yup it is. i own 13 acres, all woods. my firing range has a nice hill for a backstop. outside of that i wont fire unless i absolutely have identified the target and i consider it an immediate threat. although i have fired into the air when the occasional wild dog or such shows too much interest in me or the wife.
all in all its mainly a lot of practice rounds to keep my skills honed.
Firing in the air always bothered me. It has to come down, possibly on top of someone. Why not fire into the ground?
firing into the ground can ricochet or create a spray of spall depending on what it hits. not good when its near you.
when firing into the air, when it comes down its just at normal falling speed as its expended all its energy on the way up. wont hurt anymore than a pebble of equivalent weight falling on you. also the direction i fire in is literally square miles of woods. no houses at all. so i fire maybe 10 degree from vertical in that direction.
A 'pebble' falling from several kilometers (without any acceleration except for gravity) will kill you I think. At least that's what I remember my calculation of over a decade ago. I've seen news articles too of (unintended) casualties from kalashnikovs being fired straight into the air in celebration in the middle east.