gun owner shows some restraint

[stopgo]

I'm a n00b so please regard this as an honest question and not an attempt to stir the pot...

The location this guy is talking about is a flat outcropping adjacent to what's called "The Mesa". It overlooks Boise's Northeast end; essentially three or four residential areas that are all within the shadow of Table Rock. The cross is probably the most prominent feature in the area so it's pretty easy to tell where this all happened, and I can see it from my backyard.

The elevation difference between the cross and any of the residential areas (which are spread from around the 5o'clock to the 11o'clock position if you were standing at the cross) is between +300 and +400 feet, possibly more. Table rock is about 2000+ feet from those areas, give or take. Given the possibility that any of these residential areas could have been in our hero's line of fire, would you be at all concerned about any errant shots landing in a residential area? And, if so, would it be enough of a risk to make you think twice about pulling the trigger?

[mekender]

I'm a n00b so please regard this as an honest question and not an attempt to stir the pot...

The location this guy is talking about is a flat outcropping adjacent to what's called "The Mesa". It overlooks Boise's Northeast end; essentially three or four residential areas that are all within the shadow of Table Rock. The cross is probably the most prominent feature in the area so it's pretty easy to tell where this all happened, and I can see it from my backyard.

The elevation difference between the cross and any of the residential areas (which are spread from around the 5o'clock to the 11o'clock position if you were standing at the cross) is between +300 and +400 feet, possibly more. Table rock is about 2000+ feet from those areas, give or take. Given the possibility that any of these residential areas could have been in our hero's line of fire, would you be at all concerned about any errant shots landing in a residential area? And, if so, would it be enough of a risk to make you think twice about pulling the trigger?

When someone has pointed a deadly weapon at me, my concern becomes stopping their threat. Any things that might occur in the background are secondary to my own survival at that point.

[ZeroGravitas]

I call that a ton of restraint from one cool-headed sonofa.

I'm with the rest of you guys - I think there'd be a BB gun next to a dead drunk and good guy calling his lawyer from jail. Holy smoke, I prefer real criminals over an asswipe with a BB gun.

[D5CAV]

The elevation difference between the cross and any of the residential areas (which are spread from around the 5o'clock to the 11o'clock position if you were standing at the cross) is between +300 and +400 feet, possibly more. Table rock is about 2000+ feet from those areas, give or take. Given the possibility that any of these residential areas could have been in our hero's line of fire, would you be at all concerned about any errant shots landing in a residential area? And, if so, would it be enough of a risk to make you think twice about pulling the trigger?

At 2000 feet (about 7 football fields), the risk is pretty low. You can do the calculation using high-school physics, but I would estimate that a pistol bullet (about 1000fps velocity) launched parallel to the ground would hit the ground before 2000 feet, even from a 400 foot elevation.

Furthermore, someone has to be standing where the bullet happens to land. If you look at the land area subtended by the range you described, you're looking at a bullet landing somewhere within about 1 or 2 square miles. Lightening strikes would be a bigger risk factor.

As an aside, the Soviets used this argument (random possibility of unintentional targets of stray rounds) to convict German ace Erik Hartmann of 'war crimes' against Soviet civilians based on the idea that some of his 20mm MG rounds had to have missed his targets and hit the ground of Mother Russia somewhere where a Russian peasant might be standing. Already an unlikely scenario, for Hartmann, this was ridiculous. Hartmann typically RTB with almost full magazines, even after shooting down one or two Soviet AC. Hartmann didn't believe in dogfights. He would come up behind and below the enemy AC and open fire with a few rounds from less than 100m. Most of his [strike]victims[/strike]opponents never knew what hit them.