A 12-year-old boy had his New Year's eve celebration cut short, almost permanently, after he was hit by a stray bullet which still remains lodged in the right side of his chest. Aaron Ford was ringing in the New Year by lighting fire crackers a short distance from his Faustin Trace, Maraval home on Old Year's Night, when the incident occurred. With firecrackers going off noisily all around him, Ford could not say where the shot came from. Alma Samuel-Ford, the boy's... (GunPolicy.org)

A woman inside a Prichard church was shot in the side of her face shortly after midnight on Tuesday, police said, apparently as a result of New Year's gunfire. The woman, whom police did not name, was hit by a bullet that entered through the sanctuary roof at the Showers of Blessings Church of God in Christ, according to Prichard police Maj. Marvin Whitfield. She was taken to the University of South Alabama Medical Center, said Whitfield, who added that surgery may be... (GunPolicy.org)

OPA-LOCKA, Florida — An 11-year-old boy who was hiding behind an old piece of furniture at an Opa-Locka apartment was shot and killed after his neighbor celebrated the New Year by shooting a gun into the trash. Police said Zenon Fernandez shot his neighbor Joshua Arroliga after Fernandez, 49, randomly fired a semiautomatic handgun into a trash pile of old furniture near a Dumpster, not knowing the boy was there. Police believe Fernandez was ushering in the New Year... (GunPolicy.org)

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida — In a single half hour during New Year's Eve festivities, bullets presumably fired into the air in celebration returned to earth, hitting two people and narrowly missing two others, police say. At 12:08 a.m. Tuesday, David Tyson Mink, 23, of Clearwater, was walking with some friends in the 700 block of Third Ave. S. when he felt "something hard" hit him on the left shoulder, St. Petersburg Police Department spokesman George Kajtsa said. It... (GunPolicy.org)

ORLANDO, Florida — Titusville resident Regina Lifton was very excited to ring in 2008. This is the year she and her family have been waiting for to relocate to Florida's west coast. Just like millions of people around the country, on the night of December 31, Lifton and her family gathered together, with champagne glasses in hand watching the ball drop in New York's Time Square to toast to the New Year. "I was sitting on the floor," Lifton said. "We were watching... (GunPolicy.org)