“As New Year’s Eve approaches, the Los Angeles Police Department is launching its Citywide Gunfire Reduction Campaign. This campaign is designed to help reduce incidents of indiscriminate gunfire that have become a deadly New Year’s tradition in our city… Discharging a firearm into the air is a felony punishable by one year in state prison. Anyone arrested for discharging a firearm will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.Many times individuals involved in celebrating New Year’s Eve with gunfire do not realize the dangers posed by their actions. Researchers report that a bullet fired into the air can climb two miles into the air and remain in flight for more than a minute. As it falls, the bullet reaches a velocity of 300 to 700 feet per second. A velocity of only 200 feet per second is sufficient to penetrate the human skull.

Over the last several years, the Los Angeles Police Department has made great strides in reducing the amount of gunfire that occurs on New Year’s Eve…In 1997, forty-two arrests were made on New Year’s Eve for gunfire related crimes and fifty firearms were seized by task force officers.”

May efforts like this reduce not just New Year’s eve gunfire, but any and all gunfire from our city streets.