Why would we celebrate something like this?

It appears a small subset of HN is bloodthirsty.

Wow, I would've never thought a 3.4km shot was even possible. How fast is a .50cal even going at that distance?

Diving into wikipedia [1] gives muzzle velocity for this rifle is 805 m/s. The flight took 10s. Using calculators from calculator soup, I came to a bullet speed of 115 m/s at the end of the flight using linear degradation of speed (-95 m/s^2).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMillan_Tac-50

What exactly did you mean to accomplish with that comment?

It looks like a textbook case of virtue signaling.

> What exactly did you mean to accomplish with that comment?

Condemnation.

> virtue signaling

Par for the HN course to label something so contemptuously.

It's 2017. Do you consider that a big number?

Barbarism is killing innocent people, blowing up mosques, and using men, women and children as shields because you can't fight your dumb little revolution.

Destabilizing the Middle East is probably the better move.

I really hope you never get to experience what it would be like to live in a society where everyone thinks like you (and nobody stands guard while you clutch your pearls).

Condemning and not celebrating anything related to violence does not imply apathy or indifference (which are some form of indirect violence).