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Take me out to the Ballgame! BY GREG WALTERS |
So we decided, the hell with what the weather guessers are saying about rain . . . "Let's go take in the game".
At 7:10 on the dot the skies opened up and drenched the field with about half an hour of rain.
The game finally go under way at 8:30. the picture above is the back side of the storm that dumped all the water on Royals Stadium. The unusual view of the "back side of the storm", illuminated by the the setting sun from the west, as you can see, was amazing.

BY PAUL LIVIUS
Surrounding
Community Leaders take a
strong stand against Celebratory Gunfire
Firing a gun into the air has always been illegal in Kansas City. But under Blair’s Law the indiscriminate firing of a weapon into the air is now illegal in ALL cities in Missouri.
The law is named after a Blair Shanahan Lane, who died
instantly when a bullet fired nearly a mile away struck her spinal cord and instantly
killed her. She was waiting in line to get her sparkler lit to celebrate the
Fourth of July at a gathering of friends.
Another celebratory gunfire event has been reported of a Kansas City Police officer who was struck by a bullet as he left City Hall. The shooter was eventually discovered. He had fired his handgun into the air to celebrate a football game win by the Kansas City Chiefs. The Police Department credits a tree that altered the trajectory and slow down the bullet as it fell back to Earth.
Mayor Quinton Lucas On Wednesday, Kansas City Mayor Quinton
Lucas and Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson highlighted the consequences of firing guns into the air and urged safety in
firing a weapon and disregarding where the bullet will go.
“Don’t shoot your gun, don’t shoot them into the air,” said
Mayor Lucas. “You will be investigated, you will be charged, and you will be
prosecuted.”
A reporter from KCTV 5
Under Blair’s Law
the following penalties apply to recklessly firing a weapon into the air:
FIRST OFFENSE:(misdemeanor) Up to one year in jail or a $2,000 fine.
SECOND OFFENSE: (felony) Up to four years in jail.
According to Jackson Prosecutor, Melesa Johnson, 23 people
have been arrested in Jackson County under Blair’s Law. She asked all the metropolitan
community help in keeping our communities safe.
If you see or hear what may be the firing of a gun into the air call the police at 911.
MYTHS about Celebratory Gunfire:
Bullets shot upwards simply vanish into space. No, we know better now. The bullets do most definitely come back down to Earth and fall on something, the ground, a car, a building, or a person. Celebratory gunfire is harmless. Firing random bullets may result in death and injury. It is a potentially fatal activity, which regularly results in the deaths of bystanders.
We don’t know why. But we do. Bullets fired at angles less than vertical are more dangerous, as the bullet maintains its angular ballistic trajectory, is far less likely to engage in tumbling motion, and so travels at speeds much higher than a bullet in free fall.
1 Firearms expert Julian Hatcher studied falling bullets in the 1920s and his study showed that 30 caliber rounds can reach terminal velocities of 300 feet per second as they fall. Injury from random gunfire isn’t really serious. More recent research has indicated that 200 feet per second is enough to penetrate the skull.
Examples of fatalities due to celebratory gunfire abound. A study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 80% of celebratory gunfire-related injuries are to the head, feet, and shoulders.[4]2 Injury from celebratory gunfire is rare.
For those hit by falling bullets, the chance of the wound being fatal was far higher than a typical shooting.
The hospital put deaths from regular shootings between 2% and 6%, while for those struck by falling bullets the death rate was close to one third.
The reason is simple – those unlucky enough to be hit by falling shells were more likely to be struck on the head, and while the bullets were travelling slower after being shot into the sky, they were still capable of smashing skulls.
Doesn’t happen anymore though.
It’s still happening. On January 1, 2015, a 43-year-old man, Javier Suarez Rivera, was
struck in his head and killed while watching fireworks with his family in SE Houston.4