Last night (New Year’s Eve) was a time of celebration, merrymaking, laughter….and shooting. Every year, all around America, people walk outside (at least I hope they don’t do this inside), point their guns (God only knows what else they do with them) into the sky and fire them. Most of the time, that is the end of the story, but sometimes people get hurt or even die.

Many times individuals involved in celebrating New Year’s Eve with gunfire do not realize the dangers posed by their actions. Researchers report that a bullet fired into the air can climb two miles into the air and remain in flight for more than a minute. As it falls, the bullet reaches a velocity of 300 to 700 feet per second. A velocity of only 200 feet per second is sufficient to penetrate the human skull.

In other countries, people fire guns into the air to celebrate weddings and other occasions. My only question is: What is the purpose? To make noise? (OK, one other question). You can make noise with fireworks (or firecrackers). Why risk your life and the lives of innocent people living around you just for that? It must be something else. I mean, why do these people have guns anyway? There are only two reasons: 1. to hunt animals or 2. to hurt/kill people.

If you must own a gun, it should not be used as a badge of honor or as a plaything for celebratory purposes. What message does it send to your children? Don’t play with guns except on New Years Eve? Please, people, grow up. “Civilized” people should be civilized at all times, regardless of how joyous or cataclysmic a situation may be.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 1st, 2007 at 10:55 pm and is filed under Afterthought. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.