile 

yup. And for hunting, past 100 yards you have to be really good or it's considered unethical

 

Yup, getting a clean kill shot at 100 yards with a muzzleloader would take perfect conditions. I don't understand the whole muzzleloader thing, it's quite barbaric in my opinion. I can shoot a gnats head off at 200 yards with a 223

[League_Champion]

5 minutes ago, LordOpie said:

so, we agree that killing someone more than a mile away is nonsense?

 

Unless it's your job.

 

[League_Champion]

22 minutes ago, LordOpie said:

dick. I meant muzzle loader, not a bolt action.

i just don't think the physics/math support a shot from muzzle loader traveling that far 

 

Haha. Muzzleloaders suck at 25 yards much less a 100. But if you do hit something with a muzzleloader it's getting F'd up! 

[Def.]

1 hour ago, Big John said:

When I lived in Georgia, that was commonplace.

 

Definitely not uncommon here in Aurora, IL.  NYE, Cinco de Mayo, and especially the 4th.  

[rajncajn]

2 hours ago, LordOpie said:

"FREDERICKSBURG, Ohio - A man cleaning his muzzle-loading rifle shot the gun into the air, accidentally killing a 15-year-old Amish girl driving a horse-drawn buggy more than a mile away, a sheriff said Tuesday."

 

yeah, I doubt that. muzzle-loading rifle firing a shot that traveled more than a mile? The angle and wind would have had to be improbably friendly for that to happen. The physics is suspect.

Modern muzzle loaders are not really that far off in terms of range than most rifles. Some of the better ones are fairly accurate between 300-400 yds. You're thinking of something like a Revolutionary war era muzzle loader and his rifle likely wasn't that style of weapon. If the shot was fired at angle into the air, I think it's possible for the bullet to still have enough velocity to kill someone close to a mile away. It's more than likely exaggerated, but I think it's plausible. 

Edited January 7, 2022 by rajncajn

[League_Champion]

5 minutes ago, rajncajn said:

Modern muzzle loaders are not really that far off in terms of range than most rifles. You're thinking of something like a Revolutionary war era muzzle loader and his rifle likely wasn't that style of weapon. If the shot was fired at angle into the air, I think it's possible for the bullet to still have enough velocity to kill someone close to a mile away. It's more than likely exaggerated, but I think it's plausible. 

 

Nowhere near a mile but farther than I expected. CVA makes a .45 caliber that can kill big game at 300 yards, but only on a super flat trajectory. 

[rajncajn]

1 hour ago, League_Champion said:

Yup, getting a clean kill shot at 100 yards with a muzzleloader would take perfect conditions. I don't understand the whole muzzleloader thing, it's quite barbaric in my opinion. I can shoot a gnats head off at 200 yards with a 223

Assuming it was an accident, as long as there is still enough velocity it's still going to kill or damage whatever it hits. Many states, including mine, have a primitive weapon season so the rifle has to meet certain criteria in order to hunt. Modern muzzle loaders were designed for such sport. My dad has one & it pretty well shoots just like most other rifles, but here you're rarely ever going to get a shot much more than 50 yds.

Edited January 7, 2022 by rajncajn

[rajncajn]

22 minutes ago, League_Champion said:

Nowhere near a mile but farther than I expected. CVA makes a .45 caliber that can kill big game at 300 yards, but only on a super flat trajectory. 

I think you're mistaking lethal velocity for accuracy. A .22 can travel around a 1.5 miles and still be capable of killing someone. Here's a pretty decent article talking about how far a bullet can travel. Of course there are a lot of factors like what type of weapon and round.

 

https://www.wbir.com/article/news/expert-the-average-person-doesnt-realize-how-far-a-bullet-from-a-gun-travels/51-f188eea5-8a8c-4a87-8f86-2cb9ee728275

Edited January 7, 2022 by rajncajn

[League_Champion]

58 minutes ago, rajncajn said:

Assuming it was an accident, as long as there is still enough velocity it's still going to kill or damage whatever it hits. Many states, including mine, have a primitive weapon season so the rifle has to meet certain criteria in order to hunt. Modern muzzle loaders were designed for such sport. My dad has one & it pretty well shoots just like most other rifles, but here you're rarely ever going to get a shot much more than 50 yds.

 

Many states won't let you hunt with rifles. It's either Bow, shotgun or muzzleloader. You can hunt with just about anything here, probably the much the same where you are.

[rajncajn]

18 minutes ago, League_Champion said:

 

Many states won't let you hunt with rifles. It's either Bow, shotgun or muzzleloader. You can hunt with just about anything here, probably the much the same where you are.

