fireworks or gun shots?

[BigBill]

Before the 4th of July I hear gun shots from the local farms near me all the time day and sometimes at night but not that often.

Now I hear fireworks but some sound like gun fire more like 9mm pistols. Ever notice that? I hear the perfect sequence of a semi auto pistol and the dull bang a handgun makes. It's not the pop, pop pop of a fire cracker.

 

[vonn]

Do you live in Chicago? If you do they may be shots. You will know when they are incoming because they sound different.

 

[feralmerril]

I worked in a foundry on graveyard when I was 18. One night I dodged about a dozen firecrackers over a hour or so. One guy threw one that didnt go off and it had a short fuse left. Turned out the company troubleshooter was called out of bed to investigate the tom foolery. I was the lucky one. I picked up the firecracker set the fuse on fire and flipped it my antagonist. The firecracker hadnt went 15 feet and the troubleshooter walked by from around some machinery. It blew up only a foot or so from his nose! He almost did a back flip! Right then I figured my first good paying job was gone! He pulled out a pen and notebook and took my name down. Then he said "One more time and your outta here!" There was a little more tolerance 55 years ago.

 

[wbraswell]

Gunfire sounds different, from what I've experienced. Fircrackers will have reports that are too close together to be shots, and erratic pace. Shots may be slower and more steady.

 

[Marshwheeling]

On the night of the fourth, my wife and I were sitting out late, listening to the sounds of the fireworks in the neighborhood. She suggested I get out a gun and fire a few shots to add to the festivities. I demurred.

 

[Bkreutz]

Gunfire sounds different, from what I've experienced. Fircrackers will have reports that are too close together to be shots, and erratic pace. Shots may be slower and more steady.

I'm guessing you haven't been to many USPSA matches...........

 

[OFT II]

Around here it would have to be gunfire because it's illegal to pop fireworks in the city limit.

 

[rburg]

Well, I live down on the riverbank. Never much coming from across the river except the grain terminal downstream. Most of that rat shooting stopped a few years back. Complaints about richoets into occupied places. Buckeye cops are too lazy to investigate or care.

The idiot hillbilly up on the hill behind me had either an AK or SKS. He'd unload the gun almost nightly around the 4th. I have no idea where he was aiming. He moved. And I'm guessing only 2 of us around here have golfball canons. That'd be me and the other fool. Mine all head up north towards Ohio. You can tell canon fodder because when you find a golfball with one side pristine and the other kind of sooty, its been fired.

I do know that shots fired indoors are pretty easy to distinguish. We were in an apartment just up the road a piece. The babe (older) had a love hate thing going on with her lover. They'd fight all the time. She slammed the door on him one time and he fired a shot into the door, then left. Good quality door, thick solid wood. A little while later there was a knock at my door. I just yelled through it "who's there and what'da want". He said its the police. I looked out and saw it was a uniform, so I opened up for him. He asked if I had a gun, so I asked "why?" The dumb bimbo called the cops so she knew who fired it. She didn't tell them that, only that "someone" had shot her door. Well, it wasn't me, my guns would easily penetrate a thin 2" of wood. Besides, I wasn't mad at her and wouldn't really want to go inside with her.

More gunshots. I've got a brother who lives in Wisconsin. He leaves home for a hotel in the city every opening day of deer gun season. After the first few days of firefights, he comes home and calls his insurance agent. Most years they find bullet holes in the house. He fixes the easy ones, they pay a guy that specializes in it for the hard ones, or glass. Makes me think most of their hunters are city folk who can't tell a deer from a house.

Handgun shots are harder to tell than rifle shots. Rifle shots generally exceed the sound barrier well out from the gun. Pistol shots usually don't. My dalmatian could tell the difference from firecrackers. He hated the black powder bang sound. Didn't mind gunshots. Go figure. He got so upset and scared he and I'd go to the basement. I had a nice comfortable couch and we had a throw rug on top of the carpet right next to it. The couch was kind of low and I could reach down and pet him as I took my half of "our" nap. My wife was convinced I took advantage of his fears to take a few naps extra. When she'd say that, I'd tell Ole Spot to bite her. Of course he liked her as much as me and didn't understand why he should bite her. But he really liked basement naps. The only thing better than a nap was getting petted whilst sleeping.

 

[Straightshooter2]

The area around my church has become "regentrified" meaning mostly younger people have bought and fixed up the 90-100 year old houses in the neighborhood. Most of these people also seem to be very left wing. My wife is always telling me about those in the neighborhood complaining on Facebook about gunshots coming from the low income housing not far away. The problem is, most of them don't know a gunshot from any other loud noise. If a car backfires on Moreland Ave., someone will call 911 to report gunshots and then post it on Facebook. When the fireworks go off after the Braves win a home game, someone will call 911 to report gunshots and post it on Facebook. I swear I think if you slapped two 2X4s together, someone in the neighborhood would call 911 and post it on Facebook! Preemptively on the 4th, someone posted on the neighborhood FB page, "It's the 4th of July people, it's not gunshots!"

CW