Life, food, events, and community in Albuquerque, NM

Celebratory Gunfire

Albuquerque Loves Guns;
America does too.

This digital closeup shows a hole embedded in our Albuquerque backyard sidewalk with what is left of a New Year's Eve 2008 celebratory bullet...
New Year's Eve in our neighborhood was actually more quiet than in past years. It arrived on a Monday and Ooh...no one likes Mondays...Nevertheless, it just takes one bullet fragment to ruin your day or night wherever you live.

albuquerque bullet, Jeff Hartzer, capnchaos

An Albuquerque bullet
Photo courtesy FRESHCHAOS.com
I have three questions about celebratory gunfire:
What can be done about this?
Is celebratory gunfire a problem inherent to Albuquerque or is this a 'Western' or 'United' States' problem as well?
Finally, how can we educate our nation's growing gun-toting crowd to AIM TOWARD MOTHER EARTH, not FATHER SKY, when they shoot off Celebratory Gunfire?

Tags: celebratory_gunfire, apd, celebrating_with_guns, gunfire, july4th, new_year's_eve, shoot_for_the_sky

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Permalink Reply by Richard Malcolm on January 1, 2009 at 6:35pm: Right now--6:30 on the night of the 1st--gunfire is echoing across the valley. I hope it's celebratory!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by norman p on January 2, 2009 at 3:35am: answers:
1 pretty much nothing. i have lived in PHX, ABQ, and MKE.The universal truth is that the stupid, morinic and genious are spread everywhere.

2 see # 1

3 guns are tools, not toys. wheather discharged up or down, any clown that has two functioning brain cells should understand the basic physics of mass, momentem, velocity and gravity. i bought a .22 ruger pistol in phx due to threats from the local meth tramps friend. this was after several neighbors had a chat with the police officer, describing to him the endless commings and goings of the several same vehicles at all hours. his reply to this was "how do you know she is not a prostitute?". this is when it became obvious that the ony real protection we had would need to be provided by ourselves.

i owned it for 4 years before i even fired it, with a proficient friend, at a firing range in wisconsin.

the big reason that the cops dont tackle it is simple, even when there is a fatality, unless you have a willing witness and a search warrent, calculating a vertical ballistic trajectory is very difficult without having a idea of the point of origination.
bottom line: stay inside a facility with an armored roof and fear the world, or take your chances with what are really prettty good odds in your favor.
mother earth and father sky cant control their idiot children.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Susan See on January 2, 2009 at 11:41am: "...unless you have a willing witness and a search warrent, calculating a vertical ballistic trajectory is very difficult without having a idea of the point of origination."

What, it's not as easy as CSI:NY makes it seem??? Ohhhh darn, you've shattered my illusions.... *lol*; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ryan Martin Stark on January 2, 2009 at 11:09am: Ditto from me in the South Valley. Sporadic gunfire all night with midnight looking/sounding like Baghdad, circa January 1991. There aren't enough cops in the world to bust the revelers. Though it probably is arguably more courteous to one's neighbors than shooting in the air, shooting in the ground is not much smarter or safer. The real issue is the mixing of guns and booze.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ryan Martin Stark on January 2, 2009 at 11:40am: I'm just south of you in Adobe Acres. We were probably hearing the same yokels firing off what I'm pretty sure were AK-47s (that distinctive crack-pop sound). Ditto: We love our usually dead-quiet 'hood, but sheesh, lay off the Kalashnikovs people.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jeff Hartzer on July 4, 2009 at 12:03pm: There's a great article on page one of July 4th, 2009's ABQJournal by Ms. Joline-Guiterrez-Krueger on this topic. You may have to register but the article can be seen online at upfront:SHOOT FOR THE SKY.; ▶ Reply to This