Have you shot anyone, been shot at, or had anyone shot in front of you?

[uppityperson]

All this talk on what could've should've might've been done relies on students and teachers being able to get past their shock and fear and be able to be capable of doing something. Have you been in this situation? Shooting someone, been shot at or had anyone shot in front of you? If so, please also let us know if it was part of your job (like law enforcement) or military or just plain old people out in the world.

I don't care who has a gun. I don't care who says they would do this or that or the other thing. Those trained in law enforcement or the military, they have had some training and might be more likely to be able to keep their cool than most of us normal people. EVEN if we have been trained with guns or have shot guns or own guns. Freezing with shock is normal. It is a tragedy that happened to a bunch of shocked people and I feel for them.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. Yes, all three, part of my job

and even those trained tend to fuck up when it happens by surprise.

that is the key to staying alive, not being taken by surprise.

[Wickerman]

2. I've been threatened by a drunk with a gun

I am not in LE and though in the military years ago was not when the incident occurred. It was a domestic issue and pretty damn intense.

[WinkyDink]

3. No, but I read about Dick Cheney.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. NO

[Redstone]

5. UP, I checked in for just a minute and saw this, so I owe you an answer: All three.

Multiple times for all. Not to mention getting shot period, not just shot AT.

Almost exactly 35 years ago, now that I think of it, but that sort of thing stays with you.

And having said that and triggered the memories, I'm off to get a sleeping pill. No more of this for me tonight. No more.

Redstone

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

8. redstone... I am with you buddy... rum

for me tonight. I hope the dreams don't come.

[Redstone]

12. Ambien works best on those dreams, my friend. And I'll add Finlandia to the mix, because YOU

understand how this night will be, don't you?

Do as well as you can, OK?

Redstone

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

19. You too. Yes, I know.

I have been dreading this hour all afternoon.

And now it is neigh.

HiHo.

[uppityperson]

11. so sorry my friend, I know it hits home for many. Hoping a more peaceful night.

[NightWatcher]

6. been shot at, and I've shot in the direction of someone

I didnt try to hit anyone, but get the point across by shooting out a window. It was ruled a clean shoot, but I was scared by all the "what if's" .

I've been shot at during an armed robbery (I was the good guy). I heard the bullet whiz by me before it hit the wall three feet away from me.

[shadowknows69]

7. Had a pistol pressed to the back of my head

not an experience I'd recommend if your nerves are easily upset. To my own credit I didn't piss or shit myself. Even when the guy told me he was going to kill anyway after robbing me. Obviously he didn't but I believed him at the time. Your life does really flash in front of you in a certain respect.

[deadmessengers]

9. Been shot at

I once got caught in the crossfire between a couple of knucklehead crack dealers shooting at each other. I hit the deck and damn near pissed myself.

[Ghost in the Machine]

10. yes, yes & yes....

[Marie26]

13. Yes

I saw people shot in front of me. And I don't buy all the talk about how armed civilians could have stopped this. In this kind of situation, you do totally freeze with shock, and the shooting happens so quickly that you don't even have time to understand what is happening until it is over.

[uppityperson]

15. My thought also. Now I'm thinking I'll ask to move this to gungeon also.

Thanks all and hoping tomorrow is a brighter, happier day.

[Jackpine Radical]

14. All 3.

Shot people, been shot, saw people shot.
Vietnam was a hoot.

[rwheeler31]

16. no

and why do you/

[HockeyMom]

17. Bus driver shot

I was a little kid about 6 years old. My Mom had taken me on the bus to Macy's Herald Square to see Santa. We had made a stop and people were getting on and paying their fares. A man had an argument with the bus driver, pulled out a gun, and shot him and a passenger near him.

My Mom threw me on the floor by our seats and got on top of me. I don't remember much else other than people screaming and seeing blood splattered all over the front of the bus.

[underseasurveyor]

18. Shot over their heads, Yes and No, but it was close.

Had a knife on my throat more than once too but thank goddess he's been outta my life for more than 30 years now:scared:

No I'm not in LE or the military.

[guitar man]

20. been shot

About 20 years ago now, stupid drunk altercation in a bar, guy pulls out a .32 pistol and shoots me in the leg. I guess I was just drunk enough not to be too shocked at the moment and proceeded to pound on his head with a beer mug until he lay unconscious on the floor.

Then, I sat down, looked at my leg and said "oh shit, I've been shot" and passed out cold.I wasn't seriously injured, but just being shot changes one's perspective about things a bit.

