Shot that killed Chesterfield boy fired within 5,000 ft [celebratory gunfire near Richmond VA]

Richmond Times-Dispatch ^ | July 17, 2013 | Mark Bowes

[deks]

Police now believe a bullet that killed a 7-year-old Chesterfield County boy was fired randomly somewhere within a 5,000-foot radius from the spot where the child was fatally struck while walking with his father July 4.

Ballistics and federal firearms experts consulted by Chesterfield police believe the .40-caliber-class bullet was likely fired at a 55- to 70- degree angle and, based on that trajectory, the round likely traveled a maximum distance of about 5,000 feet, or just less than a mile, Chesterfield Capt. Chris Hensley said during a news briefing Monday.

Hensley said the bullet that killed Brendon Mackey came almost straight down. He was struck in the head as he walked to The Boathouse at Sunday Park on the Swift Creek Reservoir. ...

Chesterfield police, assisted by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, have begun canvassing neighborhoods within the maximum estimated range of the bullet’s trajectory in an attempt to find the person responsible. ...

Hensley said police began canvassing neighborhoods Friday in the Brandermill area and covered 300 to 400 homes so far, or about 10 to 15 percent of the targeted area. ...

“So this is going to take time,” the captain said. “People need to know over the next several weeks, that if they have a police officer or detective knocking on their door, it’s going to be in relation to this case.”

[aimhigh]

I can’t tell you how many times I have been out shooting, or around people with guns, where they wave that thing around like it’s cotton candy.

Here's an article that backs you up:

Man shot through both arms are range

[DoughtyOne]

In later years, when asked to name his proudest moment in Congress, John McCain would go all the way back to his first year in the House of Representatives to point to a case in which he stood against a Republican president. In 1983, McCain voted against Ronald Reagan's decision to deploy U.S. troops to Lebanon. "I do not see any obtainable objectives in Lebanon," he said at the time, "and the longer we stay there, the harder it will be to leave."43 (1) McCain sees the act as a defining moment: the neophyte lawmaker breaking ranks with his party and his political hero. (The actual vote was 270-161 in favor of deployment; McCain was joined by twenty-seven Republicans in opposition.) (2) The dissenters would later be vindicated when a truck bomber slammed into the Marine barracks in Lebanon, killing 241 U.S. servicemen and precipitating a U.S. withdrawal. "It demonstrated to me that you really have to do, at the end of the day, what you fundamentally know is right," McCain told the National Journal years later.

(1) I would have to disagree that this was his party, or President Reagan was his political hero.  Over time that has been born out.  John McCain was his political hero.  Anyone with a buck was 'his party', even George Soros, Theresa Heinz Kerry, and the Tides Foundation.

(2) You aren't vindicated when something preventable takes place.  That truck should never have made it anywhere near the barracks in Lebanon.  President Reagan was terribly underserved when logistics on the ground were not set up to adequately prevent something like this happening.  And of course there was John McCain basking in the limelight explaining what a sage he was, ignoring the true unfortunate nature of this attack.  "See, see, I was right..."  Asshole!

That was a long read alright.  I didn't have time to go all the way through it.  It does look worthy of doing some time though, so I'm saving a link to it.

Thank you.

[deks]

>
An article with additional information has been posted here. . .

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/va-boys-death-puts-focus-celebratory-gunshots