I was in Brno, Czech Republic on New Years Day 1992. My girlfriend told me to stay inside at the stroke of midnight.

At midnight was a five-minute volley af gunfire coming from hundreds of homes. I saw a few flashes from apartment balconies.

In a country that wasn't supposed to have many guns, many guns spoke that night. My take was that this New Year's tradition was the people telling the communist government not to push things too far. With everyone firing at once, it was hard for the police to find perpetrators and illegal guns.

But the tradition continued after the communists were gone. The reason to stay inside at the stroke of midnight: bullets do eventually come back down.

If the Czechs and Slovaks sent a message to the communist government with hunting rifles and pistols, But hopefully this tradition is no longer there.