Mideast Dispatches

Ed Robinson: Are you implying that the child whose head was split by a plummeting 7.62 mm round was deserving of his fate because the rifle was fired by a person of the same race? Because no other explanation of your words comes to mind. Would you mind explaining your comment? Sounds like racism to me.

Come to think of it, CBC.ca editorial staff, perhaps you could explain why you decided Mr. Robinson's opinion was fit to post.

Now that I take a second look, there is a lot to which to object in these posts. JoeRJoe wants us to give them more shells. Nice. KM thinks we are somehow in a position to teach Lebanese people tolerance. Perhaps we should start by teaching it to Canadians.

Hey, I know! Since the CBC editorial staff seems to be tolerant of just about anything, why don't they head on over to Lebanon and open up a tolerance school? Just don't forget your kevlar umbrellas.

While I agree with what is said in this article I think the author has missed at least one point. Many of these idiots pull out their guns and fire off a few hundred rounds because of the present of the media. They want to show off for the cameras. I question how often it would happen if there were no cameras there to capture the shot (no pun intended). There is not a week that does not go by when the major print or TV outlets punctuate a story by showing one of these jack asses firing off his weapon like an ape beating his chest. May be if the press did not pay so much attention the epidemic could be toned down and some lives saved.

I wish you could your facts straight if you want some credibility a falling bullet cannot pierce the skull.

It all started in prehistoric times, when people used to celebrate by throwing large rocks in the air when they were happy. The tried spears and arrows, but they just didn't go high enough for people to get out of the way. Then they invented guns. Who knew where the bullets came down. Didn't really matter, they didn't come down where you could see so out of site out of mind.
Now we know where they come down, so I assume we'll invent laser guns to shoot whenever we're happy. We won't have to change it until we start slicing sattelites and space shuttles in half.
Silly humans, if you want to hurl harmful things in the air whenever you are happy,m why not use your fists! No, you don't have to saw them off first.

It's hard to apply canadian or western viewpoints on countries in the middle east because the history and conflicts are just not the same. In the case of Lebanon, we're talking about a country that went through 15 years of civil war followed by years of fighting with israel and internal disputes. Whoever doesn't have a machine gun in his house is considered as the "weird one" rather than the other way around. And of course, no one is willing to give away their guns because some parties believe that Israel will attack and the lebanese army is not capable of defending the country while other parties follow the "let them hand in theirs first" mentality.

The people are fully aware that the bullets go back down, they just make sure not to point the gun straight up and anything that happens after that is not their problem.

The solution to this problem is to have the political leaders be strict and serious when telling their followers not to celebrate using guns. Note that any action taken by security forces in lebanon for example will be viewed politically. If the cops arrest someone from party A who is celebrating with a gun, it will be seen as if the security system is biast againt party A which could result in catastrophic events.

To summarize, yes, this practice is beyond stupid. It is moronic and primitive but things aren't as simple as "don't they understand gravity", "the security forces should stop them" and "why do they have guns"...unfortunately.

I like how Richard S. call gun owner "mindless" but then was wondering if bullets "burned up in the atmosphere". Gee I wonder who id mindless here?
I don't think bullets would come back at muzzle velocity as some have mentioned. Google "terminal velocity of a bullet for explanations.

It would be entertaining and funny in a sort of “Jackass: The Movie way” if it weren’t for the real life tragedy of it all. One has to wonder how utterly stupid and retarded some societies are for not only permitting this to happen, but also actually allowing it to take root within the culture in the first place.

Excellent article by my favourite CBC foreign correspondent...

As a second generation child of Middle Eastern parents I find the practice of celebrating with guns disgusting and disturbing. We have to take into context the 'gun culture' of the region, in particular Lebanon and Iraq where unfortunately the militias are stronger than the state security forces.

Life is too precious to waste by falling bullets.

$

Thanks for talking about this. I've always wondered if bullets shot straight up rain back down or burn up in the atmosphere. Now I know. It's a mindless means of celebration, but then, I think guns are mostly mindless by their very nature. And so are gun owners.

With such common and dreadful results of this practice. How can it still be tolerated at all....period. Imagine if someone in Canada died because of this, it would be all over the news for days. As someone who has never been to the middle east, and knows little of its customs and cultures, I am questioning... is life less precious or respected there that this is tolerated?

The governments should sell 'Celebration' rounds - Blanks. Under the slogan 'Keep the real bullets for the enemies'. Sell them at a low price!

It wouldn't prevent any of the crazies from killing each other intentionally, but it would prevent the crazies from killing other people unintentionally.

One almost wonders if this article is a joke when first coming across it. Doesn't such behaviour just further help to confirm that we all did just evolve from more primitive primates? *sigh*

As the song says.."What goes up; must come down." Physics tells me that the terminal velocity prior to hitting the ground will equal the initial muzzle velocity upon firing.

When I was a kid, I used to wonder where all the bullets went when cowboys shot into the air - I figured then that they must come down... but where?

Now we know! Interesting habit!

How many of these people realise that the bullets return to earth? Maybe helmets should be issued, if strong enough ones could be found.

Once again, the issue is not guns, it's about the people who use them, in this case idiots...

I'm actually glad to finally read a story about this, brining it to our attention. I've known this for years, in fact anyone with a basic understanding of gravity should have figured that out...what goes up must come down. I think calling this an epidemic is a brilliant description and getting at what this reveals to us about those who are doing these was even more profound...and frightening.

Darwinism at its finest.

Very informative and revealing. I can't comprehend why anyone would want to fire into the air to celebrate. For one, it sounds like a waste of ammunition and no doubt what goes up must come down. I suspect this custom is somehow connected to testosterone.

Guns and politics, it's a winning combination!

This is probably one of the very first real solid articles on the "deadly fallout" from celebratory gunfire.

We have seen it on TV is various parts of the world for more than half a century in so many volatile places around the world.

I'm glad that some of these idiots (and that is what they are), are heeding the deadly effects.

Guns don't kill people, gravity kills people.

Maybe celebratory gunfire would stop if you told these people that they are shooting at Allah.

Guns = Death

There is no other equation, regardless of what you may believe in...

Someone should teach these guys how to clap.

How come these people have Kalashnikovs???

Just another reson why it is important for the United States to be that region. Celebratory gun fire iis another example of a region and it's customs so far behind most of the world that it is impossible to think of them fixing their problems on their own. Somebody has to lead the people of the middle east down the road to 21st century maturity and sanity. They can't seem to hold things together by themselves, America is their only hope.

This also happens in the United States. A few people die every year in Los Angeles when gang members celebrate the new year in this fashion.

The problem isn't so much the small group of men firing heavy machine guns wildly in the air, but the passive acceptance by a majority of Lebanese who recognise the value of the gun in defending their homeland. As long as they continue to cherish the belief that power comes from the barrel of a gun then the gun will always be present. It is hard to put away the gun when after being so hardened by experience and conditioned by suffering like the Lebanese have been to so readily give it up.

I've always wondered what happened to those bullets. What goes up must come down. This is the first report that has ever talked about it that I have seen. Curious way to celebrate, but then again, there are so many things that don't make sense going on in that region - just one more - DUCK!

Why not give them more shells

They need to have Alan Rock in charge over there. He'd start AK-47 registration and everybody would be safe.
What a guy!

How can we teach them tolerance if they
can't even grasp something as simple as gravity? Do we need to drop pamphlets in arabic with the words "What comes up must come down" ?

This is what comes from growing up without the benefit of the Bugs bunny road runner hour.