Each year police around the country (and probably the world) warn people against celebrating the New Year and other holidays by firing guns into the air.  In 2009, celebratory gunfire cost a 4-year-old boy his life and this year, a 12-year-old remains in critical condition after being hit in the head by a bullet on its way down.

CNN posted THIS story about the incident saying Diego Duran was sitting in the front yard of his Ruskin, Florida, home watching fireworks about 1 a.m. Sunday when he fell to the ground, bleeding from the nose and eyes, authorities said.

Although tragedy has not struck Twin County residents in similar fashion from celebratory gunfire, the risk is still everpresent. I heard a number of shots fired around midnight and am positive other residents heard similar sounds echoing through their neighborhoods.

Authorities said the city's new ShotSpotter technology reported had 190 incidents of gunfire and fireworks on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1. According to call history for the night, 911 received 35 calls about shots fired between 8 p.m. on Saturday and 1 a.m. on Sunday.

I have never understood the need to randomly fire a gun, but especially do not understand doing so in an act of celebration. Guns are serious weapons that cause serious damage and Duran's life will forever be altered, if he even survives, because someone felt the need to fire their gun to celebrate the New Year.

Please do not participate in this dangerous behavior and notify police if those around you are doing so because this is never a story I want to have to cover.