[Roon]

24. I've been stabbed before

Not as bad as getting shot, but just as scary. I almost passed out cold too.

[Withywindle]

21. Witnessed it, yes, been threatened, yes...

...enough to know your point is right. No one ever knows how they'll react until they're there. So much tough talk is wishful thinking. Thanks for saying this.

[uppityperson]

25. Thank you for your reply, and thank you others also.

Nice to hear I am not alone in feeling this way. Immigrant stuff almost drove me out of here, Imus was too much, now I need a break but wanted to say thank you first.

[Roon]

22. I have heard a shot fired in anger

My then, step-dad...drunk and mean, decided that he was going to kill me and told my Mother of his intentions. He fired the gun through the wall of my bedroom trying to scare my Mother. The bullet didn't hit me but I will never forget the earth shattering explosion of the gun. He was arrested and my Mother immediately divorced him. Oh, I was 13 at the time and it made the news and papers.

[misanthrope]

23. Been shot at...

...in college when we took a wrong turn one night and ended up at the wrong address out in the middle of nowhere.

I was the only one outside the car. I saw the silhouette coming up the drive with the rifle in his hands and when I bent my head down to talk to my friends still inside the vehicle, he fired.

I don't remember being particularly scared or any adrenalin rush; I just jumped in the car and we sped off. The stranger fired once again as we drove away.

I was more scared when, in high school, I was doing some foolhardy stuff with friends when we got caught in a train tunnel with a train bearing down on us. I've done very little since that has ever matched that level of fear.

[NRaleighLiberal]

26. No, no and no. nt

[Ksec]

27. No but I saw a lady who drowned once

I watched as they pulled her out of the pool and gave her mouth to mouth to no avail.
These things stay with you like it was yesterday. That happened 30 yrs ago.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

28. no, yes and yes

[Cirque du So-What]

29. Yes, I've been shot at...by a crazed sniper

It was in Portland, Oregon, ca. 1977, at a large shopping mall called the Lloyd Center. I went to the mall early that morning on some errand, parked the car, and walked toward the entrance. A city cop, crouched down beside his car, yelled at me to take cover. A couple of seconds later, a shot rang out from somewhere on the third-floor roof and I heard the bullet ricochet off the pavement about 10 feet away from me. At that moment, I found out that I could move faster than I ever thought possible.

After taking a few giant leaps & bounds, I crouched beside a pickup truck and felt the adrenalin pump my heart so hard that it felt like it was going to burst out of my chest. This persisted for the next 15 minutes or so, even after the SWAT team arrived and began the process of taking out the sniper. About a half hour after my arrival, the police announced 'all clear.' I don't even recall how many shots I heard after the one that came close to me, nor do I remember the fate of the sniper. I've searched the internet for details of that day, but I can't find anything about it. The Portland Oregonian has archives, but they only go back as far as 1987.

[Cleita]

30. No, but I have had a gun pointed at me by the police and

it scared the shit out of me. It took me a couple of days to be able to string a sentence together let alone get my work done efficiently.

[zulchzulu]

31. I've seen the Devil shoot a gun...

I wrote about an event that happened to me a few years ago...that I could relive any time I don't want to.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x673046

[Zynx]

32. Dodged gunfire outside of a nightclub

I was walking up the street when some gang member apparently didn't like something a bouncer said and opened up at random. I ducked behind the concrete corner of a building until the guy's clip ran out, then took off.

Most of the other people in the street ran around randomly - in some cases towards the gunman - or took cover behind useless objects such as glass corners of buildings, cars, etc. Gunfire does not bother me. I shoot enough to understand how the things work and be numb to the sound. It obviously bothers most people.

~

This shooting is weird because it seems that no one tried to actually stop the guy. Most other mass shootings, someone has at least tried, and in a lot of cases, has taken them down, at least long enough for someone else to help and disarm the guy.

He didn't even have that much firepower - just a pistol, and not a pistol with a ton of stopping power. (Yes, I know he had two, but you can't use a pistol in your offhand because your non-dominant eye isn't seeing anything *close* to reality).

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

33. I was in an Asian bar a few years ago in Long Beach, California

It was a real dive, but a very colorful dive, with tons of atmosphere and lots of Asian girls dancing in bikinis. I was leaving the bar through the front door and heard a 'crack-crack' sound and heard a thud in the wood of the door. Just a couple of seconds ahead of me, a known Asian gang member who liked to hang out in the bar had left through the same door and had been gunned down from a car parked just outside that then sped away. If I had left just a couple of seconds earlier, I might have been shot down as well. It happened so fast that all I could do was stick my head back inside and yell at the bartender to call 911. Despite being shot through the chest, this guy survived. I saw him about a year later in another bar across the street. He was truly a changed man. He looked like he'd aged about 20 years and was very frail and feeble.

