[16] Any gunfire can damage hearing of those nearby without ear protection, and blank rounds fired in an unsafe direction can cause injuries or death from muzzle blast at close range, as in the case of actor Jon-Erik Hexum.
A Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 80% of celebratory gunfire-related injuries in Puerto Rico, on New Year's Eve 2003 were to the head, feet, and shoulders.
[19] In 2005, the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) ran education campaigns on the dangers of celebratory gunfire in Serbia and Montenegro.
"[21] The non-fiction U.S. cable television program MythBusters on the Discovery Channel covered this topic in Episode 50: "Bullets Fired Up" (original airdate: April 19, 2006).
Special-effects experts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman conducted a series of experiments to answer the question: "Can celebratory gunfire kill when the bullets fall back to earth?"
Using pig carcasses, they worked out the terminal velocity of a falling bullet and had a mixed result, answering the question with all three of the show's possible outcomes: Confirmed, Plausible and Busted.