For the last few years I’ve written and republished a column a few times about the dangers of firing weapons willy-nilly into the air as happens so often in Greenville.
The danger, in my mind, was of people standing outside celebrating an event and being hit in the head by a falling bullet.
This week, after we found a leak in our downstairs bathroom, I found another result of those falling bullets, a hole in my roof.
The hole is about arm’s length away from the edge of the roof and exactly the size of a 9mm bullet. It penetrated completely the shingles and went mostly through the decking below.
It caused a sizeable leak during rainstorms in the last few weeks.
Workers doing some much-needed repairs on the house were able to easily fix that problem.
But, there’s still a bullet hole in the roof of my house and it isn’t the only house on Crittenden Street to have such. A neighbor found the same a few months back after noticing a leak on the back of the house.
I can’t tell for certain if the bullet was falling at an angle consistent with being shot high in the air or was from a more level trajectory. It’s lack of deep impact leads me to believe it most likely came from someone randomly firing a bullet in the air instead of someone pointing the gun at the house.
That’s still not very comforting.
The shot most likely came sometime after the usual New Year’s ruckus but before the cacophony of shots on July 4 as we had noticed the leak before then, but not too long before.
That means the shot was not related to any sort of celebration where we could plan to be on guard.
It happened on a random day with no warning.
While it’s purely anecdotal, I know the last two years have been the most active in the random-gunshots-heard-near-my-house statistic.
That same highly-scientific statistic for the last few months seems to be decreasing against the prior period.
According to statistics from the Greenville Police Department, from October 2020 to May 2021, there were 1,091 calls to the department in reference to gunfire heard in the city limits.
The number of calls from October 2021 to May 2022 fell to 632 in reference to gunfire heard in the city.
While the first period numbers are ridiculous at almost three a day, the second period is just as bad at almost two per day.
The calls don’t indicate the number of shots randomly fired either in the air or at someone so there is no telling how many bullets fly over the streets of Greenville per each call made.
I know from my own experience, I never hear just one shot.
While I agree with Greenville Police Chief Marcus Turner a police force more involved in the community will help alleviate some of the nefarious activities, there’s another remedy.
No one will like it, but it is guaranteed to work.
It comes from the mind of the eminent scholar and master comedian Chris Rock.
Here’s his idea: “You don’t need no gun control, you know what you need? We need some bullet control. Men, we need to control the bullets, that’s right. I think all bullets should cost $5,000. $5,000 per bullet.
“You know why? Cause if a bullet costs $5,000 there would be no more innocent bystanders.
“Yeah, every time somebody gets shot we’d say, ‘He must have done something. He’s got $50,000 worth of bullets in him.’
“And people would think before they killed somebody if a bullet cost $5,000. ‘Man, I would blow your head off, if I could afford it.’ ‘I’m gonna get me another job, I’m going to start saving some money, and you’re a dead man. You’d better hope I can’t get no bullets on layaway.’
“So even if you get shot by a stray bullet, you wouldn't have to go to no doctor to get it taken out. Whoever shot you would take their bullet back, like ‘I believe you got my property.’”
Sure, it’s outrageous, but it’s not untrue.
And if bullets cost $5,000, the next time I heard gunfire in the neighborhood across Reed Road from my house, I’d be in my back yard with a metal detector and a pair of pliers looking for some lead.
Jon Alverson is proud to be publisher and editor of the Delta Democrat-Times. Write to him at jalverson@ddtonline.comor call him at 662-335-1155.
