Has anyone here ever witnessed a shooting?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

And for the purposes of discussion, I'm excluding wartime combat and going to target ranges or hunting. I'm thinking more along the lines of homicides and attempted homicides.

The reason I'm asking is that, as I alluded to last week, there was a shooting at my office building. It was a murder-suicide where a husband came into the office next to ours, shot his wife and then shot himself. I did not actually see it take place with my own two eyes, but I most definitely did hear it. And given that it was heard and not seen for me left me with a temporary sense of uncertainty as to whether or not the shooter was still alive and on the loose, which was unsettling to say the least.

The shooter owned his gun legally and was a well-respected member of the community. He was far from a typical psychopath or a reprobate felon.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. I'm not overly traumatized by it, but I'm still rather bothered by it. I did hear two people's lives suddenly and violently come to an end, and that's just bizarre when thinking about in retrospect.

But for anyone else so unfortunate to have witnessed (either visually or audibly) such an event, what were your feelings? Was there a sense of fear? What was your first reaction? What was going through your head, both when it took place and afterwards?

I heard one of my co-workers remark that she couldn't get the sounds of the gunshots out of her head. For me, the only other time I've heard live gun-fire goes back to where I grew up, in a rural area where I would occasionally hear hunters shooting in the woods. This sounded different from that, though, and from what gun shots sounded like on TV--this was higher pitched sound, less of an echo or reverberation, like a "pop". It did sound a lot like firecrackers. But the craziest thing was, when I heard it, I knew it was gunfire and not firecrackers--I immediately thought that it was much more plausible that someone would be shooting a gun in our building than setting off firecrackers. Goes to show the crazy world we're living in, I guess.

[Blue_Tires]

1. Didn't witness it personally, but in college I was in a club

where one person opened fire and ended up wounding another person...

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Tom, what you experienced is worst

That the bullet that went through my rig at a shootout with the Arellanos. (It missed me by three inches, and the Oxygen regulator by a mere inch)

I expected that. It's a shootout with the army, in a civilian neighborhood. Both sides are using M-16s and Ak47 weapons...thankfully nobody used the 50cal.

Being bothered by it is very normal. Having talked to many survivors (relative was shot and killed or injured), at times near them...this is perfectly normal now talking about it is extremely healthy, and what you need to do.

As to wrapping your head around it...you might, someday. But processing the fact that a human being killed another is not easy, and that goes even for military personnel. This is why war indelibly changes them. And why never deployed troops are tough talking, never bother me, and returned troops are changed forever.

All I can tell you is talk about it, and believe it or not, now you share a little with combat vets.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

4. I can understand why many combat vets do not want to talk about their experiences.

Whether it was witnessing firsthand your comrades getting shot or having to deal with shooting an enemy combatant, no matter how justified that is, it has to be a horrific experience. That is why I don't think I would ever been cut out for combat, despite having the highest regard for anyone who does volunteer to serve the country in the military. It's not a matter of cowardice, but simply I don't know if I personally could handle the after-effects emotionally.

But yeah, talking does help. It's hard to do, but it is therapeutic.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. There is another reason

Most civilians don't get it.

You will discover this.

Watch for intrusive dreams...and for startle reactions.

[upaloopa]

26. Most of us in Vietnam were drafted. We didn't

choose to be put in that situation. That is the reason i get so pissed at people who think a draft is a good way to stop wars.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

28. Yeah, I don't get that argument either.

The argument is that politicians would be less likely to approve military action if they or their children were at risk of fighting it. But I'm sure they'd find ways to get around it, just as they did back then.

[upaloopa]

29. The war and the draft lasted 10 years. So much for drafts ending wars.

[HughBeaumont]

3. Witnessed, no. Know someone who got shot domestically, yes.

In a road-rage altercation in 1994, my friend was shot at seven times at head level. No one in his car was armed. One of the bullets (.22) hit his mid-tricep; he saved and still has the slug. The shooter had previous incidents of public anger at the college he attended. He served five years for felonious assault.

