Gunfight at the OK Corral

Have you ever noticed that in pictures and video of the revolts in Southwest Asia (e.g. Libya, Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan) some guy or guys have a big gun that they are firing.  Now what makes this funny is that they are always standing up with no cover expending large quantities of ammunition.  Frequently they are expending the ammunition into the air.  Don't they understand the old saying "what goes up must come down?"  If on the other hand you see pictures of the US Military they are either not firing or they are taking shelter.  I can understand that 100 years ago or so the weapons were so inaccurate that you stood a chance of doing the Matt Dillon thing.  Also, I learned that there was so much smoke from the gunpowder used at the OK Corral it is likely that after the first couple of shots no one could see the opponents.  But I can't believe that the tactics shown would result in anything other than the death of the shooter in the first second or two.

Of course the simple explanation for all of this is the media.  I can just imagine Geraldo Rivera saying "roll film" and "give me a good show guys, I need the ratings."