Where do bullets go when guns are fired straight up into the air

							Stray bullets resulting from firing a gun in the air
can be lethal.
David De Lossy/Photodisc/Getty Images
The saying "What goes up must come down" is
an appropriate starting point. If you fire a gun
into the air, the bullet will travel up to a mile high
(depending on the angle of the shot and the
power of the gun). Once it reaches its apogee,
the bullet will fall. Air resistance limits its speed,
but bullets are designed to be fairly
aerodynamic, so the speed is still quite lethal if
the bullet happens to hit someone. In rural areas,
the chance of hitting someone is remote
because the number of people is low. In crowded
cities, however, the probability rises
dramatically, and people get killed quite often by
stray bullets. Most major cities have laws in
place to try to keep people from shooting guns
into the air in celebration