Gunshot In My Neighborhood

[Keith B]

Another thing, late at night when the power is out over a fairly large area, there is an eerie silence since no air conditioners or other things are running. Sounds will be heard much easier over a long distance, so it could have even been much farther away than originally thought.

[flintknapper]

These days, a vehicle backfiring is highly unlikely. That is a leftover from the days of carburetors. With electronic fuel injection, a car that would backfire won't even run - let alone be drivable.

I think you are dwelling on intake/carb initiated backfires that are really nothing more than "small pops". I was referring to exhaust backfires that can still occur a number of ways in modern vehicles. It is true though...that the occurrence is less frequent, but this is not owing so much to the means of induction (carb) as it is a matter of computer controlled ignition, timing and fuel mix.

The main point of my post though, was that there can be many origins of sounds that mimic gunfire.

[Doug.38PR]

maybe a squirrel or a rat got into the transformer and that's what you heard. BOOOOM! Happens all the time around here. And it can knock the power out. Or it could have been the power trying to come back on. I've heard it go BOOOM trying to come back on during storms after having gone out.

But if nothing else, this thread does illustrate the lie of "To protect and serve" and "If you've got time to get to a gun, you've got time to get to a phone and call the police"

[TexasComputerDude]

It is possible that one of the other 911 calls allowed the police to locate the shooter immediately. In that case, there would be no compelling need for further patrols.

Given the circumstances, I would bet on someone who was drunk or naturally stupid taking advantage of the power failure to see how much muzzle flash his firearm produced.

BTW, if the electric company is going to shut off your electricity, you'll know. They send you multiple notices. They also don't shut it off at 2 a.m. The come to your house and remove your meter.

- Jim

haha I wish ours was like that lol, if we forget to drive to livingston and pay the bill we have a very timely reminder lol. The MOMENT it is past due it gets shut DOWN lol.