Lady hit by falling bullet in Denver.

[DEAGLER]

DENVER -- A Denver woman has an amazing story of survival after being hit by a falling bullet.
Wendy Shaya said she nearly lost her life in the middle of a quiet peaceful afternoon along East 58th Avenue in Green Valley Ranch.
Shaya said, ?I had put a lock back on the house, walking back to my car, when all of a sudden I felt a really sharp pain in my foot and look down it was gushing blood everywhere."
Shaya said her first thoughts were that she?d been hit by a rock or that a vein had ruptured. Instead, doctors at the emergency room at University Hospital showed her an X-ray of her foot with a 9 MM bullet inside.
Shaya says she never heard gunfire and police told her it was a falling bullet that could have been fired from as far as two miles away.
Her sister, Allison Cohen said, ?My immediate thought was she absolutely could?ve died, had been half a second sooner or later. Had a bullet going anywhere different this outcome would be different she wouldn?t be with us."
Shaya is sharing her story with hopes that this doesn?t happen to anybody else. "The biggest thing is that it is illegal to shoot guns in the air and the idea that if you do that, the bullet is still deadly," she said.
Denver police tell us they are investigating the falling bullet and, according to Shaya, are trying to match the bullet with gun involved in any other crimes.

[MrAK]

Growing up in San Antonio Texas, it seemed that every New Year’s Eve the news would broadcast a PSA about “three little kids die every year from people shooting their guns in the air at midnight, please don’t do that”. Seems that every New Year’s Day there’d be a report of another handful of kids dead from falling bullets.

[Irving]

I've pulled bullets out of roofs on occasion.

[kidicarus13]

"Lady hit by falling bullet" and "Green Valley Ranch". ...

[BPTactical]

"Lady hit by falling bullet" and "Green Valley Ranch". ...

This is my surprised face

[fitz19d]

I've had a Denver PD cop talk about problems with some of the hispanic bars in the area are notorious for patrons leaving at night and along the route home having some celebratory gunfire.

[kidicarus13]

I've had a Denver PD cop talk about problems with some of the hispanic bars in the area are notorious for patrons leaving at night and along the route home having some celebratory gunfire.




in the middle of a quiet peaceful afternoon along East 58th Avenue in Green Valley Ranch

[packratt75]

At an office building about half city block in size located next to government supplied housing in New Orleans, I recovered a handful of bullets, mostly handgun, from the roof after New Years.

[BPTactical]

At an office building about half city block in size located next to government supplied housing in New Orleans, I recovered a handful of bullets, mostly handgun, from the roof after New Years.

Username checks out

[Colorado Osprey]

" A bullet fired straight up, with no wind, might reach a height of 10,000 feet (about three kilometers), but will come back down at only around 150 miles per hour: just 10% of the speed and with only 1% of the energy as the originally fired bullet." --- https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/02/15/firing-a-gun-into-the-air-can-kill-someone/#6c821cbc3d22

That mean a 9mm fired into the air that has a muzzle energy of 350-400 ft/lbs would only be 3.5 to 4 ft lbs of energy. Less energy than someone dropping a soda on your foot from waist high.
Another analogy.. an underhand light toss of a baseball has 3.4-4 ft lbs of energy... one that you would not need a baseball mitt to catch.
Yes now put that on something with a smaller surface down to .356" diameter with a blunt tip and you have the penetrating capability of penetrating soft tissue between 1/2 to an 1". Any human bone would stop that bullet without penetration. Probably would not even break a finger bone.

This lady is a little far fetched to believe she almost died.

[FoxtArt]

" A bullet fired straight up, with no wind, might reach a height of 10,000 feet (about three kilometers), but will come back down at only around 150 miles per hour: just 10% of the speed and with only 1% of the energy as the originally fired bullet." --- https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/02/15/firing-a-gun-into-the-air-can-kill-someone/#6c821cbc3d22

That mean a 9mm fired into the air that has a muzzle energy of 350-400 ft/lbs would only be 3.5 to 4 lf lbs of energy. Less energy than someone dropping a soda on your foot from waist high.

Most bullets aren't fired perfectly straight up though, where their original velocity is terminated. If they aren't fired perfectly vertically, they still retain enough kinetic energy to pierce a body even after apogee - even a couple miles away, or more.

ETA: I've seen studies on perfectly vertical firings of 30-06, and they did significantly dent boards. They might even have enough energy to go through a shoe and draw blood. 9mm, who knows. We can't draw general conclusions even on a vertical firing from the term "bullet" because they will all have a vastly different drag coefficient backwards (they maintain their gyroscopic spin and point of aim, even as they fall back down). Some bullets might have a much, much higher terminal velocity - like ones that have a tapered base. E.g. comparing a 30-06 to a 45 to a 9mm to a 50bmg even on a perfectly vertical firing, I'd bet at least one of those, probably more, could still kill a person.

[Irving]

If you fire a bullet at a low enough angle that it never becomes unstable in its twist, then it will retain much more energy.

[FoxtArt]

The article is incorrect on bullets beginning to tumbling in midair... if they were stable shortly out of the barrel they remain so (at whatever angle). Their rotational velocity changes so negligibly during the whole time-of-flight. They literally remain pointed in their original direction the entire time spinning at 20,000 RPM or whatever (invented #) even at APOGEE, which caused SERIOUS problems in the earlier rifled artillery. Long range rifled artillery would impact on the side of the round - with the round still pointed in the original axis of the barrel, if you will - and all the mechanisms for arming/fusing were in the nose. = high rate of "duds".

[ray1970]

Stories like this remind me of when people drop coins off of tall buildings and kill people.

[hollohas]

The article is incorrect on bullets beginning to tumbling in midair... if they were stable shortly out of the barrel they remain so (at whatever angle). Their rotational velocity changes so negligibly during the whole time-of-flight. They literally remain pointed in their original direction the entire time spinning at 20,000 RPM or whatever (invented #) even at APOGEE, which caused SERIOUS problems in the earlier rifled artillery. Long range rifled artillery would impact on the side of the round - with the round still pointed in the original axis of the barrel, if you will - and all the mechanisms for arming/fusing were in the nose. = high rate of "duds".

Not true. Some bullets become very unstable as they lose velocity. Some can even tumble and keyhole at long ranges as they go transonic.

Edit:. Here's the best explanation I can find.

https://loadoutroom.com/thearmsguide/long-range-shooting-external-ballistics-transonic-region/

Also, check out some stuff from Bryan Litz and Applied Ballistics. The dude literally wrote the book on modern rifle ballistics and has done the tests to prove the math.

[Gman]

*See also "ballistic trajectory"