As a former parachutist who broke his ankle — to the point where my foot ended-up facing the wrong way — I can attest to the fact that one faces an imminent threat of grievous bodily harm or death when falling through the sky.

But unless you’re James Bond, you don’t need to be armed while in flight, and probably not even then! But if you are, you probably don’t need a silenced firearm. But if you do need one or just want one — ‘Merica! —  it should have a lanyard loop. Just saying.

25 COMMENTS

    • That’s OK, I do…

      In other news, the body of a back-country hiker was found today with a bullet in his skull.

      F-tards f-tarding f-tardarationally. Wouldn’t want to be near this flaming moron New Years’ Even , 4th of July, or any other excuse for him to be randomly discharging into the sky.

      The stupid, careless, and irresponsible, it burns. The scary part is apparently it’s some sort of promo video(?). Maybe they shoulda run by legal, so they could understand their potential liability.

      • Generally, bullets fired into the air end up losing speed until they are at their normal terminal velocity which will not cause injury (nor will coins tossed off a high building). But you CAN manage to shoot someone if you get a low enough angle.

        I don’t know if the bullet in this instance will have so much time that it will be sufficiently slowed but I’m betting they don’t know either.

        • Wrong. Bullets falling from the sky, results of celebratory gunfire and such DO kill and wound. I have seen documentation of heard stories of people injured or killed after being struck by a falling bullet.

        • I assume they took at least rudimentary precautions (the place looks deserted enough), but the whole stuff is still cringeworthy. Double-cringeworthy is the moment of landing with both hands occupied with rifle. As if there is not enough stuff to do when the Planet rushes you.

        • >>which will not cause injury

          Taking Mythbusters estimate (~150 fps), the 150gr bullet will bore down with 10 joules of energy. Not very impressive, comparable with point-blank shot from low-powered PCP hunting rifle (ISSF rigs are likely to be capped at ~7.5J for typical bullet weights).

          Hatcher’s estimate of .30-06’s velocity was twice more: ~300 fps. That’s 40 J, not something to relish being hit with (in head are, mind you). Granted, no one exactly cared to confirm his analysis.

        • How about 5 people struck by celebratory gunfire on 4 New Years (13, 15, 16, 17(2) ) in the Tampa area alone?

        • In 2013, a 7-year-old boy named Brendon Mackey died here in Virginia while walking next to his dad on the 4th of July. A falling .40 cal bullet pierced the top of his head, went all the way through his brain and lodged at the base of his skull. Police attributed it to celebratory gunfire and as far as I know they have still not found the shooter.

          http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/08/10/death-7-year-old-boy-shot-on-july-fourth-in-virginia-puts-focus-on-celebratory.html

        • Hannibal, Do you read the newspaper in your ‘hood? Even in the MW, people die routinely from meatwads shooting into the for a variety of celebratory instances. Let alone in ‘culturally enriched’ Los Angeles.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebratory_gunfire

          (And their information is woefully incomplete).

          As for the folks arguing “terminal velocity”, yeah it’s about 300 FPS with an average round. It will penetrate your skin, and can very much kill you if you are unlucky enough to get hit “right”.

  1. Parachutes are a last ditch desperation survival tool. Not a sporting event. Also, especially, most definately, for the love of god why would you use one, helicopters.

    You’ll have to Mr. T my ass to get me on another helicopter.

    • > You’ll have to Mr. T my ass to get me on another helicopter.

      Is that a challenge? Just kidding, you have to share what happened last time

      Hey at least they jumped out the side and didn’t use the helicopter ejector seats, could have been a lot worse

  2. I’ve never jumped out of an airplane or helicopter… but if I were going to do so, I think I’d want to bring along a basic survival kit (including some manner of firearm) just in case the wind happened to pick up and I landed in the middle of nowhere.

    That said, shooting while actually in descent does not sound like something I’d do by preference.

  3. It’s crazy. I have a couple dozen helicopter jumps and a thousand from with fixed wing aircraft. Zero injuries. Am I lucky? Or did I not do stupid shit?

    • It is a version of the abbreviation or acronym for “Just thought I would leave this here.” It is for the generation of short attention spans.

  4. Geez, lighten up Francis.

    I love skydiving (best thing in the world) and I love shooting guns (Top 5 best things in the world) so I am gonna say it, This looks fun and I’d love to give it a whirl if I was given a chance.

  5. The freedom to do stupid shit. What an incredible thing.

    Growing up in these southern United States, in the 70s, I had lots of it and took full advantage. Just with bicycles and home pyrotechnics alone I should not have survived, but I did and so did everyone around me with no permanent injury to note. (Scars not included.) We were all better more complete human beings for the experience.

    More power to these cap popping idiots falling through space, I’m jealous and filled with ideas that I’m too old and wise to put into action. Just keep it away from my house/kids and in remote areas…where it belongs.

    What a country!

  6. I assume they took at least rudimentary precautions (the place looks deserted enough), but the whole stuff is still cringeworthy.

    Double-cringeworthy is the moment of landing with both hands occupied with rifle. As if there is not enough stuff to do when the Planet rushes you.

  7. And of course, everybody was wearing proper safety gear, including helmets, except the moron with the weapons.

  8. I always wanted to jump with a shotgun and blast something that would free fall about the same speed. Grapefruits maybe?

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