ST. LOUIS — It doesn't take a physicist to know: what goes up, must come down—that rule applies to bullets, too, like the ones that fly into the St. Louis skies every New Year's Eve.
“It pierces through wood. It pierces through windows. It's a deadly practice,” said Kim McGrath, Shaw neighborhood resident.
She’s not a physicist, but she is a concerned neighbor. As a board member of the Shaw Neighborhood Ownership Model, she’s been helping distribute door hangers encouraging people to refrain from “celebratory gunfire” to mark the holiday and encourage people to call 911 or Crime Stoppers if it’s happening close to them.
“So this is a real simple door hanger explaining to the neighbors that we want people to do their part in celebrating safely,” she said.
St. Louis City and County police departments tracked more than a thousand "celebratory gunshot incidents" ringing in 2021.
The door hanger effort is in its fourth year in Shaw, but has expanded with partnerships with three other community associations this year, plus a church and members of "Moms Demand Action.” Together they have spent the week posting the door hangers on 6,000 homes in central and south city neighborhoods.
“It is loud and scary,” said one Tower Grove East resident, who tells 5 On Your Side he and his pregnant wife are planning to be well away from any windows this evening.
“The first time that I was visiting someone in South City on New Year's Eve, man, I hit the floor,” said a Moms Demand Action volunteer.
“I'm hoping that the neighbors who would think about this or think about shooting into the air will see these fliers and think twice,” said Denise Heinz. She’s a block captain in Tower Grove East, and has been seeking quieter New Year's Eves since her neighbor was hit by a celebratory bullet in 2018.
“It was pretty terrifying for me, I'm a mother of two young boys, and so we were trying to figure out, is this even safe for us to be home right now? Is it safe for us to be by the windows?” she said. “I know you may not intend to hurt anyone, but it happens.”
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department announced it will have extra officers on patrol to respond to investigate calls for shots fired, but McGrath acknowledges that calling the police in the City doesn’t always yield the expected results. However, she encourages reporting the gunfire anyway.
“The more people who do it, the more data, the more information the police have to really, really investigate what happened and to really work to curb gunfire and curb illegal activity moving forward,” she said. “So it feels sometimes like a lot of effort--if you're just one voice that you're alone. But what this does now, especially having expanded and supportive neighborhoods, is really putting the same message out to everyone, which is to report gunfire when you hear it.”
McGrath also thinks the delivery of the message—right to the front door—helps it hit close to home in other way, too.
“Nobody wants to get shot. Nobody wants their family to get shot. So regardless of where people stand on long term solutions to crime and safety, this is one effort to really work towards reducing a specific problem in the city of St. Louis,” she said.
That’s a message these neighbors hope can drown out the gunshots.
“I don't know if everyone was going to listen,” said a resident, “but I think it's a great first step.”