[GenDem]

34. No to all three questions

Guns have never had any place in any of my 48 years. My husband was in the Marine Corp and I remember him going out to the rifle range, as part of his training, but he is not a hunter, and we have never owned a gun.

My sympathy goes out to the victims today, and to any of my fellow DUer's that have had an experience with gun violence.

I know that I will never second guess any of the victims and how they reacted today, and I don't think anyone should.

[tularetom]

35. No yes and yes

I was shot in the right shin by my brother when I was about 14 (he was 11 or 12). It was pretty small shot from a .410 from about 100 feet sort of a dick cheney type deal. I remember getting pieces of lead picked out of my leg and it hurt worse than the shot itself. When I was in the service I saw a GI shot in a bar in Juarez and my brother in law got shot through the upper arm in another hunting accident. That one was pretty scary, there was a lot of blood and there were only 2 of us to get him off the mountain, into the truck and to a hospital - pre cell phone days.

[Poiuyt]

36. I can't believe the number of people who have experienced violence in their lives

I consider myself to be very lucky (so far). I don't think I've even seen a real fistfight.

[Stu DeBeouf]

37. Hunting accident....

happened so goddamned fast , it took hours before I really put together what had happened.

[mulsh]

38. I've been shot at and I've

seen a person get most of his head blown off by a sawed off shot gun, never actually been shot. I certainly would never shoot someone, I hate guns.

The guy who got his head blown off had just made the sawed off shot gun with his buddy and both of them were outside a party. Pete the guy who got his head blown off had removed the trigger guard and Joe had the gun stuffed down his draw string pants. Pete grabbed the gun and began to pull it when the trigger got caught on the waist band and before we knew it his head shattered into thousands of pieces and he crumpled on the street.
I also had a psycho neighbor who tried to kill me and my brother a number of times over the years. mostly with guns. fortunately he was stoned most of the time and missed.
I also worked for the coroner for 5 years and saw many people who were killed for very stupid reasons.
Like I said I hate guns.

[Coyote_Bandit]

39. No, but

I've been chased by someone wielding a knife. Long story involving a very young guy with anger management issues. That was many years ago. He has since gotten a lot of counseling and seems to be OK now. But I keep my distance for obvious reasons.

I've been chased by two different guys in cars. One ran a stop sign and came flying through a T intersection and nearly sidewiped me - and then turned around to chase me for several miles. He went away when he figured out that I was driving to the nearest police substation. The second guy? I'm really not sure what set him off.

Someone tried to abduct me when I was about 13 or so - as in grabbed both my arms and tried to pull me into their vehicle. There was no one around to hear me scream but I got away. Why? Probably just because I resisted. A lot. I later recognized his photo on the local news when he was arrested for abducting and killing teenage girls.

When I was about 8 or 10 I went to visit the neighbor kids after dinner one evening. Not unusual as we would often play together. When I got there I heard a lot of commotion inside the house. Nobody answered the door. So I opened it and walked right in - to find the old man drunk and beating the living daylights out of his wife and kids. I immediately took the kids home with me. That hacked the old man off even more and he chased us. My folks didn't have a chance to find out what was going on before he showed up and demanded his kids back. On the way out the door he threatened to return and kill us all. Turns out he had done time in prison and the cops considered it a very real and legitimate threat. We had around the clock police protection for several days until they located the guy and "encouraged" him to move on somewhere else.

I had a younger sibling who was killed in a car accident when I was very young. It happened while the family was moving. So I lost all my little friends at the same time. A year later my new best friend died during emergency surgery. Then one by one my three great grandparents died. Then I learned my new new best friends father had terminal lung cancer. I watched him suffer and waste away. I was with her during his final days and I was with her when they told her he had died. All of this happened before I finished fifth grade.

Life's a bitch. You can't let this sort of stuff define you. You really can't prepare for this kind of stuff. You have to react - and that reaction has to be almost instinctive. In my experience the instinct for self-preservation overcame any sense of immediate fear, shock or freeze up. That all came later with a bit of reflection after the urgency of the immediate circumstances had passed.

[TahitiNut]

40. D'uhhh ...

:freak: