Strap on some free expression

Are we going to become the kind of country where people fire guns into the air as a means of expression? Even in the city?

You know: like those places you see on the evening news, where people pour into the streets and start shooting their AK-47s or whatever into the air, usually to mark some special occasion, such as a wedding, or a victory, or the beheading of a brutal dictator.

Not that I’m shocked by such conduct. I grew up in the country, where we used to shoot into the air, sometimes, like on New Year’s Eve when it was raining too much for fireworks. Nothing welcomes the new year like a shotgun blast.

But that would not have been a ongoing custom, because ammunition costs a lot more than fireworks. Unlike the fireworks stand, no “buy one, get four free” offer’s on the sign outside the ammo shop.

The question of whether shooting into the air is to become commonplace occurred to me Saturday night, when someone started shooting outside my house downtown.

This was during a big party up the street, and that’s where the gunman came from, a neighbor said.

As a frequent crime reporter, I just started taking notes: noting the time (about 11:25 p.m.), counting the shots (eight), and thinking, “That’s a semi-automatic pistol, not a revolver.”

But I did not go rushing outside – unlike a neighbor, who walked out with a flashlight to see if he could get the shooter’s tag number. I would not have thought a guy with a gun would find a flashlight intimidating, so I could not imagine threatening him with it: “Don’t shoot me, or I’ll shine this light in your eyes.”

I considered getting my own gun, because you know what they say, “It takes a good guy with a gun to get shot by a bad guy with a gun.” I decided walking out with a gun wouldn’t help.

So I just went to the window to watch as the patrol officers arrived, and waited to see if any detectives showed up, which would mean someone got shot.

One thing I learned, while standing at the window, is that firing a gun really clears a party out fast. People had parked all up and down the block, and three-quarters of those cars were gone by the time the police got there, which didn’t take long.

I would never shoot a gun to shut a party down. But theoretically I could drive over to Russell County to buy a pack of firecrackers (and get four packs free), and set eight off in rapid succession, to see if people would flee.

Probably they would not, because most folks here know the difference between gunfire and fireworks.

Not all, though. A newcomer who bought a house down the street stopped my wife one day to ask if she heard the gun battle the night before.

“Gun battle?” she asked. And he said yeah, young men were driving up and down the street, firing pistols at each other.

Coincidentally, Uptown Columbus had a fireworks show the night before.

“Was this during the fireworks?” my wife inquired.

“Fireworks?” he asked.

So I want to know, when we have no fireworks show, whether we are to celebrate by simultaneously exercising our First and Second Amendment rights through the sacrifice of valuable ammunition.

If so, then I’m going to have to go buy some more.

This story was originally published May 8, 2016 at 3:48 PM with the headline "Strap on some free expression."