Celebratory gunfire brought down an electric cable at a house in a village in Saudi Arabia. This may have caused a fire that killed 23  women and children or the powerline may have fallen on a metal door electrocuting the victims. Saudi Arabia last month banned the shooting of firearms at weddings, a popular tradition in tribal areas of the country. In 1999, 76 people died in a similar incident.

Editor: This must be added to the list of bizarre ways in which people can be fatally injured. This is not intended to ridicule this custom but it does call attention on how central guns are in the lives of so many in so many countries. Surely the time has come for a move towards accepting that guns have no place in the homes of civilians no matter where we live.