|
The Jazz nailed this one. A bullet which goes straight up and falls straight down is not going to be going very fast. Most bullets, however, including those fired up in the air, are not going straight up and down, but in an arc. They won't stay supersonic forever, of course, but anywhere within their supersonic burnout range ( about 1,000 yards for most common rounds ) they're still quite deadly, and they retain the ability to kill ( if the bullet hits the wrong place ) out to several miles. There was a famous case about 4 hours from my Mom and Stepfather's shop, in which a 14-year-old girl waiting in line for an amusement-park ride, was killed by a 7.62x39mm bullet...fired over 4 miles away.
|