Can a bullet shot at the sky still be fatal?The danger of airborne bullets.
When we trace the history of the development of firearms, we will find that the earliest recorded guns in China are barrel-shaped firearms in the Southern Song Dynasty, from the sudden appearance of bamboo felt barrels to the later new research. By the 15th century, rifled muskets using gunpowder also appeared in Europe, and after several stages of development such as flintlock guns, rifled guns, and semi-automatic rifles, modern rifles, especially automatic rifles, appeared. Modern rifles have increased lethality, range, and accuracy compared to the past. They are still the most basic configuration of the soldiers of each team and play an irreplaceable role on the battlefield, which is why rifles have not been eliminated to this day.
With the widespread use of rifles, they have also appeared in numerous film and television works, especially in war films. I believe you are familiar with the following scene: a group of soldiers in order to remember their fallen comrades or celebrate their victory, raising their rifles and firing into the sky, which makes the audience's hearts surge. But here's a spoiler: on a real battlefield, a soldier can't shoot into the sky. This is because bullets falling from the sky have a certain lethality, and it is easy to create **people**.
According to the principle of the injury of bullets to the human body, we can see that the heavier and faster the bullet, the greater the lethality. Since all the bullets fired by modern firearms are very fast and the kinetic energy generated is also very large, the fragile human body is seriously injured. And these bullets that shoot into the sky can become the deadliest stray bullets on the battlefield, hitting the human body or falling to the ground.
Since the high-velocity state of the projectile will not last forever, at the moment of launch, the kinetic energy will be converted into potential energy and thermal energy, and when the kinetic energy is exhausted, the projectile will start to produce gravitational acceleration again, and the potential energy will be converted into kinetic energy again, so that the projectile will still fall to the ground.
In this case, even if the projectile does not hit the ground sharply, it will inevitably suffer serious damage if it unfortunately breaks. Although the bullet is also affected by factors such as wind and air resistance during the fall, its lethality is no less than that of a pistol shot because the falling speed is not low.
This is not just a conclusion reached by scientists through experiments and speculation, because Iraq has learned this hard lesson. Iraqis breathed a sigh of relief when Iraq, still not yet out of war, defeated Saudi Arabia in a soccer match to win the Asian Cup. As people took to the streets to celebrate, gunfire suddenly broke out, killing seven people and injuring more than 50 others.
You can understand why soldiers on the battlefield are not allowed to shoot into the sky. In addition to ensuring safety, another reason is to save on ammunition, after all, in the war phase, ** expenses are very important. However, don't be surprised to see platoon guns and rifles too often, as these are usually empty cartridges that don't pose any potential danger.