Your (At Least) Weekly Firearm Mayhem Report

I offer no comment on the ultimate cause of this incident; I just hope no one thinks it would have happened if a firearm had not been available to a person apparently incapable of using it responsibly:

Virginia Boy Struck By Stray Bullet At Fourth Of July Event Dies

Tom Kludt [TPM] 1:28 PM EDT, Friday July 5, 2013

The 7-year-old Virginia boy who was struck by a stray bullet while on his way to watch a Fourth of July fireworks display died Friday, according to Richmond-based NBC affiliate WWBT.

Police said the accident was likely the result of someone firing a gun in the air to celebrate the holiday. It is still unknown who fired the shot.

The boy and his father were walking to watch a fireworks show in Brandermill, Va. when the youngster fell behind before suddenly dropping to the ground. His father thought his son had passed out until he noticed the bullet wound on top the boy's head.

The boy died at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond, Va.

If you have, or feel you have, a compelling need to own and carry a gun, please, pleez, don't point it in the air and pull the trigger. Once approximately 45 years ago, on New Years Eve or July 4 (I don't recall which), a bullet crashed through the bedroom window of our upstairs neighbor, who was also our landlord, a man in his middle fifties, missing him by approximately a foot, lodging in the opposite wall and spraying window glass all over him. Glass notwithstanding, he remembered his Army training, rolled off the bed onto the floor and took cover under the bed for a few minutes until he was relatively confident no more bullets were forthcoming. Thanks to a 10-year-old neighbor girl who witnessed the shooting, the woman who fired the shot several blocks away was apprehended.

Bullets are just as deadly when fired in celebration as when fired in anger. Just don't do it...