That night, many Lebanese were also celebrating the speech given by President Fuad Chehab by firing volleys into the air to show their support. Within an hour, a stray bullet hit the tent’s iron stake and ricocheted, hitting me in my left armpit, and it started to bleed. My father and mother gasped in fear upon discovering the stain of blood on my bed. My father quickly drove me in his car to a doctor’s house who lived nearby. The doctor examined me thoroughly and looked at the wound. He was of the opinion that the bullet had grazed my armpit and had not penetrated inside. Initially he was confident of his conclusion as I was perfectly well, with a simple wound in my armpit. After cleaning and dressing the wound, the doctor asked my parents to take me home and watch for any signs of worsening, in the case of which to take me to the hospital promptly. He also directed them to take me to the hospital the next morning for an x-ray, so he could put his mind at ease about the bullet. The next morning, the x-ray revealed that the bullet had entered my armpit and gone into my rib cage, and was lodged in there. The doctor cried out to my mother, «A miracle has happened to your son, the bullet passed by the heart and arteries and didn’t hurt him. There’s a fine line between the bullet and his heart. A miracle.» I survived miraculously indeed and did not take a single pill, according to my mother. Still the doctors would keep monitoring me for years for any signs of the bullet moving, with the bullet lodged in my chest to this day. At the time, my mother had to make a votive offering to Saint Elias, whose intercession with God saved my life. Since then, Saint Elias has been my patron saint, even in the years when I proclaimed my atheism, only to go back on that decision – but that’s another story.
That stray bullet left me very afraid of bullets, whether stray or not. To this day, I cannot bear to hear the sound of gunfire, and I suffered greatly during our Lebanese wars because of this fear. Even today, I run for cover every time I hear gunfire. Maybe I am a coward. But my cowardice is quite legitimate.
The Lebanese are keen on firing off rounds. It is easy to speak of this unique Lebanese hobby. A strange hobby that has rarely been taken up by other peoples. They love to fire off rounds in the air on all occasions: weddings, births, funerals, passing school exams… Sometimes, the Lebanese do not even need an occasion for a round of fire. Even when some of their leaders give fiery speeches, they fire off in the air rejoicing at what they see as a victory. They are constantly in search of victories, even if illusory, to fire off a volley of shots. This is an infection that runs in their blood and veins, and that they have inherited from their parents and grandparents. Let us imagine citizens waiting for flocks of migratory birds to cross the sky of Lebanon to fire at them, yes, fire at them with military and not hunting rifles, even though they know that their flesh is not edible.
They are the «stray» Lebanese – that is how I have dubbed them and I call them that without any misgivings. They do not care about the innocent casualties who fall victim and are wounded as a result of this criminal gunfire, as if they are enemies and not their brothers sharing this country. And it is objectionable that they do not take heed and are not deterred, insisting on practicing their bloody hobby. They are keen on hearing the whizzing of bullets and seeing them leave trails in the night sky. I recall some Lebanese firing off what is known as tracer bullets, overjoyed and euphoric.
A few months ago, the Lebanese film director Philippe Aractingi launched a campaign on Facebook and other social media against indiscriminate gunfire in Lebanon after a stray bullet penetrated a window in his house, barely missing his son, who was miraculously spared. The renowned director, who had delved into the depths of the Lebanese war in a major film, Under the Bombs, shared a picture of the glass that the bullet had penetrated and the damage it caused in the room. He also wrote a text condemning the «criminal» and calling for fighting this barbaric phenomenon that still prevails in Lebanon. Just a day after the start of this campaign, which was welcomed by social media users, a young Lebanese woman named Amal Khashfa fell victim to a stray bullet that hit her on the balcony of her house in Tarik el Jdideh, Beirut, and knocked her down… Before that, a young woman named Sarah Suleiman died after being hit by a stray bullet. The next day, Sarah’s parents shared her moving will in which she asks for her organs to be donated.
Once, more than five citizens were injured by stray bullets in 24 hours in different regions. It is difficult to keep track of the names of all the victims of indiscriminate gunfire in Lebanon who die on the balconies of their homes, on sidewalks, in squares and in schools. Even the General Security does not have complete figures about the victims, whose number keeps growing by the day. Despite the calls for restraint, and all the threats and campaigns conducted by the Lebanese security forces, fans of firing into the air relentlessly persist in practicing this criminal act.
It is not surprising that this criminal phenomenon would be rampant in all Lebanese regions, as fans of firing off into the air come from all religious groups and walks of life, and they all come together in this tradition, considered to be a popular «noble» custom that dates back to the pre-civil-war era. According to them, gunfire should accompany all occasions, whatever their nature, in sadness and in happiness, and for political «struggles». No wedding or funeral is complete without a volley of shots, and only bullets provide the required aura of pomp, pride and solemnity. Some of those practitioners do not miss an occasion to fire off, and they go on the streets on New Year’s Eve with their firearms and open fire in celebration. Once, a woman was shown on a television channel holding a rifle saying, there’s no joy in New Year’s Eve without a volley of shots, «It sounds nice.»
What is strange is that the bodyguards of some political leaders do not hesitate to fire their firearms in celebration, especially when their leaders give impassioned and patriotic speeches. Some citizens have tried to replace this custom with firecrackers and fireworks, something that is familiar to all Lebanese and is used for holidays and occasions, as an alternative to firearms. What matters is the peal of rifles and the echo of firecrackers in the air.
On November 30, 1949, the writer Fuad Suleiman wrote a heated article on the front page of Annahar daily, berating those who fire indiscriminately into the air, and accusing them of debasing bullets, the makers of history’s most important revolutions and the liberators of nations and peoples. He wrote, «Bullets, how ignoble you are in Lebanon. How contemptible your song. How contemptible you are, the bullets of my country. In my country, the heroism of bullets is debased.» This bad and deadly custom is not new, and was not introduced by the civil war and the war that followed. It is a deeply rooted custom in Lebanon, with stories told of how grandparents would say of shots fired indiscriminately into the air, «what a sweet voice».
Firing into the air is a strange phenomenon indeed. What satisfaction do those «stray» people gain from bullets whizzing? What pleasure do these «criminals» take from indiscriminately killing innocent people? The Lebanese fire shots into the air not to rejoice, but rather to let the others – whoever those others are –know they are here, they have arms, they are ready. This tradition has been passed down by generations that have lived through the different eras of civil conflicts and has been entrenched by the war, which will not come to a true end as long as questions relating to it have not received healing answers.
I have always believed that there will be no lasting civil peace until all the Lebanese have given up their indiscriminate shooting hobby and their personal firearms. It is the job of the State to convince them of that and prove to them that the State is the authority and the protector.