…thrown off of the Empire State Building or by a bullet hot into the air?
Shot
This is strictly a memory from my early youth/adulthood. I grew up around Wash. DC.
I think I remember some jerk dropping a marble or something from the top of the Washington Monument around the 1960’s or 70’s and it lodged in some poor woman’s shoulder. Sorry, but it probably was in Washington Post.
PJ O’Rourke’s book “Give War a Chance” talks about casualties from celebratory bullets being shot into the air after the liberation of Kuwait.
Would a penny dropped from the Empire State Building kill someone on the ground? by Cecil Adams
This item mentions several incidents of people being hit by bullets from guns fired in the air. Some were fatal.
I seem to remember that in Romania (or Bulgaria?) it is common practice to fire guns into the air as part of a wedding celebration, and people have been hit by the falling bullets there.
Pennies are not very streamlined, so I’m guessing they don’t have the chance to build up a lot of speed. I believe the marble and bullet stories, though.
–Nut
This is from memory, but on New Year’s in Houston a few years back, some idiot shot a pistol into the air and it hit a guy across town. I’ll find a cite if it’s needed.
In Can a bullet fired into the air kill someone when it comes down?, Cecil retreats a little from the comments in his earlier column.