Exploding light bulbs and guns

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Yeah, gunshots sound more like firecrackers,

I live in the city and when we hear loud noises like that, it's either:

a) firecrackers

b) car backfiring

c) gunfire

Sometimes it's hard to distinguish, but rifles and BB guns, for example, are slightly different from a handgun.

Case in point: 3 summers ago now we had a rash of teen gang activity going on near us. Had several businesses vandalized, a couple of wooden privacy fences spray painted, and groups of teens wandering through the neighborhood at all hours, being very loud, obnoxious and vulgar.

One evening, while I was in bed (had to go to work later in the morning) I woke up to what I thought sounded like popping. Heard 3 of them - vauguely - out of the corner of my ear. Went to look outside and saw headlights.

Got outside on the back deck, went around the back of the house towards the wheelchair ramp and Mom was outside on the ramp in her chair, talking with a police officer. Turned out Mom had heard the pops and called 911 . . . to her it sounded more like a rifle or BB gun and told the officer which direction she thought it sounded like they had come from.

Turned out someone else in the neighborhood called 911 at the same time Mom did to report hearing 3 shots from the same direction. And on top of that, a nearby hardware store was broken into just a few hours before - one of the items missing was a rifle.

Not long after that incident and school started back, a lot of the troublemakers were gone and haven't been back since. Been fairly peaceful since around here.

[bhskittykatt]

I did hear a loud bang once early in the morning....Hubs and I thought it was fireworks and shrugged it off. A day and a half later, hikers found someone had blown their brains out in the local arboreteum. I'm not sure if that's what I heard that morning, but it was in the right area...

[Magpie]

I live in the city and when we hear loud noises like that, it's either:

a) firecrackers

b) car backfiring

c) gunfire

We also get

d) constructions sites

e) Jackdaw's tire blowing out

d) is why I didn't realise there had been shots fired the time someone was shot in the other building in my complex. (By the police no less).

[Chromatix]

In Helsinki there is almost continuous *underground* construction going on - the sites involve move around every so often, but there's always something going on. Since the city is built on an ancient granite outcrop, that means lots of dynamite is used.

So in the early evening, not long after most people have gone home, my office building is rocked gently by a very audible series of explosions. The Metro extension towards Espoo begins directly across the street and fifty feet down, and the access tunnel to the construction area goes directly under the building.

With that said, Finland has a very high percentage of enrollment in the military reserves, so I'd like to think that many people would be able to tell the difference between dynamite and gunfire.

[roothorick]

When I was young, I used to sleep with my windows open. At the end of the street was a nutbag with an explosives fetish.

One night, he blew up a small car in his own backyard.

I was in bed. With the lights out.

You don't forget moments like that.