this post was submitted on 12 May 2025
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Please tell me it shoots downwards and not up into the air?
Starter pistols, the ones for races.
Why is shooting a starter pistol in the air a bad thing?
It won't hurt no one, but it's the same principle as yelling fire in a loaded theater, in that it can get someone hurt if they freak out.
I can't see how a starter gun is going to cause a panic leading to crushing/trampling of masses, or anything remotely close to those kinds of consequences.
During daytime hours it's usually pretty legal to make all kinds of sounds.
If someone wants to nitpick the "gun" here, just rig an internal combustion engine that backfires as loud as a gun, or literally put in a speaker / horn that can produce the same sound.
There's ways around all the little "but what about" in this scenario.
People wont be scared of a backfiring car, The whole dumb plan hinges on the neighborhood being afraid for their lives. wouldn't surprise me if this made other crime rise too.
Backfiring cars are not so common today, especially in affluent neighborhoods.
If you make it sound as close to a gunshot as you can, which isn't hard because it's easy to mix up the two if you're from an affluent area that isn't full of gun nuts, their imagination does the rest.
...it's in a box. Up or downwards won't make much of a difference.
That hasn't been a problem for races for over a century
Shooting actually straight up is very safe, at least for people on the ground. The terminal velocity of a bullet is fast enough to make you say "ouch", but not much else.
Problems can arise if you're shooting up-ish, but shooting straight up means the bullet has zero velocity relative to its origin at the apex, so the only speed it has from that point forward is imparted by gravity and wind, pretty much.
The image is of a starter pistol, though.
These are articles for starting pistols? Or regular guns?
A starting pistol or starter pistol is a blank handgun or, more recently, an electronic toy gun or device with a button connected to a sound system that is fired to start track and field races as well as some competitive swimming races.
Oh let me check hold on
Hmm
I'm sure it's in here somewhere...