Marquel Peters, 4, Killed by Celebratory Bullet as He Attended New Year's Eve Service at Atlanta Church

Marquel Peters, 4, killed by a celebratory bullet during New Year's Eve services at a church in Decatur, Ga.

Marquel Peters, 4, was killed by a falling bullet from a celebratory gunfire while he attended New Year's Eve services at the Church of God of Prophecy in Decatur, Ga. Dekalb County police spokesman Jason Gagnon said in a media interview that it appears the bullet came through the church's roof and struck the child in the head. What are the odds of such a horrible tragedy befalling this child?

I can never understand why some people are so fascinated with guns and feel like it is a badge of honor to brandish one or even show the whole world that he or she owns a gun. There is no reason why anyone should fire a gun in celebration of any holiday. That is downright ridiculous and could have disastrous effects, as evidenced by the death of this child. Law enforcement departments across this country can't stress enough to the idiots out there about the perils of celebratory gun fire.

I came across a link from the Houston Chronicle that deals with celebratory gunfire and an explanation from Robert Matthew's Q&A book on cosmic conundrums that shows why such actions could have deadly results.

A bullet from a Kalashnikov rifle weighs only about 5 g but leaves the rifle traveling at over 1,500 mph -- twice the speed of sound. This gives the tiny bullet the same amount of energy as a brick dropped from the top of St. Paul's Cathedral, so no wonder bullets tend to kill people.

If there were no atmosphere a bullet fired up into the air would come back down with this same amount of energy, and patently lethal consequences. However, air resistance makes a big difference and cuts the final speed of the descending bullet to around 10 percent of the muzzle velocity, or 150 mph, and its energy is the equivalent to a brick being dropped on your head from the height of four feet or so.

Experiments conducted with real falling bullets have confirmed that this is enough to cause significant injury and there is anecdotal evidence that they may be lethal. The victims are unlikely to be those doing the firing, however. Traveling thousands of feet in the air, the bullets are usually caught by the wind and land as much as a quarter of a mile away from the gun-toting loons who fire them. Source: Houston Chronicle

To all the morons out there, don't fire your gun up in the air. You can hurt or kill someone. It is a sad commentary that there is no suspect in custody for this horrible tragedy. What a horrible way for this family to start the new year!

Photo credit:  Marquel Peters, WSBTV