EDITORIAL - Preventing deadly revelry

Guns are fired to celebrate the New Year. And every year, bullets fired into the air during the New Year revelry fall back to Earth, hitting anything and anyone.

Every year there is at least one fatality in this country from celebratory gunfire. In the last New Year celebration it was seven-year-old Stephanie Nicole Ella, who was watching the fireworks outside her home in Caloocan City when a bullet struck her. Doctors struggled to save her life for two days, but her family decided to let go after she suffered eight cardiac arrests.

No one has been pinned down for firing the fatal shot. The same is true for other cases in previous New Year’s Eve revelries. Several of the fatalities were children, with some of them asleep in their homes when the bullet pierced their roof.

Between Dec. 21, 2012 and Jan. 2, 2013, police recorded 40 victims of stray bullets nationwide. The deadly revelry has prompted an annual ritual of taping the muzzles of police service firearms. The seals can be broken only for law enforcement causes.

But cops and soldiers, like many civilians in this country, own more than one firearm. Apart from those authorized to carry guns, there are thousands of armed outlaws who can greet the New Year with celebratory gunfire. Tracing the source of a stray bullet is made difficult by the proliferation of loose firearms nationwide.

Military officials said they would not seal their gun muzzles, but warned that soldiers caught firing their weapons indiscriminately to greet the New Year would face heavy penalties.

Those who fire their guns indiscriminately can be caught, but it will require citizen vigilance. This is no longer an impossible task, with the wide availability of cell phones and other recording devices. Only the arrest and punishment of perpetrators will put a stop to this deadly celebration.