Do you hear what I hear?

Living in Durham has made me very aware of my surroundings. When my mother first learned of my intentions to move to Durham she wasn’t very happy. Let’s be honest – Durham has a reputation (one that I’d like to say is slowly changing for the better).
Unfortunately, only 3 short days after moving into our Durham neighborhood, police cars and yellow tape surrounded a house about a half-mile from ours. It ended up that the homeowner was shot to death, his body rolled up in a carpet and left on his couch for the authorities to find. Word around the water cooler at work was that this guy was a heavy-duty drug dealer. While he had surveillance around most exterior areas of his home, his live-in girlfriend decided to let the burglars in the one entrance that didn’t have a camera upon it. Her plan was to let them “steal” his drugs and drug money, and then ditch her boyfriend once he was dead. She was never seen again after the accident. Or so I’ve been told.
Needless to say, my mom was certainly unhappy to learn of this catastrophe. Nothing has happened since. The worst thing that has occurred in the neighborhood since the murder has been a number of home foreclosures and maybe a house fire.
But from time to time I still hear what I believe to be gunshots. I heard three in a row this morning while sitting at the kitchen table with my mother in law. She tried to make me feel better by saying, “Don’t worry, we hear them all the time in Orlando.” My question is, who is killing someone at 8:30 in the morning?!
My next question is, are there other sounds that might mimic the sound of a gunshot? Perhaps it wasn’t a gunshot at all but a backfiring car or firecrackers. Any opinions?