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From: gordonl@microsoft.UUCP (Gordon LETWIN)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Small caliber velocity
Summary: terminal velocity of falling bullet can be fatal
Message-ID: <13030@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 11 Jan 90 04:59:22 GMT
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From: gordonl@microsoft.UUCP (Gordon LETWIN)

> >From: henry@hutto.UUCP (Henry Melton)
> 
> >...  You commonly hear of police firing a warning shot into the
> >air, yet I have never heard of such a random shell killing anyone.  The
> >physics of figuring the terminal velocity of small tumbling bullets is
> >beyond me.  Does anyone know of any real figures?  How safe is it to
> >fire a gun into the air?
> 
> 
> However, (as a purely
> theoretical consideration) it seems doubtful to me that someone could be
> killed by a pistol or rifle bullet fired at a vertical or near vertical
> angle.  

It's true that the bullet falls with it's terminal velocity, but due to
the density and aero-efficient shape, the terminal velocity of a bullet
is still high.

My specific info comes from a Wall Street Journal article last year about
celbrations in some country (Pakistan?) where the locals are heavily armed
and where local tradition is to fire, often great numbers of rounds, into
the air in celebrations.  The article was discussing the aftermath of
some big celebratory event, specifically the casualties caused by falling
bullets.  Included interviews and death counts from local hospitals, etc.
Several people were killed by such falling bullets.  (With hundreds of
people firing automatic weapons into the air, there were a *lot* of 
bullets falling from the sky.)

So, obviously the odds are in favor of not being hit by a randomly falling
bullet, but if you are - and presumably if it hits your head - it's fatal.

	Gordon Letwin