Below zero temperatures in the Twin Cities and Midnight gunfire.

[MineralMan]

Crushing cold did not deter the dedicated firearms owners from discharging their weapons at Midnight. Nope. Sturdy and patriotic to a fault, they stepped out of their doors in their jammies and slippers to empty their magazines into the air or into the frozen tundra, and to send their message to the neighbors:

"I am armed. I can pull a trigger. Were you asleep? Not anymore you're not! Bang! Bang! BangbangbangbangBANG!"

That was the guy two doors up the street with his 1911 Colt .45. He's proud of it. He has shown it to me more than once.

Other neighbors fired other guns. I heard five booming rounds from a 12 ga. shotgun, and a 15-round ear-cracking volley from some AR-15 clone nearby, as well.

WTF Boys!?1! Go back inside, get into bed and "cover gut up," as an old German farmer once said on a cold winter night.

Screw that noise!

[Gothmog]

1. We will be in teens in Houston this week

[greytdemocrat]

2. How dare you!!!

You unpatriotic Marxist!!!!

[pintobean]

3. I bet most, if not all

of it, was fireworks.

[MineralMan]

4. Actually, no, it wasn't.

I can tell the difference. In fact, I can tell pretty well what type of firearm has been fired. In fact, I did, in my post.

[2naSalit]

6. Not in my town

there was more of what sounded like mortar rounds than gunfire... and for those of us who know the difference, not much in the way of firecrackers.

[MineralMan]

9. Yeah. I didn't hear any large aerial fireworks last night here.

It's too damned cold to set them up and light them. Much easier to step out the door and pull the trigger, I think.

[2naSalit]

11. I'm sure you're correct about that...

it was a balmy -22F last night but it's a roiling +9F right now and looking to be in the +20s today! A veritable heatwave at this time of year.

[MineralMan]

12. It may get up to +3 or 4 today here.

Balmy, to be sure.

[2naSalit]

15. Indeed.

We were on the very edge of the arctic air mass and have had milder temps than just a little east of us, only in the single digits above 0F until Sunday when the temperature dropped by twenty degrees in an hour without wind - which unusual for this area. The cold air crept upon us like a shadow and crept away just as silently last night. We got a few feet of snow just before that so there's that styrofoam effect after all the moisture is leached out of the snow. At these temps it's loud.

Now the sun is rising and I need to pull some shades so I can see inside the place, the reflection from the snow is blinding otherwise.

Happy New Year and I wish the best to you and yours!

2na

[csziggy]

17. Last night there were maybe ten minutes worth of fireworks

Usually the fireworks start when it gets dark and goes until nearly 1 AM.

This shows how wimpy Floridians are - it was only down to the upper thirties and drizzling here in Tallahassee, but people did not want to stay out in that weather to set off their fireworks.

No gunshots as far as I noticed. I think our neighbor with the firing range he lends out to the local SWAT teams has discouraged that activity in the neighborhood, other than people shooting coyotes.

[Sancho]

5. Not sure about MN, but here in Florida we have issues with all the midnight celebration every year..

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/st-pete-teen-injured-by-celebratory-gunfire-cruiser-struck/2259715

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/ruskin-boy-in-coma-after-being-struck-by-celebratory-new-years-gunfire/1208726

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/woman-struck-in-leg-at-busch-gardens-by-bullet-from-celebratory-gunfire/2212120

http://www.tbo.com/pinellas-county/st-pete-woman-hit-by-falling-bullet-says-it-could-have-killed-her-595782

http://www.fox13news.com/news/local-news/two-struck-by-bullets-from-celebratory-gunfire

http://www.fox13news.com/news/local-news/hcso-responds-to-two-victims-of-celebratory-gunfire

[MineralMan]

8. Haven't heard any reports of that here, but it's still

early in the day. It's best to fire your weapon at the ground, if you're using it as a noisemaker but it seems like people like shooting at the sky a lot better. I'm not sure why.

I love the phrase, "celebratory gunfire." What, exactly, are they celebrating, I wonder on New Years at Midnight. Certainly not their intellectual gifts...

[2naSalit]

7. What confuses me is

why a country who espouses the virtues of "peace"* would celebrate many of its holidays with the sounds of war.


*for whatever that means anymore.

[former9thward]

10. This happens in Chicago every year.

Cops are instructed to put their squad cars underneath overpasses around midnight to avoid falling bullets.

[Generic Brad]

13. What goes up must come down

Bullets sprayed into the sky do not disappear into the ether. They are eventually going to land somewhere and there is a real risk of them hitting something or someone somewhere. I know that is a remote possibility, but it is a possibility nonetheless.

It amazes me that "responsible gun owners" think this practice is OK.

[MineralMan]

14. Yeah, well, at Midnight on New Year's Eve,

there's a good chance that alcohol may have dulled their "responsibility" a bit.

[Igel]

16. Where I grew up this never happened.

Yes, people owned guns.

Where I lived for a decade after graduating college was also pretty much a gun-free zone as far as New Year's, Xmas, etc., went. Lots of hunters. Lots of target shooters. But midnight on New Year's? No.

Same for where I went to grad school in LA. There were always reports, but the kind that involved people speaking on the tv and radio, not loud sounds echoing off of walls. It wasn't in the part of the city I lived in.

Nor in Rochester, NY. In the part of town I lived in.

Nor in Houston, in the part of town I used to live in.

To be quite honest, New Year's Eve celebrations in all of the above areas involved being at a party, mostly inside. Maybe sparklers. No competition to have the louders, biggest-ass sound. Then again, asses were, on average, much smaller then.

It happens where I live now. It's more diverse. My wife's from Arizona, and pushing 50. Hasn't really lived there for 30 years. Her recollection was that it was mostly Latino. Where I live now is mixed, and shootings guns is just another kind of fireworks for people who like being loud because being loud makes them more important. For many, it's all about being able to tell others what to do. Apparently the best defense is being offensive.