In Mississippi:

Quote

The special primitive weapons season is for antlerless deer only on private lands and open public lands from November 9 – November 20. This special season is provided to help hunters in areas with higher deer densities earlier opportunities to achieve antlerless harvest objectives prior to the rut.

Other than that, it's pretty open. There are some regulations on time of day, barrel size, distance from residence/road, bag limits... Pretty much standard stuff.

[League_Champion]

9 hours ago, rajncajn said:

In Mississippi:

Other than that, it's pretty open. There are some regulations on time of day, barrel size, distance from residence/road, bag limits... Pretty much standard stuff.

 

Yup, much the same here. It's always open season on hogs/boar and coyote. 

[stevegrab]

14 hours ago, LordOpie said:

so, we agree that killing someone more than a mile away is nonsense?

 

So contact the authorities in Wayne County Ohio and tell them they're full of manure. Not sure what you and LC are trying to prove, clearly somebody else that knows about guns thinks it is more plausible than you guys. 

 

And talking about a clean kill shot...DUH....this was an accident, a bullet fired into the air, comes down somewhere, can still have enough velocity to do damage. Nobody is claiming a person was intentionally shot at 1.5 mile range. 

[League_Champion]

3 hours ago, stevegrab said:

 

So contact the authorities in Wayne County Ohio and tell them they're full of manure. Not sure what you and LC are trying to prove, clearly somebody else that knows about guns thinks it is more plausible than you guys. 

 

And talking about a clean kill shot...DUH....this was an accident, a bullet fired into the air, comes down somewhere, can still have enough velocity to do damage. Nobody is claiming a person was intentionally shot at 1.5 mile range. 

 

Hey Johnny Scared Of Guns Guy, unless it was a mortar round it didn't travel 1.5 miles shot straight into the air. 

[rajncajn]

31 minutes ago, League_Champion said:

 

Hey Johnny Scared Of Guns Guy, unless it was a mortar round it didn't travel 1.5 miles shot straight into the air. 

Honestly, I'm more skeptical of the guy's story of the gun going off while cleaning it than I am the distance, but I doubt it was fired straight into the air if the story is accurate. It was more likely at an angle. Admittedly I could be totally wrong about this, but that's my feeling on the subject. I wouldn't blame anybody for being skeptical.

 

I don't know of the validity of this either, but I was talking with a coworker who said that there was a study done on bullet velocity when fired in the air & he stated that the way the physics work, the bullet loses velocity only up until the point where it reaches it's apex, but then regains much of it's original velocity on the downward curve. Of course you have things like wind resistance and whether or not the bullet tumbles etc, but basically what he was saying is that the only real factor in whether or not it could kill something on the ground is the distance that it could travel.

Edited January 7, 2022 by rajncajn

[stevegrab]

31 minutes ago, League_Champion said:

 

Hey Johnny Scared Of Guns Guy, unless it was a mortar round it didn't travel 1.5 miles shot straight into the air. 

 

Hey dumbass know-it-all (really just a blowhard who thinks he knows a lot) you're as full of manure as usual. 

 

I don't need to be a gun owner or lover to know that what comes up comes down, and an object falling a far distance will build speed and could kill, even if it hits something ass backwards. 

[rajncajn]

1 minute ago, stevegrab said:

 

Hey dumbass know-it-all (really just a blowhard who thinks he knows a lot) you're as full of manure as usual. 

 

I don't need to be a gun owner or lover to know that what comes up comes down, and an object falling a far distance will build speed and could kill, even if it hits something ass backwards. 

Pretty sure LC & I are talking the same language and really just disagree on whether or not it could travel that distance, regardless of the angle. He may be right, so you may want to brush up on your gun/munitions knowledge before calling someone who's more knowledgeable than you a dumbass know-it-all.

[stevegrab]

6 minutes ago, rajncajn said:

Pretty sure LC & I are talking the same language and really just disagree on whether or not it could travel that distance, regardless of the angle. He may be right, so you may want to brush up on your gun/munitions knowledge before calling someone who's more knowledgeable than you a dumbass know-it-all.

 

He is saying it is IMPOSSIBLE, you are saying it is possible. Why would an experienced law enforcement person (the sheriff in the story) believe this? Don't they have some experience with guns and experts they can consult. They aren't somebody like me with virtually no experience with guns. 

 

LC speaks in absolutes, because he always thinks he is an expert and never wrong. I could care less if this particular story is factual or not, the point was that randomly firing a bullet into the air and not knowing where it will come down is dangerous. And to a man every person with gun experience here said they would NOT do that. 

Edited January 7, 2022 by stevegrab