Repiglican Congressman from Virginia, Eric Cantor, held a press conference yesterday to breathlessly announce that his campaign office had been targeted by gunmen, and that he has been receiving “threatening” emails. Only problem is, he refuses to let anyone see these emails, he refused to answer any questions after his drama queen press conference, and the Richmond, Virginia Police Department released this statement (hat tip to TPM!):
The Richmond Police Department is investigating an act of vandalism at the Reagan Building, 25 E. Main St., Richmond, Virginia. A first floor window was struck by a bullet at approximately 1 a.m. on Tuesday, March 23. The building, which has several tenants including an office used by Congressman Eric Cantor, was unoccupied at the time.
A Richmond Police detective was assigned to the case. A preliminary investigation shows that a bullet was fired into the air and struck the window in a downward direction, landing on the floor about a foot from the window. The round struck with enough force to break the windowpane but did not penetrate the window blinds. There was no other damage to the room, which is used occasionally for meetings by the congressman.
What this boils down to is some boob fired their gun into the air, and the bullet just happened to find its way to Cantor’s office window. The stray bullet had enough velocity left to break the window, but not the blinds. Fans of the show Mythbusters may recall the episode they did, which examined the myth that bullets fired in the air are fatal when they fall back to Earth. The conclusion?
Bullets fired into the air maintain their lethal capability when they eventually fall back down.
BUSTED / PLAUSIBLE / CONFIRMED
In the case of a bullet fired at a precisely vertical angle (something extremely difficult for a human being to duplicate), the bullet would tumble, lose its spin, and fall at a much slower speed due to terminal velocity and is therefore rendered less than lethal on impact. However, if a bullet is fired upward at a non-vertical angle (a far more probable possibility), it will maintain its spin and will reach a high enough speed to be lethal on impact. Because of this potentiality, firing a gun into the air is illegal in most states, and even in the states that it is legal, it is not recommended by the police. Also the MythBusters were able to identify two people who had been injured by falling bullets, one of them fatally injured. To date, this is the only myth to receive all three ratings at the same time.
It’s only fitting that the party that can’t get a damn thing right, has to make up wild-assed stories about magic bullets. Leave it to the party of NO CLUE to play the victim, after their political tactics have blown up in their face.
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Yeah, cry us a river, fraudster!
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