AUSTIN (KXAN) — There isn’t any scarcity of clamorous noises on the stroke of midnight ringing within the new yr. Some shoot off fireworks, others take to the streets to bang pots and pans and a few people might shoot celebratory gunshots into the air.
On Jan. 31, 2016, Texas State Rep. Armando Martinez (D-Weslaco) nearly misplaced his life to the latter.
That night, he remembered feeling a little bit beneath the climate however determined to exit into the nation, barely outdoors of Weslaco, to fireplace off some fireworks for his spouse, children and their pals. As midnight approached, the children arrange the fireworks in anticipation of 2017.
New Year rang in, his children lit the fireworks, and Martinez gave his spouse a New Year’s kiss. When he broke away from his spouse, he recalled warning his children not to get too shut to the flames. That is when he felt a searing ache at the back of his head.
“I put my head down and, I said, ‘I got hit,’” Martinez recalled. “Initially, I thought it was a firework, but it just hurt so bad… I said, ‘I need to go to the ER’,” he continued.
Martinez had a CAT scan, and the physician decided there was a bullet so deep they wanted to have a neurosurgeon take away it. Martinez recovered.
“I often think if it would have hit my wife, or that would have hit one of my kids, maybe they wouldn’t be around today.”
Celebratory gunfire is the act of capturing a shot or a number of rounds into the air on the stroke of midnight. In Texas, if somebody is caught recklessly firing their gun inside the company metropolis limits of a city of over 100,000 individuals, they may very well be charged with a Class A misdemeanor – a positive of up to $4,000 and a jail sentence of up to a yr. It remains to be unlawful to recklessly fireplace a gun in smaller cities, in accordance to statutes, it’s a Class B misdemeanor.
“Individuals that are doing it believe that it is harmless, however, [it is] quite the contrary,” stated Seargent Bryan Washsko of the Texas Department of Public Safety. “What goes up must come down. There are several documented cases in Texas in the last few years of people who have been killed and seriously injured from these bullets that are raining down.”
Washko stated he was engaged on the evening of New Year’s Eve 2018 in San Antonio. Officers with the San Antonio Police Department warned Washko and his associate to discover an overpass to disguise beneath at midnight due to celebratory gunfire.
He thought they is perhaps exaggerating, however then at midnight, “you could just hear the thousands of rounds going off just in our area alone – automatic gunfire [and] semi-automatic gunfire. It was a very dangerous situation to be in. And you know, when that many tens of thousands of rounds go up, they’ve got to come down,” Washko stated.
Nicole Golden of Texas Gun Sense stated the legal guidelines on the books surrounding celebratory gunfire may very well be extra restrictive.
“Texas doesn’t have any truly comprehensive laws around celebratory gunfire or reckless discharge of a firearm,” Golden stated. “We have recommended for years now to address this. [It is] an entirely preventable situation.”
In Texas, it’s unlawful to carry a firearm whereas intoxicated in public, however “on private properties, there are no restrictions on firing any kind of firearm while under the influence,” Golden stated.
“We could strengthen penalties. We can make the laws around intoxication more consistent,” Golden stated. “We can expand the existing law to cover smaller cities and towns rather than only those with populations of 100,000 people and more,” she continued.
Texas Rep. Martinez filed a bill in 2017, the yr a bullet hit his head, to cost anybody who shoots a celebratory gunshot with a Class A misdemeanor or a first-degree felony if the bullet causes severe hurt. The bill was unsuccessful.
“Unfortunately, you know, you have people that think that this is a gun legislation,” Martinez stated. “This has everything to do with safety and making sure that people are responsible. Because I know growing up, and even teaching my children, is that you want to be a responsible gun owner, not irresponsible. And it’s the irresponsible ones that we need to worry about.”
Martinez stated he’s drafting one other bill associated to celebratory gunfire that he’ll file earlier than the subsequent session, he stated.
“We can strengthen a law to make sure that people are aware that if they’re caught doing this, there is going to be consequences, and we need to hold them accountable for that,” he stated.
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