A place I will *never* spend New Year's Eve...

[micaelagb]

New Year's Eve Injuries Caused by Celebratory Gunfire --- Puerto Rico, 2003 (http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5350a2.htm)

Note to self--what goes up, must come down...

[Lee Mellon]

It's a problem in NJ also. I recall sometime in the last 5 years when a guy was convicted of manslaughter(?) for killing someone as a result of this weird celebration.

[Frenchie]

It's done all over the place..

[Lee Mellon]

It's done all over the place..
Actually, it's not done here and it hasn't been done much in many of the places I have lived (except NYC and PR of course).

[L. Mo]

Every year, the City of LA reminds the folks that bullets shot in the air don't only go up. :shake:

[Frozen]

micaelagb, do you have the email subcription to the MMWR weekly? Do you need it for work?

I'm really into death and disease, but I thought I was the only one who read these reports just for the fun of it.

[Frenchie]

It's done all over the place..
Actually, it's not done here and it hasn't been done much in many of the places I have lived (except NYC and PR of course).

perhaps if you didn't things quite so literally i wouldn't have to be so exact. I know people who have lived all over the US and abroad, and just about everywhere we all have lived and visited we know of someone, or hear it when it happens, who does this on New Years; sometimes it's done on 4 July. It's not uncommon...stupid as heck, yes...uncommon, no...

[Mr. Grim]

I like puerto rico, hot women. not brasil but still hot.

[Wigmeister General]

I like puerto rico, hot women. not brasil but still hot.

May I remind you that the 2006 CAS Spring Meeting is being held in PR? See you in 2006. (And I'll be off on a short trip to Tortola after the meeting -- WooooHoooo!)

[Mr. Grim]

Alrighty perhaps. I am looking for a good wingman, you interested?

[Frenchie]

An interesting footnote to this. I was reading to my daughter last night and in her Amercan Girls Doll book it gave a brief account of life in Colonial America (right around the American Revolution time) and it discussed traditions during Christmastide (yes, tide)...anyways. It appears that in England, other parts of Europe, and in the colonies, many people rang in the holiday by shooting their muskets in the air. They did not discuss New Years, so either it moved to the New Year holiday sometime later, or it was done then as well and people eventually stopped doing it at Christmas. Of course, they didn't usually exchange gifts on Christmas back then, so I guess once they started exchanging gifts, they had better things to do on Christmas morning than shoot their muskets up in the air!

[Stanley Milgram]

My grandfather used to complain that his neighbor used to shoot his rifle everytime LSU scored a touchdown. This was in a dense Baton Rouge neighborhood.

[micaelagb]

micaelagb, do you have the email subcription to the MMWR weekly? Do you need it for work?

I'm really into death and disease, but I thought I was the only one who read these reports just for the fun of it.
I did use it for work, for a while, but since I left that job I've never unsubscribed. It is pretty interesting, and you get an update of flu season in your mailbox every week! ;)

[Malik Shabazz]

Two true stories:

1) My wife's grandmother called a contractor to fix her roof, which was leaking over her porch.

He climbed up to the roof, came back down, and said, "Mrs. L, you've got to step off your porch when you fire your gun on New Years Eve."

2) One year we visited my sister-in-law and her family in Gary, Ind., for Christmas. Because of a snow-storm, we had to stay a few extra days -- which meant we would be in Gary (a/k/a "Murder Capitol, USA") for New Years.

A few minutes before midnight, my sister-in-law suggested that we turn down the lights and stand away from the windows. Suddenly, you could hear gunshots from all directions. A few minutes later the power went out. My sister-in-law said that this happens every year. It seems that the electrical boxes on utility poles are a favorite target.