Epilogue: Believe it or not, my friend, in 2013, is actually Facebook friends with the (now reformed) person who shot him.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

5. That's a good ending to a harrowing story. nt

[onehandle]

6. Drunk guy came out of a bar next to a gas station I was fueling at.

Pulled out a gun and emptied it into the windshield of a car.

A cop car appeared out of nowhere. (I was on the ground).

I heard two cops shouting for him to drop the weapon. After a few seconds, it sounded like the commotion ebbed.

I got up slowly. They had him on the ground. The shot up car seemed to have no occupants.

There were lots of witnesses. I finished my fueling, and got out of there.

Still don't know who's car he was shooting at.

[deutsey]

7. The first time I went to NYC

I went with a friend who knows the city pretty well.

It was a couple weeks before Christmas and we had a pretty good time going around seeing all the sites...it even began to snow, which made it all seem kind of magical in Washington Square Park, until heavy snow began to come down at an angle in an expected snowstorm.

My friend drove, so we got to his car with the intention of heading out of the city before the weather got too bad.

The snow was so heavy that he didn't see the sign for the Lincoln Tunnel until we were already passing it. So he said he would just go around the block, come back around, and take the exit.

As we were going down the street we heard a series of loud popping sounds and I jokingly said something like: "Great, we're trapped in a blizzard and now someone's shooting."

Only my friend pointed out it wasn't a joke: there was a guy standing on the sidewalk firing what looked like an UZI into the window of a largely boarded-up building. We drove right by him as he did this. He just stood and popped one shot off after another. Then he just turned, put the gun inside his jacket, and casually walked down the street.

As the guy was shooting, it dawned on us that he could have easily turned and shot us as we drove by. For whatever reason, the shooter didn't even seem to notice we were there.

One of the weirdest experiences of my life.

[Art_from_Ark]

60. The only time I've come upon the scene of a shooting

was as I was coming out of Grand Central Station, and a guy across the street, according to bystanders, had been shot just a minute before.

[tularetom]

8. Sort of - I was accidentally shot by my brother

With my .22 cal rifle when he was screwing around thinking there wasn't a round in the chamber. I was maybe 12 which would have made him 9.

The bullet grazed my forehead and caused a lot of bleeding but no serious injury or permanent damage although some who know me would dispute that. I remember hearing the report but feeling nothing until the blood ran down into my eyes.

The only other thing I can remember about the incident is my father was more pissed off that the bullet broke one of the side windows in his old Plymouth and that the rifle got lucked up for a year or so. You see, he blamed me for letting my brother handle it without making sure it wasn't loaded.

[IdaBriggs]

14. Because you were a Responsible Twelve while *he* was

an IRRESPONSIBLE ADULT and your father isn't big on taking personal responsibility for monitoring CHILDREN AND GUNS?

Please take this the way I mean it: Your Father Is/Was An Asshole.

While the intended compliment - "at twelve years of age, YOU are a Responsible Adult" - is lovely, it also is kind of officially Nutty.

I hope your mother whacked him upside the head with a frying pan for trying to pass that type of NONSENSE along to you.

Children are exactly that: CHILDREN.

I sent my beloved six year old twins upstairs to take a bath. My boy-child somehow managed to flood the bathroom - floor, walls, and ceilings - and I am still unsure how, especially in the very short time he did it in. (I believe "making big waves" was somehow involved, but in less than five minutes...?) My husband tried to get mad, at which point I stopped him, because if we had been *monitoring* them appropriately, it wouldn't have happened.

You teach wisdom and safety, but you keep monitoring because mistakes happen and children need ongoing reinforcement, and in the meantime, it is a parents' JOB to Keep Their Children Safe - and thank heaven my boy-child's antics didn't result in tragedy - shudder!

