Selma continued it’s popular New Year’s tradition Tuesday night with dozens of residents firing guns into the air.

The Selma Police Department responded to 15 shots fired calls on New Year’s Eve and New Years Day, though Chief of Police William Riley said more, unreported incidents occurred. Riley said the number of incidents isn’t unusual for the time of year, but remains a dangerous practice that should be avoided.

“Unfortunately it is something that continues to go on during the Fourth of July and New Years,” he said. “It’s an old tradition and we are trying to get people to break that habit. Shooting in the air is dangerous because the bullet has to come down somewhere.”

Riley said bullets could strike a home, car or person, causing sometimes severe danger.

The first call of shots fired came in at 7:28 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. Calls increased in frequency in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day. From midnight until 1 a.m. Wednesday, the Selma Police Department received nine calls reporting shots being fired, according to police department records. The greatest concentration of calls was in Selma’s Icehouse neighborhood. A large number of calls also came from Selmont.

Once the department receives the calls, Riley said an officer is dispatched to investigate. Sometimes fireworks are mistaken as gunshots, Riley said. Though, both fireworks and shooting into the air remains illegal in the city.

“All you can do is let them know the law,” he said. “If we catch someone shooting a gun in the air, your chances of being arrested are very high. You just cannot shoot a firearm up in the air, in the city; we have an ordinance against it and it is reckless handling of a firearm.”

Though the New Years tradition frustrates police and residents, Riley said it isn’t uncommon in other areas of the country.

“I’ve been in different parts of the country during New Years and the Fourth of July,” he said. “I guess maybe it is just a carryover from when the country was founded. More people use fireworks to celebrate, but we still have a number of people that like to fire shots in the air.”