this post was submitted on 12 May 2025
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Why is shooting a starter pistol in the air a bad thing?
It won't hurt no one, but it's the same principle as yelling fire in a loaded theater, in that it can get someone hurt if they freak out.
I can't see how a starter gun is going to cause a panic leading to crushing/trampling of masses, or anything remotely close to those kinds of consequences.
During daytime hours it's usually pretty legal to make all kinds of sounds.
If someone wants to nitpick the "gun" here, just rig an internal combustion engine that backfires as loud as a gun, or literally put in a speaker / horn that can produce the same sound.
There's ways around all the little "but what about" in this scenario.
People wont be scared of a backfiring car, The whole dumb plan hinges on the neighborhood being afraid for their lives. wouldn't surprise me if this made other crime rise too.
Backfiring cars are not so common today, especially in affluent neighborhoods.
If you make it sound as close to a gunshot as you can, which isn't hard because it's easy to mix up the two if you're from an affluent area that isn't full of gun nuts, their imagination does the rest.
...it's in a box. Up or downwards won't make much of a difference.
That hasn't been a problem for races for over a century