MIAMI -- Miami city officials are urging residents not to add celebratory gunfire to their Fourth of July fireworks.
    
Mayor Tomas Regalado, Miami Police Chief Manuel Orosa and other city officials held a news conference Tuesday to ask the public to abandon the unofficial tradition of firing guns into the air to celebrate the holiday. It's the same plea they made just before New Year's Eve.
    
Regalado says such gunfire is not only illegal but also reckless in populated areas.
    
When the bullets fall back to earth, they sometimes strike innocent bystanders. A 12-year-old boy watching fireworks outside his Ruskin home was critically injured when a bullet falling from the sky pierced his skull just after midnight on New Year's Eve. Authorities said the bullet could have been fired miles away.

Associated Press