Here's Your Annual Reminder Not to Shoot Your Damn Guns in the Air on Fourth of July

Anaid Romero was chilling outside the Biltmore Hotel in 2012, watching fireworks light up the Coral Gables sky when she noticed a weird sensation. "I just felt something wet on me and I looked down and I had blood everywhere," Romero told NBC6 at the time. Romero soon found the source: A...

By Tim Elfrink

July 4, 2016

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Anaid Romero was chilling outside the Biltmore Hotel in 2012, watching fireworks light up the Coral Gables sky, when she noticed a weird sensation. "I just felt something wet on me and I looked down and I had blood everywhere," Romero told NBC 6 at the time.

Romero soon found the source: A bullet had ricocheted straight through her arm, narrowly missing her torso. There was no great mystery where it had come from. Another man at the same fireworks watch party was hit in the hand by another round, and cars were left pockmarked from bullet damage — all from nearby residents pulling a Yosemite Sam and celebrating America's birthday by blasting their revolvers in the air.

The danger of falling celebratory bullets might sound like a Snopes-worthy urban legend, but this is Miami, where real daily life makes most Snopes rumors seem like tame fiction.

In recent years, other stray celebratory bullets have hit a 15-year-old in the head in Miramar, and a 6-year-old Italian tourist was hit by a round fired in honor of New Year's Eve.

That's why the Miami Police Department put this inspired video together to remind you, yet again, to stop firing your damn guns in the air, Miami.

Please, no celebratory gunfire this #FourthofJuly. It's a dangerous tradition. #NoMoreStrayBullets pic.twitter.com/WHmLe0YDKf
— Miami PD (@MiamiPD) July 1, 2016

What's wrong with a nice bottle rocket, anyway?

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Tim Elfrink is a former investigative reporter and managing editor for Miami New Times. He has won the George Polk Award and was a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting.

Contact: Tim Elfrink

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Twitter: @timelfrinkmia