Shooting guns in the air is common enough in northern California. When I was a boy it was common in Texas. Some people seem to think that if you fire into the dirt, the bullet will hit a rock, riccochet, and kill some one but if you fire up, it'll never come down. For the record, I was once hit by a riccochet, a badly deformed bullet won't penetrate far. If there's no jacket, it'll probably shatter, which is what happened to me.