Drive-by damage

I like to pride myself on my ability to spot subtle changes in my surroundings, but my eagle-eyed husband beat me to this one:

Someone shot up the VL Park and Ride sign. 
Looks like 45 calibre, or perhaps 9 mm.

Judging from the tightness of that cluster, my guess is that they either shot from a ground position, or the car in which the shooter was riding was brought to a halt before they fired.  They'd have to be pretty good to achieve that kind of consistency from a car moving 40 mph, and people of that level of skill typically don't go around shooting up road signs. 

In and of itself it's a minor crime, but this kind of thing is concerning because of the potential for collateral damage.  If you ever want the fear of God put into you, take a concealed handgun class and listen to the instructors tell you about the potential for the down-range effects of any gun that you fire.  You can never limit your thinking to your intended target - you have to mentally assess your impacts on everything else that's also in line with your target, and bullets travel surprisingly far - half a mile is not uncommon.  That kind of perspective is the principal means that the instructors use to instill in their students a sense of conservative knee-shaking responsibility regarding the firing of any weapon. 

This must have happened fairly recently, because the Park and Ride has only been open for a few months.  I don't yet know if it's an isolated incident, or if someone is going around our area shooting the place up.  I'll be keeping my eyes open for additional evidence. 

This is a crummy picture because I took it from a moving car in the northbound lanes.  I haven't yet determined if the shooter was northbound or southbound when the weapon was fired.