Bottle-popping and festive hats are celebration staples, but some Chattanoogans like to ring in the New Year with gunfire.
Police say the tradition of firing into the air at midnight is risky for the neighbors and stressful for officers who scramble every Jan. 1 to follow up on reports of blazing guns.
"Pretty much countywide, we will end up responding to 30 or 40 shots-fired calls right around midnight on New Year's Eve," said Jeff Carney, operations manager for the Hamilton County 911 Emergency District. "On a normal night, we might get three shots-fired calls total."
Police officers say it's the usual mix of alcohol and guns that sends people outdoors to fire at the sky.
"Right around midnight we'll see a big spike in calls," said Investigator Michael Wenger, a nine-year Chattanooga Police Department veteran and SWAT team squad leader. "It's a safety risk."
On normal nights, police would almost always respond to reports of gunfire. But on New Year's Eve and the Fourth of July, police manpower is so taxed, officers can only respond to repeated calls from the same area, Investigator Wenger said.
"I would say that the number is easily in the thousands of rounds fired," he said.
In Memphis last year, a baby's diaper was penetrated by a stray bullet that apparently pierced a church roof and then struck the baby as her mother held her during a late-night service, according Memphis TV station WMC-TV.
The baby wasn't injured, her mother said. The church's pastor said God protected her.
The danger posed by the bullets is questionable. Most experts agree that falling bullets could reach terminal velocity of about 200 mph. That's enough to hurt a person, but probably not to penetrate the skin, they say. Bullets, straight out of the muzzle, travel about 700 mph to 1,200 mph.
The TV show "MythBusters" tested the theory. They found that bullets fired perfectly straight into the air were slowed when falling back toward the ground. But bullets are rarely fired that way, the TV show's tests found, so many could come down at very high speeds.
Even if the bullets couldn't kill someone, firing in the air is not a good idea, police said.
"I don't want a bullet at any speed coming toward me," Investigator Wenger said.
He recalled a particular New Year's Eve when bullet fire was so intense around his patrol car, he and another officer had to hunker down and seek cover.
Even if the projectile doesn't threaten a human, there are other risks.
"There is the issue of property damage," Investigator Wenger said. "Cars, roofs, and other property can be damaged."
PDF: Stray bullet falls out of baby's diaper in church
2008 GUNFIRE REPORTS
* Dec. 30, 2008: 3 shots-fired calls
* 11 a.m.-7 a.m. Dec. 31, 2008-Jan. 1, 2009: 30 shots-fired calls
Source: Hamilton County 911 Emergency District
Adam Crisp covers education issues for the Times Free Press. He joined the paper's staff in 2007 and initially covered crime, public safety, courts and general assignment topics. Prior to Chattanooga, Crisp was a crime reporter at the Savannah Morning News and has been a reporter and editor at community newspapers in southeast Georgia. In college, he led his student paper to a first-place general excellence award from the Georgia College Press Association. He earned ...
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