Shootings...Cover...How high?

[LASur5r]

You know in good ol'L.A., the high murder rate capital, we get a lot of kids and babies being shot by these turkey drive by's. Other than plain bad gun handling...what would cause so many of these little ones to get hit?
It's usually toddlers and babies in strollers so that puts them at about 2 feet plus in height.
So does that mean if we hear gunshots, we should either totally flatten out on the ground or seek hard cover that is more than 2 to 3 feet in height?
Can anyone explain this phenomenom? Or am I completely off base?

[Jeff White]

Don't know the particulars of these shootings, but it could be ricochets. They will tend to skim the ground from 6 to 18 inches depending on the angle they were fired at.

Jeff

[Gunslinger]

One explaination may be because the shooters are jerking the trigger. We all know that even when any of us jerk the trigger instead of squeezing we shoot low. It seems too simple but it is possible. Either way a jerk is involved.

------------------
Gunslinger

I was promised a Shortycicle and I want a Shortycicle!

[Jeff Thomas]

Well, ricochets may be part of the explanation. But (and I'm serious here), I wouldn't discount the possibility of a bad assumption.

Unfortunately, a child being shot is more 'newsworthy' than an adult. There may be no more of this involving children than there is involving older people. I wouldn't be surprised if this is just a distortion due to the focus of media reporting.

I wonder if anyone has a data source for this?

Regards from AZ

[MTAA]

Eets' because they are shooting from lowriders vato loco http://www.geocities.com/ruinkai/FINbandit.gif .

[This message has been edited by MTAA (edited October 19, 2000).]