Things got a little rowdy at the South by Southwest music and technology festival in Austin over the weekend. Apparently, someone was so amped up by SXSW’s eviction of a free speech activist because she refused to censor her Twitter feed, the film about the University of Texas Bell tower shooting from the 1960s winning some kind of award, and a speech by some guy who used to be president urging the citizenry to trade some more essential liberty for a little more imagined security, he decided to celebrate by launching a few rounds into the air . . .
Fox News has the story:
Shots were fired early Sunday on a downtown Austin, Texas, street crowded with people celebrating at the South by Southwest music and technology festival, police said.
Austin Police said several shots were fired into the air around 1:30 a.m. Sunday and witnesses said the gunfire caused the crowd to run in panic.
Police said one person was taken into custody and the gun was recovered….
Reports on social media indicated that a crowd of SXSW’ers fled the area in panic when the shots rang out, although there were no reports of any injuries either from the shooting or from the stampede.
I’m sure most of y’all saw the Mythbusters episode where Adam and Jamie kind of, sort of, confirmed that in certain circumstances a round fired into the air in celebration might be able to cause a lethal injury when it comes down (it was the only myth to simultaneously receive the ratings of “Busted”, “Plausible”, and “Confirmed”.) Nevertheless, I suspect that the greatest risk of injury from some damned fool thing like firing a gun into the air in the middle of a freakin’ street party comes more from the panicked stampede it might touch off or a police officer or concealed carrier drawing down on you once you break leather for no good reason.
I’ll leave today’s (so far unidentified) IGOTD winner with a meditation from one of my earlier firearms instructors: We don’t shoot at God.