Stop shooting your guns at the sky, Philadelphia officials plead ahead of July 4: 'Don't do stupid'

• Philadelphia officials are urging residents to refrain from "celebratory" gunfire on July 4.
• District Attorney Larry Krasner said firing a gun in the air is both dangerous and a crime.
• "Don't do stupid," Krasner urged Philadelphians.

Officials are urging Philadelphians to use their brains on July 4, with the city's top prosecutor specifically asking residents not to get too drunk and start firing their guns into the air.

"Celebration should be safe," District Attorney Larry Krasner told reporters during a Monday morning press conference in West Philadelphia. "Obviously that takes different forms. Don't get behind the wheel intoxicated. Don't do stupid. This stuff is obvious."

Perhaps less obvious, at least to some, is that bullets that go up must come down. Unfortunately, Krasner said, "this city has a very sad, sad history of people who, either on New Year's Eve or around the Fourth of July, or on some other holiday, think it's a good time to take their guns and fire them in the air. Please don't do this."

Last year, two Philadelphia police officers were struck by bullets during a Fourth of July celebration on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, prompting scores of celebrants to flee the scene and a massive response from law enforcement. Investigators later said the bullets came from the same weapon, but no perpetrator was ever arrested, with the gun possibly having been fired from more than a mile away, WHYY reported.

In January, an 87-year-old woman who was celebrating the New Year on the front steps of her home in the Port Richmond neighborhood was struck by a bullet just after midnight. The woman, who received stitches, told a local ABC affiliate that she agreed whoever was firing their gun into the air was "stupid."

"If it hit my head, I probably wouldn't be here," the woman said.

Krasner — who said there are at least four active cases in Pennsylvania where people are being prosecuted for celebratory gunfire — warned that the practice can also be dangerous for the perpetrator. He pointed to a case where a man, "drunk as a skunk," was killed by police who were responding to calls about gunfire in an alley, a shooting he described as justified.

"They don't know whether you're just there to shoot in the air or you're there to do a whole lot more than that," he said of police. "There are better things to do with your time."

Vonda Hairston, chief of court operations with the Philadelphia Sheriff's Office, said the city — where a pandemic-era spike in gun violence has only begun falling this year — said residents thinking of celebrating with a firearm should refamiliarize themselves with the concept of gravity.

"What goes up must come down," Hairston said. "So we are pleading with anyone and everyone who believes this a fun thing to refrain from it. Not just tomorrow, but every day."

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