Shannon’s Law

Arizona statutes were changed in 2000 concerning the use of firearms. The statute was named after a fourteen-year-old girl, Shannon Smith in Phoenix, Arizona who was killed by a stray bullet in June 1999. Shannon’s law was only a misdemeanor until the statutes changed in 2000. It is now a felony to discharge a firearm randomly into the air.

 No arrests were ever made for the death of Shannon Smith. She was standing in the middle of the back yard talking on her cell phone when a stray bullet went through the top of her head and killed her.

Q: A number of injuries and deaths have been attributed to celebratory gunfire both in the U.S. and worldwide. In the state of Arizona, one such tragic incident led to the death of an eighth-grade student as described in the accompanying graphic.

if you model the round that struck Shannon as a lead sphere 9mm in diameter (a common handgun caliber) and accounting for buoyant force:

• Calculate the probable velocity of the round that caused her death.

This is a terminal velocity problem:

ρ_{air @ 20°C} = 1.204 kg/m³

ρ_pb = 11340 kg/m³

Vol_sphere = πd³/6