Residents Warned of Perils of Firing Guns Into the Air

Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams pleaded Wednesday with residents to refrain from shooting guns into the air on New Year’s Eve, saying: “The bullet that goes up comes down.”

“It does maim. It does injure. It does kill,” Williams said at a news conference in front of a Crenshaw area youth center.

Shooting a gun indiscriminately, even if it causes no injury, is a felony that carries at least a one-year prison term, authorities said.

Flanked by City Council members Ruth Galanter, Nate Holden, Joel Wachs and neighborhood children, Williams said New Year’s Eve gunfire has caused “serious injuries and even some deaths” in the past. He credited the department’s annual gunfire reduction program--initiated in 1989--for having “drastically reduced” the practice of celebrating by shooting guns into the air.

In fact, there have been no gunfire-related deaths or injuries in the city on New Year’s Eve for three years, Williams said.

“Last year was the quietest New Year’s Eve that we have had in years,” Williams said, adding that he hopes the city’s fourth annual campaign to reduce gunfire will pay off again this year.

Capt. Bruce Hagerty of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Southeast Station said that in 1988 at least one man was killed and dozens were injured by people celebrating New Year’s Eve by firing guns into the air.

“Normally law-abiding citizens will celebrate New Year’s Eve by shooting their guns,” Hagerty said. “If we educate them about the dangers and illegalities . . . we think they would stop firing.”

With $35,000 appropriated by the Los Angeles City Council, the LAPD has distributed 800,000 flyers and 15,000 posters, and has placed messages on 25 billboards, 200 bus benches and 25 bus shelters across the city. The flyers and ads, printed in English and Spanish, show a handgun inside a circle with a slash across it and warn: “On New Year’s Eve, don’t endanger your loved ones.”

Also, the council plans to consider a motion Tuesday that would authorize $5,000 rewards for information leading to the arrest and conviction of people who shoot guns into the air this year. Ammunition sales are prohibited seven days before New Year’s Eve.