Lifelong Greenwood resident Mike Watkins says he has a simple message for those celebrating the arrival of the new year: Don’t fire guns into the air, because someone could get hurt.
Watkins said the level of weapon fire he heard on New Year’s Eve 2020 was the worst he had seen in the city.
“It almost sounded like a war zone,” he said. “I have this fear that somebody is going to die from one of these bullets.”
He said gunfire was the main topic of conversation among people he talked to the next day.
“Most people don’t realize that the ballistics on (these guns) don’t have enough powder and energy to carry them out of the city limits,” he said. “You shoot them up in the air, all that lead is coming back down inside the city limits.”
Watkins said it’s not a matter of whether someone will get injured but when.
Greenwood Police Chief Terrence Craft said shooting guns on New Year’s Eve has become an unfortunate “tradition” and has been an issue for almost his entire tenure on the police force.
“We will have extra officers out for this reason,” with an additional dispatcher on duty, he said, “and we do have a city ordinance for discharging a firearm in city limits. Anyone caught discharging a firearm in city limits, they will be arrested and prosecuted.”
Craft said that people need to realize the dangers of their actions. Firing a gun upward can send a bullet over a mile into the air, after which it can come down at 300 to 500 feet per second.
“It only takes (a speed of) 200 feet per second to penetrate the human skull,” he said.
Watkins said he is trying to appeal to others’ common sense.
“Are you going to be the one that kills your niece?” he asked. “It’s going to happen. You can’t just put that much lead in the air. Somebody is going to be maimed or killed in this town unless it stops.”
Watkins asked that people spread the word at their churches and on social media about these dangers.
- Contact Kevin Edwards at 662-581-7233 or kedwards@gwcommonwealth.com.
