A bullet isn’t rendered harmless just because it’s fired straight up into the air. Though it might be traveling like a rocket, it isn’t going to be launched into outer space. At about 10,000 feet up, the Earth’s gravitational pull will start bringing the bullet back down.

In windless conditions, the atmosphere will create resistance. That drag will bring the bullet down at about 10% of the speed and only about 1% of the energy it had when fired.

Every Bullet Leaving A Muzzle Poses A Threat

But rarely are conditions perfectly calm. Bullets fired straight up—even at a perfect 90-degree angle—can, due to wind, come down up to two miles away. Few bullets are actually fired straight up. Those fired at an angle can maintain greater speeds, greater energy, greater power.  The speed at which a bullet needs to be traveling to prove lethal varies, depending on the bullet and the person it strikes.

A bullet with a blunt nose might bounce off of you at 225 mph. Those with a pointier tip can penetrate your skin at significantly lower speeds.

What it comes down to—no pun intended—is that there’s nothing safe about firing a bullet into the air. Any bullet leaving a muzzle poses a threat.

Too Many Risks

Police officers are trained to always “check your background” before firing a gun. That’s why during my 30-year career with the Kansas City Police I don’t think I ever would have fired shots at a car speeding away from a scene—another common occurrence in TV cop shows. The risks of hitting a house, another car driving down the street or a by-stander—maybe someone walking their dog a couple of blocks away—are too great.

As for warning shots, there’s multiple reasons most law enforcement agencies expressly prohibit them: 1) you shouldn’t fire shots in the air; 2) you can’t just fire into a wall not knowing its thickness or if someone might be on the other side; 3) you risk a ricochet off walls, light poles, streets or cars.

Anytime you pull the trigger, you’re gambling the bullet’s going to end up where you intended—that you won’t miss. But when you fire a gun randomly into the air, what exactly are you aiming at? Nothing! 

Helicopter Pilot Struck

I can tell you what you ought to be praying if you’re going to be aimlessly firing a gun: that your bullet doesn’t hit anything—or anyone.

Because it does happen. Again, remember Blair Shanahan Lane. 

Sometimes the celebratory bullet can be on the way up like the one fired on New Year’s Eve 1994 that hit a police helicopter flying over Riverside, Calif. It pierced the fuselage and struck the pilot in the foot. That same year the UCLA Medical Center released a study that put the mortality rate from those shot by celebratory gunfire at around 32%—five times higher than that for other types of gunshot wounds. The high death rate was contributed to the fact falling bullets most frequently strike victims in the head.

Only One Way To Guarantee A Gun Does No Harm

Ultimately, firing a gun in the air anywhere, but especially in a crowded community, is very much like playing Russian Roulette: except instead of pointing the gun at yourself, you’re pointing it upward and away, just hoping, I guess, nobody gets killed. Do the people who still—in 2019—fire off celebratory shoots consider the consequences? What’s especially horrifying is the probability many of these people are emptying guns into the air after filling themselves up with alcohol.

Guns and alcohol make for a deadly cocktail mix.

There’s absolutely only one way to guarantee a gun does no harm: DON’T FIRE IT. When celebrating this July Fourth or any other occasion, keep your celebration safe. Keep your guns unloaded and securely locked away.

May the skies above you this Independence Day be filled only with legal fireworks and not one bullet.