What goes up comes down, and often kills

[jakeXT]

WITHOUT doubt, war correspondents are wise to wear helmets and flak jackets while sending dispatches from shell-pounded streets crackling with gunfire.

When reporters rode into Tripoli on rebels' utes recently, they were no doubt worried about snipers.
But even among jubilant crowds of rebel supporters, armour is a wise precaution because of the danger posed by celebratory bullets landing on heads.

While some early studies conjectured that bullets shot upwards simply vanished into space, the threat from falling ordnance is not to be dismissed.

To explore the finer details of the rule that what goes up must come down, Benjamin Robins reported in 1761 that a largebore bullet fired upwards returned to Earth three-quarters of a mile (1.2 kilometres) away half a minute later.

http://m.smh.com.au/world/science/what-goes-up-comes-down-and-often-kills-20110914-1k9fa.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/24/how-dangerous-is-celebratory-gunfire

TRIPOLI, Libya — Nissar Hisame was enjoying the afternoon sun at the front of his home last week. As he sat chatting with school friends, the familiar sound of celebratory gunfire echoed in the distance. Victorious rebel fighters were enjoying their daily frivolity in celebration of Muammar Gaddafi’s fall.

The peaceful scene was suddenly shattered as a stray bullet fell from above. The bullet, assumed to be one of thousands shot into the air that day, lodged in the 15-year-old's brain.

Three days later, he still lay in a comma at Tripoli’s Central Hospital with multiple brain contusions and hemorrhaging.
..

“Every few days we see cases like this,” said Anwar Ali, a volunteer nurse at Central Hospital’s intensive-care unit. “A few days ago, a 1-year-old child died in the bed next to Nissar’s. He was hit by a falling bullet as he played with his grandfather in their family home.”

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/110906/libya-rebels-gunfire-muammar-gaddafi

[Ian David]

1. See also: Mythbusters Episode 50: Bullets Fired Up

http://mythbustersresults.com/episode50

[ChandlerJr]

2. In Arizona, firing a gun into the air

is a felony. It's called Shannon's law after a teenage girl killed on New Years.