Fortunately not the kind of event the event the
TrueBlueSam encountered, but rather it appears someone may have
shot at the SandCastle! Maybe not
at the SandCastle, but could be that's where it "landed".
The SCQueen noticed the hole as we pulled a breaker to work on a light circuit in the house: "Hey that wasn't there last week when I mowed the lawn!"
Close up:
The hole is about the size of a dime. I'm thinking possibly .38/9mm/.40/.45 sized. The lack of penetration suggest a low terminal velocity impact and/or low impact angle. Probably some idiot celebrating the
Autumnal Equinox by shooting a gun into the air without concern for where those bullets come down.
We haven't found the projectile, nor any fragments so maybe it's much less innocuous. The SCQueen ended up calling LocalPD on the non-emergency number and they sent an officer to take a report. We don't expect they will investigate any further but rather the report will go into the database and if the scenario starts to trend, maybe they can take action then. Our expectations are very low...
Shooting into the air is a
rule 3 violation!
Arizona has "
Shannon's law" which makes such celebratory gun fire a class 6 felony. So named for
Shannon Smith who was standing in her back yard, talking with a friend on the phone when a stray bullet hit her in the head, killing her. I am 100% on board with this law... People being stupid with guns should not have access to guns.
MythBusters looked into "
shooting a gun into the air" and concluded "inconclusive"... They tested bullets fired near vertical so they have to reverse trajectory and fall at terminal velocity. They did not test the case where a bullet was fired at a lower angle and fly an arc trajectory. (And how could they test that?) I suspect that's the scenario that probably killed Shannon Smith.
Interesting, there is an exception in the law for shooting blanks. Fair enough. Don't shoot into the air! Even with blanks. Don't be stupid..
That's the sort of thing I used to see on the 4th of July.
ReplyDeleteGlad nobody got hurt.
Merle
Perhaps Occam's Razor may apply here?
ReplyDeleteSince you did not find an identifiable man-made projectile, is there any possibility that the mower blade picked up and ejected at high speed a pebble or similar natural object?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor
Hi Ed - good to hear from you!
ReplyDeleteYep... That scenario is roughly equally possible to the falling bullet theory. I doubt it would have been from our own lawn. The hole is about 7' off the ground, and the furthest grass is only about 20' away. So that's a pretty steep angle to climb for a stray rock and the output would have been caught in the bag. Probably not from the other side of the driveway either - the SCQueen's car would have been parked in between and taken the hit.
Neither house either side has any grass. Directly across the street has grass but it grows so sparsely they don't bother to mow it. The guy next door has he nicest grass in the neighborhood and keeps it meticulously maintained. But a projectile there would likely be caught by the bushes between the grass and sidewalk.
I'll add to the possible list: a rock kicked out to the side by a passing car. The street in front of the SandCastle resembles a NASCAR short track race as moms rush their kids to school. Could also be a malicious school kid throwing rocks walking to/from school. Hasn't been a problem in the past but there's always a first.
Still idiots shooting guns in the air is a problem in these parts.
$.02
I weigh the probability of any of these about equal.