In preparation for the July Fourth holiday, St. Petersburg, Fla., police
have produced a video warning the public about the dangers of firing a gun into the air in celebration.
Celebratory gunfire is emerging as a problem, police say.
The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, which The Poynter Institute owns, reports:
This past New Year' Eve, after St. Petersburg police received 16 reports of bullets falling from the sky, including one that lodged in a teenage girl's knee, they decided to make a public service video.
"We felt we had to do something before someone got killed," said St. Petersburg police spokesperson Bill Proffitt.
The public service announcement, which was made in April and will begin airing on local TV stations the week before July Fourth, shows hotdogs grilling then a Glock semiautomatic being fired at an upward angle. A police officer warns, "If you shoot a bullet in the air, it can seriously injure someone on the way down."
Here is a Web site that has collected many examples of people being hit by celebratory gunfire across the country.
Look in the Denver Post for two people who were...
