As the clocks tick down to midnight tonight, many in Greenwood will be launching projectiles into the air to celebrate.
Fire officials in the city and Leflore County said that, if handled safely, fireworks weren’t causing a great deal of concern. Wet grounds as a result of recent rainfalls should dampen the risk of fire.
Of greater concern is the potentially deadly practice by some gun owners of firing their weapon into the air to mark the beginning of a new year.
“Folks need to understand that when they shoot guns up in the air, that piece of lead has got to come down somewhere,” said Lt. Ray Moore of the Greenwood Police Department. “They’ve got to think of somebody’s daughter, sister, brother or grandmother who might be standing out in the yard when the piece of lead comes down.”
Moore said extra patrols will be out tonight. He had a stern warning for anyone contemplating using a handgun to ring in the New Year with a bang.
“Anyone caught doing it will go to jail and get their weapon seized on top of it,” Moore said. “We have made those arrests.”
Moore added that officers will also be looking for anyone shooting fireworks within city limits. Greenwood ordinances prohibit the sale and use of fireworks inside the city, although they’re allowed in the rest of Leflore County.
“It’s an ordinance not to shoot fireworks. It always has been,” said Greenwood Mayor Carolyn McAdams.
McAdams added, “We’re not tough on fireworks, but firearms and shooting guns is different.”
Greenwood City Councilman Johnny Jennings said celebrating with a gun is both stupid and reckless. He said about 10 years ago, his daughter was standing in a driveway with other children in Greenwood when a bullet fell out of the sky and put a hole in the hood of a nearby car.
“Those bullets don’t go to the moon,” Jennings said. “They come down somewhere.”
Jennings said he’d also found bullets peppering the roof of a building he owns in downtown Greenwood and causing leaks, presumably the result of New Year’s celebrations gotten out of hand.
“I found five bullets on my 50-by-100-square-foot building,” Jennings said. “They’d come down and made little holes in my metal roof.”
Better his roof, Jennings said, than on the heads of other area residents out enjoying the holiday. Jennings had some simple advice: “Just think. Use your head and not somebody else’s.”
Moore said someone is bound to be hit by a falling bullet one of these years, and the consequences could be serious. “If you fire that weapon into the air and that bullet comes down and hits somebody and we can trace it back to your weapon, then you’re looking at manslaughter charges,” he said.
Moore and other Greenwood officials also asked that anyone looking to shoot off fireworks head out into the county, where it’s legal.
Still, John Lewis, assistant chief at the Greenwood Fire Department, said he understood that people would probably shoot off fireworks in the city despite the law. “Normally we just ask the children or anybody who’s doing it to be careful and safe,” Lewis said. “The city ordinance actually doesn’t allow fireworks, but you know how it is.”
Leflore County Fire Coordinator Gary Fulgham said dry weather in past years led him to ask people to cut down on fireworks, but he wasn’t very concerned this year.
“We just ask the grown-ups to supervise the children,” he said. “We hate to take anything away from the kids, but with it being wet, I don’t think we’ll have any problems.”
