Duck, patriots!

Just a precaution, as many 'mericans were out in herds this weekend to celebrate their nation's glorious, important and hard-earned autonomy the best way they know how: with violence! Drunken, brutal violence!

TMZ has not one but two stories up today about a couple different acts of aggression revelers in the western part of the country faced this holiday weekend. In one instance, new mother Nicole Richie had to be escorted off the Hard Rock Hotel premises in Las Vegas after getting into an altercation with someone in the valet line. And in Los Angeles, two men were shot multiple times in front of a Hollywood club. USA! USA! USA!

After the jump, TMZ's unflinching and unnecessary image of the back of a shooting victim. (Don't worry, it's not bloody and the guy's alive.)