For sure those stats it's pretty much assured they didn't account for angles and just that the location and trajectory showed them that they were from a "celebratory shot".

All I know is if someone is shooting in the air at any angle imma head inside cause I definitely won't rely on those variables not coming together, even in the very unlikely chance that it will hit me as well.

So guess we just cite our sources, piss on em shake hands and call it a day?

A bullets’ terminal velocity required to penetrate the skin is between 45.1 and 60.0 m/s (148 and 197 ft/s) and bullets traveling at <60.0 m/s (200 ft/s) can penetrate the skull.

In the launch angle region of 80º…90º the bullet basically lands the base first. The terminal velocity might vary between values 40…85 m/s. The result depends on possible Magnus-moment caused bullet instability or the bullet/flow resonance. The buffeting-like phenomenon described is new to the authors of the current paper at this particular context. However, the flow time-dependent phenomena detected were found out to have negligible effect on flight without matching of the natural frequencies (flow/bullet).

Experimental result found for an upwards fired 7.62 mm bullet terminal velocity is about 90 m/s, which is near to the base first landing case simulated result. The typical terminal velocities given in literature for spent bullets are from 300 fps to 600 fps (90...180 m/s).

In many simulated cases through the launch angle region the bullet possessed the estimated minimum lethal energy 40 J at the end of trajectory. The skull penetrating speed 60 m/s was mostly clearly exceeded. A preliminary value for shooter-centered danger zone diameter obtained was found out to be approximately 8 km.

Between the years 1985 and 1992, doctors at the King/Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, treated some 118 people for random falling-bullet injuries. Thirty-eight of them died.

Yeah, totally not fatal. Guess they must have been allergic.

Man the people who died to celebration shots in the air are gonna be pissed to find out.