Woke this morning to gunfire. [View all]

[stage left]

Even though we're not that familiar with the sound of gunshots, we knew what it was. Boom, Boom, Boom. Then silence for a count of three. Boom, Boom,Boom. It sounded like the shooter was standing on our front porch. My husband looked out our bedroom window, but it was pitch black and he could see nothing. We strained to hear and heard nothing. I wondered why the dogs weren't barking. It was unnaturally silent like the silence that comes with a heavy snowfall. We whispered to each other as we moved to the front bathroom away from the windows. Should we call the police?

Then came the other shots, more coughing than booming. A different gun.Was there one person out there or more? Then we could hear faintly someone shouting across the street. I retrieved my cell phone from my bag in the dining room and dialed 911. I told the dispatcher to let the police know there was an active shooter, that he was still shooting, that we couldn't see him, and had no idea what was going on. I was really afraid they would find someone dead in one of the houses across the street.

I went upstairs to see about our daughter. I scared the living daylights out of her. She thought she had heard the shots in a dream. I told her to come downstairs and we waited in the back of the house for the police.

Four squad cars pulled silently into our neighborhood, lights low and stopped at our drive. One of the sheriff's deputies talked to my husband at the door, then went to investigate, telling us to stay inside.

Later we learned that they found the shooter, sitting on his porch across the street, an assault rifle across his lap. He was so drunk that when they told him to stand up, he fell off the porch. He had been firing various guns into the air, into the ground, and into his own car. They told us they found seven guns in his house and, of course, took all of them. They were looking for shell casings for several hours. I hope he never gets his guns back. I don't have much hope he'll never be able to buy another one, though.

I have some faint inkling of how the people in the recent mass shooting felt; of how people in areas where the sound of gunshots is the norm feel. It's not a good feeling.