Really Random Question...

[chucky1973]

Just been watching the news about the Libya Conflict and seen a lot of Rebels firing machine guns aimlessly in the air. My question is, Where do the bullets go? Do they come back down or disintigrate? If they do fall back down, has anyone ever been killed?

If this is a dumb question, I apologise now.

 

[Gazwag]

A bullets terminal velocity may not be enough to kill somebody but I bet it bloody hurts

 

[house your seagull]

google

The saying "What goes up must come down" is an appropriate starting point. If you fire a gun into the air, the bullet will travel up to a mile high (depending on the angle of the shot and the power of the gun). Once it reaches its apogee, the bullet will fall. Air resistance limits its speed, but bullets are designed to be fairly aerodynamic, so the speed is still quite lethal if the bullet happens to hit someone. In rural areas, the chance of hitting someone is remote because the number of people is low. In crowded cities, however, the probability rises dramatically, and people get killed quite often by stray bullets. Most major cities have laws in place to try to keep people from shooting guns into the air in celebration.

 

[mune ni kamome]

Many people are killed by falling bullets. Sometimes at wedding celebrations firing into the air is customary but results in deaths. I'm not really knowlegeable, I read this on the bbc yesterday.

 

[Waynflete]

Just been watching the news about the Libya Conflict and seen a lot of Rebels firing machine guns aimlessly in the air. My question is, Where do the bullets go? Do they come back down or disintigrate? If they do fall back down, has anyone ever been killed?

If this is a dumb question, I apologise now.

Not a dumb question, because the BBC saw fit to ask it too: BBC News - Who, What, Why: How dangerous is firing a gun into the air?

 

[Hillian1]

Just been watching the news about the Libya Conflict and seen a lot of Rebels firing machine guns aimlessly in the air. My question is, Where do the bullets go? Do they come back down or disintigrate? If they do fall back down, has anyone ever been killed?

If this is a dumb question, I apologise now.

If, and its a big if, a bullet after reaching its apex came back down point first it's terminal velocity would be enough to penetrate the skull.

There have been a few instances of this but usually the weapon was not fired straight up but angled so the projectile never actually loses all its velocity.

 

[Biscuit]

Not a dumb question, because the BBC saw fit to ask it too: BBC News - Who, What, Why: How dangerous is firing a gun into the air?

I read this article only last week. How odd that it got asked now!

 

[chucky1973]

Not a dumb question, because the BBC saw fit to ask it too: BBC News - Who, What, Why: How dangerous is firing a gun into the air?

thanks, i honestly thought I was going to get a load of abuse then!!

 

[macky]

bullet aint cheap i wander whos paying for them bet it s the british tax payer

 

[Norman Potting]

Can't be bothered to look up the link but if you are really interested there was an article on the BBC website within the last week going into some detail on the physcology and physics on firing one's weapon into the air should the fancy take you. I think the conclusion was that it is not a very sensible thing to do.

 

[Waynflete]

I read this article only last week. How odd that it got asked now!

Lot's of people wondering about it having seen the news, I guess; I certainly was!

 

[Waynflete]

thanks, i honestly thought I was going to get a load of abuse then!!

Whereas, in fact, you should be working as a BBC journalist!

 

[Beach Hut]

thanks, i honestly thought I was going to get a load of abuse then!!

OK I'ii weigh in with the abuse you silly cock !

 

[BHAFC_Pandapops]

Just been watching the news about the Libya Conflict and seen a lot of Rebels firing machine guns aimlessly in the air. My question is, Where do the bullets go? Do they come back down or disintigrate? If they do fall back down, has anyone ever been killed?

If this is a dumb question, I apologise now.

they most certainly come back down.

the news reporter at lunch time yesterday said she was wearing a flack jacket, not only because people were still fighting, but people were firing guns into the air.

 

[chucky1973]

Whereas, in fact, you should be working as a BBC journalist!

As it happens I started out back in the late 80's as sports journo for the Crawley News!! covered all the American Football Games for the Mighty Crawley raiders (Not) and Crawley Town away games when they were in the southern League, trips to Addlestone and Weybridge on a Tuesday night!!!

 

[Sergei's Celebration]

A guy i was sleeping next to had a bullet ping of his metal bed frame in Iraq '03 just after the invasion. We used to sleep on the roof of an old Ba'th party HQ to try and get a breeze and one night we woke to him screaming like a banshee, it took us a few seconds to realise what was happening then three or four more came pinging down.

Lets just say we didn't look up when we ran inside! Slept with our helmets over our faces and body armour laid flat over us from then on.

 

[Robdinho]

There was a program called Mythbusters which investigated this a while ago. They found that if a bullet is fired directly up in the air (i.e. at precisely 90° to the horizontal) then once it had reached its highest point it would actually fall to ground on its side (point sideways) and its terminal velocity in this orientation was not fatal.

However, if the bullet is fired at an angle, even a small one, it will maintain it's ballistic trajectory, so will always be travelling point first. In this orientation it can definitely be fatal and there are numerous instances of this happening.