For most, New Year’s Eve means revelry and celebration, often with fireworks and even gunfire as people shoot into the air, caught up in the excitement and noisemaking. However, firing random shots into the sky isn’t safe at all.

“What goes up must come down,” said Statesboro police Capt. Jared Akins.

The bullets fired into the air will fall somewhere, and possibly cause property damage, if not injury or death.

Firing a gun, even a BB or pellet gun, demands responsibility and caution, he advised. Rules of proper shooting require aiming at targets with a berm, or barrier, behind them, and if not, never firing in the direction of a home or building, or a road where cars and people can be found, he said.

Other ways of celebration are preferable to gunfire, and in some areas, squeezing off a shot is illegal. Shooting firearms within 200 yards of a residence, building or person in the city limits of Statesboro is illegal, and violations can result in charges of reckless conduct or worse, he said.  If that stray bullet damages a vehicle or other property, or kills or injures a person or animal, the charges can get tougher.

People being injured by gunfire on New Year’s Eve or July Fourth is not as uncommon as one may think. According to Associated Press reports, a woman was struck by a stray bullet in

Raleigh, North Carolina, last year as she celebrated with friends.

A 9-year-old boy in Cleveland was wounded by a stray bullet last New Year's Eve as he watched television inside his family's home. Another 9-year-old boy in Atlanta was shot in the abdomen by celebratory gunfire early Jan. 1, 2019, while he and his family set off fireworks, and in Decatur, Georgia, a 4-year-old boy was killed in 2010 when an AK-47 round penetrated a church roof and struck him in the head as he sat next to his parents during a New Year's Eve service, reports said.

A 2004 study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said people struck by gunfire shot into the air are most likely to be hit in the head.

Akins said a man in Statesboro was injured last year when a stray bullet entered a gym through a window near Deacon Place. The victim was working when struck by the bullet and suffered minor injuries.

He advised starting off 2020 safely by celebrating in a more responsible manner, leaving the gunfire to responsible hunting and target practice in an area where the bullets are not a danger.

Herald reporter Holli Deal Saxon may be reached at (912) 489-9414.