Guns don’t kill people.  Morons with guns kill people.  So stated former Detroit Chief of Police Ralph Godbee and truer words were never spoken.

Police across the country, in addition to the heavy responsibilities of interdicting drunk and drug impaired drivers on New Year’s Eve, must also cope with the absolutely idiotic tradition of firing weapons at the stroke of midnight.  The LAPD and LA County Sheriff’s office have had to divert valuable law enforcement resources to mount an education campaign about this dangerous custom.   Beleaguered Detroit Police, short on manpower and resources initiated the “Ring the New Year in with a Bell, Not a Bang” Campaign to address this same issue. Times Square

Sir Isaac Newton proved that what goes up must come back down quite a long time ago.  Gravity works one hundred per cent of the time.  Instead of focusing on impaired drivers, a true public safety concern, officers must also focus on education about, prevention of, and responding to so-called “celebratory gunfire,” an oxymoron if ever there was one – heavy on the moron part.  When you fire a gun, the bullet has to go somewhere.  If you and the people around you are fortunate, the bullet lands in the ground, in a wall, in the side of a building, or in a body of water.

If the worst happens, the bullet does what it is designed to do.  It tears through bone and organs, sinew and tissue, ligaments, and brain matter.  Something has to stop the bullet’s trajectory and human flesh is quite frequently the backstop.

Each New Year’s season, we hear about the tragedies associated with stray gunfire.  In Portsmouth, Virginia and Atlanta, Georgia, victims were hit on their way into church.  Into church.  Last New Year’s Eve, 13 year old Diego Duran was watching New Year’s fireworks in Ruskin, Florida when he was struck by celebratory gunfire.  A bullet traveled ONE MILE and hit him in the head.  He spent 5 months in ICU because someone wanted to celebrate.

Sandra Latham, a resident of Detroit was killed inside her own home by celebratory gunfire, as have other citizens throughout the United States.  Imagine your mother, wife, or sister being killed sitting on her living room sofa while watching the ball drop at Times Square on television because someone else thought firing a gun was a good way to celebrate.

This country is trying to cope with the purposeful shooting of 26 innocent people by a madman.  Let’s avoid maiming or killing anyone this New Year’s Eve in the name of “celebration.”  Surely we can find other ways to ring in the New Year.

To learn more:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/26/celebratory-gunfire-new-years-eve-detroit-2012_n_2365552.html

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/12/gun-fire-to-celebrate-the-arrival-of-new-year-wont-be-tolerated-authorities-warn.html

http://www.wtsp.com/news/topstories/article/288948/250/Celebratory-gunfire-victims-plead-for-no-guns-on-NYE

Police agencies across the U.S. are gearing up for an annual problem… celebratory gunfire.  This quaint tribal custom usually occurs on New Year’s Eve and the July 4th.  The celebrator discharges firearms into the air in an undirected fashion until he or she mercifully runs out of ammunition.  I would break down the offenders into two categories: yahoos and thugs.  Yahoos can be educated.  Fliers can be posted, door hangers hung, public service announcements can be aired.  These labor-intensive activities can result in a measurable decrease of holiday gunfire.

Thugs, on the other hand, tend to fire rounds into the air to intimidate their neighbors, mark their turf like a dog urinating on a tree, or as a demonstration of unguided testosterone.

This is not just a matter of annoying noise.  People die from rounds falling out of the sky.  On New Year’s Eve, 2010, 4 year-old Marquel Peters died sitting in an Atlanta church pew when a round fired to ring in the New Year penetrated the church roof, ceiling, and finally, the child’s skull.  At the same time, a parishioner of St. Mark’s in Portsmouth, VA received a bullet wound to the hand as he reached for the door of his church.

Catching shooters in the act is difficult because the thugs quickly run outside to fire a few rounds and run back inside to avoid detection.  Yahoos are easier to catch because they just sit there, waiting for the applause.  So, what can law enforcement do?

One answer is to engage the community.  A concerned and informed public is a force multiplier for law enforcement.  Local police departments can get the word out through public service announcements, joint press conferences with community leaders and first responders, and print media.  Faith communities are source of major influence in the inner city; pastors, elders, and deacons can do much to inform and shape public opinion.

However, attitudes against high-velocity, ballistic stupidity must be reflected throughout the entire agency.  I recall a recent New Year’s celebration when I heard the distinctive “knock-knock” sound of an AK-47 so loud that it had to be within a tenth of a mile.  When the call center received word of rapid, semi-automatic fire from an AK-47 a few block away, the dispatcher replied, “Yeah, we have big problem with it.”  You’re right, I thought, and you’re part of it.

Some localities take the issue more seriously than others.  Negligently discharging a firearm in California can be a felony.  Los Angeles County Sheriff and LAPD have jointly announced that anyone found engaged in celebratory gunfire will be charged with a felony according to California Penal Code 246.3.  However, most jurisdictions still consider the practice a misdemeanor.  Perhaps toughening the law will at least get the attention of the yahoos who don’t want to join Bubba and Jim Bob in the big house.

In the words of Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee, Jr., speaking about celebratory gunfire, ”Guns don’t kill people, morons do.”

Learn more about this article here:

http://www.examiner.com/crime-in-atlanta/church-child-shot-dead-pew-will-there-be-a-repeat-this-new-year-s-eve

http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2010/12/city_leaders_urge_an_end_to_ce.html

http://www.vannuysnewspress.com/news/2011/12/30/lapd-has-no-toleration-for-shooting-firearms-on-new-years/

http://www.shouselaw.com/pc246-3.html