It is beyond the realm of understanding why someone would take a firearm and let loose bullets into the air, not knowing or caring, where those bullets came down.

It is beyond the realm of understanding how someone can look at a firearm and think “this is the best way to ring in the New Year, so let’s go fire off a few rounds to get the New Year off right.”

The laws of physics require the bullet fired into the air to come back down and come back down with enough force and speed to seriously injure or kill someone.

With that little bit of knowledge then why would someone still do something so immensely stupid?

The answer is those who would do such a thing have such blatant disregard for the safety of others that they should face criminal fines, they should face jail time, they should lose the constitutional right to bear firearms.

In an interview this week, Selma Chief of Police William T. Riley said his department “implores” residents to leave the pistols, the rifles in the closet this New Years.

His department “once again asks” residents choose to celebrate the New Year in a way that doesn’t put someone else at risk, put someone else’s life in danger.

Selma remains a small town, but at times Selma is a city with big city crime problems. This type of behavior is something we should strive to do away with; something we as neighbors should make sure does not exist.

We have enough gun-related crime in our city to use weapons to celebrate anything.

We have enough gun-related crime in our city to tie up 911 lines and police officer’s time with such an immature and senseless act of firing guns off to celebrate the New Year.

It’s time to act like grown-ups and there is no better time to start than Jan. 1, 2012.