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With New Year’s celebrations just hours away, the Phoenix Police Department released what might be the most quintessentially Arizona request possible:
Please don’t shoot guns into the air tonight.
“Reminder: In Arizona, firing celebratory gunshots is punishable by up to two years in prison,” the department tweeted, noting that doing so is a Class 6 felony punishable by up to two years in prison. “Let’s keep this New Year safe. Celebrate responsibly!”
If only Hunter S. Thompson were alive to harangue the police state for trying to ruin a good old-fashioned American time.
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More seriously, firing indiscriminately into the air has been a felony since 2000, when the Arizona Legislature passed Shannon’s Law. The law was named for 14-year-old Shannon Smith, who was killed by a stray bullet in Phoenix in 1999. At the time, celebratory gunfire was only a misdemeanor.
Police spokesperson Sgt. Brian Bower also urged Phoenix residents to be careful when handling fireworks, which the department expects to be “prevalent across our city.” In a press release, Bower noted that safety tips can be found on the Phoenix Fire Department’s website.
Those tips include keeping your pets secure, making sure people maintain a safe distance from fireworks and disposing of spent fireworks properly. Before going in the trash, fireworks should be soaked for 24 hours to ensure they don’t ignite a fire. Prohibited fireworks include bottle rockets and firecrackers. Generally, anything that is designed to “explode or to detonate in the air or to fly above the ground” is illegal.
Police also said they expect a high volume of calls for the holiday, urging residents to call 911 for emergencies and the city’s non-emergency line in other cases.
