"Only silly people deal in absolutes, but it's the exception that PROVES the rule (the old saying exists for a reason)."
Yes, the old saying exists for a reason, but not the reason you think. If the alleged rule is, "A bullet fired up and coming back down would most certainly not kill you," and someone is known to have been killed by a free-falling bullet, then that exception disproves the alleged rule, obviously.
Here's what that old saying actually means: Suppose there's a sign that says "No Parking On Sundays." That Sunday exception proves that there's a rule that allows you to park there on Mondays through Saturdays.
The idea that someone can be killed by a free-falling coin or bullet may be true under some incredibly unlikely, extraordinary circumstances, but by and large, it's a myth. I had an argument with a hunter safety course instructor who did a presentation in our classroom when I was in eighth grade (1988/1989) about that. He claimed that a bullet fired straight up into the air will always come back down just as fast as it left the muzzle.
I said, "So you're telling me that, say, a .220 Swift bullet, which has a muzzle velocity that's nearly four times the speed of sound, is going to fall at that same speed?"
He said, "Yes."
I said, "That's impossible. Have you ever heard of terminal velocity?"
He decided he just wanted to move on without admitting he was wrong, and there was no World Wide Web for me to quickly show him proof.
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