It wasn't your fault, and it wasn't your brother's fault. It was your dad's. I'm just glad you all survived it!!!

[tularetom]

21. Well, yes and no

I certainly thought at the time (and still do in a way) that my father was an asshole for taking my gun away from me when I was the one who got shot. But I kind of have to defend him for his overall policy toward kids and guns.

My dad was working on his tractor twenty feet away from me when this happened. He didn't allow me to use the rifle when he wasn't present and the only ammunition I got was what he gave me. I had loaded that round the week before when I was shooting at cans on a fence post and forgotten about it. He was probably remiss in not checking before he put the gun away that day but in his defense I had been shooting since I was 8 years old and he probably assumed I knew better. This was 60 years ago in a very rural area and hunting was probably the best opportunity for father/son bonding. So he had plenty of opportunity to know whether I was or wasn't responsible about guns.

Nevertheless I see your point. You can't let your kids do "adult" things and then get upset when they act like kids. Being a father, grandfather, and now great grandfather I've experienced lots of examples of that.

BTW, my brother and I have become very close since the deaths of our parents and our sister and we still joke about that incident. At least, he thinks I'm joking.

[sinkingfeeling]

9. Yes, about 10 years ago. A guy was shot across the street from me. I heard about

a dozen gun shots and then watched as he got into a car and drove himself 2 blocks to the ER. He died a few minutes later. I walked over to the scene and talked to the police. Saw all the shell casings on the ground. Turned out to have been a fight between a couple of guys, one armed with a knife and the other with a gun. Both in their 20's and one is serving 25 years now.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. I saw my brother shoot and kill my father.

I was only 4 and didn't really comprehend it at the time.

Let's just say it changed my life.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

11. Wow. nt

[Le Taz Hot]

62. Jesus!

[KurtNYC]

12. About 3 hours of machine gun and small arms fire

the first night of the Rodney King riot. They shot helicopters out of the sky and drove down ally ways throwing malitov cocktails on to every roof. I had a mild version of PTSD for a year or so.

The walls seemed all too thin when you hear those bursts of gunfire in perfect rhythm hour after hour. Life is both vibrant and incredibly fragile.

[kwassa]

58. Who had machine guns in the Rodney King riot? No helicopter shootings, no Malitov cocktails.

I was there, too. The police disappeared. The rioters in the street were mostly opportunistic locals.

They were out to steal things, not kill people.

[KurtNYC]

64. Who had a machine gun in Los Angeles ? -- If you ask that then you NEVER lived in Los Angeles

AKs, 9mm, Uzi's: Crips, Bloods, Koreatown shop owners

Channel 7 was live on air when their helicopter was shot down around 9:30 April 29, 1992.

Toyota pick-ups were driven down the back of shops on Pico and Olympic and they just threw gasoline filled bottles on to the flat roofs. Then they shot at the firemen. Look at 01:13 here -- see the these shop next to each other all on fire:

53 dead and over 2,000 casualties.

So how's the weather in Orange County?

[kwassa]

72. I was right there, and I lived in Los Angeles 17 years.

I lived on Cochran Avenue just north of 6th Street, two blocks west of La Brea, one block north of Wilshire. Olympic was 4 blocks south. Olympic and Pico were not burning the first night, the riots started way south of that. Things were burning on Pico and Olympic on Friday, May 1st, and I saw the smoke plumes rising all around me. I watched a gang that was trying to break into Adrays on Wilshire, as was most of the neighborhood, who was also photographing them. Armed guards that were hiding at first eventually chased them away. Around the corner from where I lived was a Radio Shack that looted, and my favorite photo store, Samy's Camera, was on fire a few blocks north. All the gas stations up and down La Brea were torched.

I commuted through the riot the day before when we were dismissed early from work. I used to drive down Jefferson into Culver City.

Edit to add:

1) I can find no record of any helicopter being shot down.

2) Here is a list of all the people who died during the riot, and how they died. A wide variety of circumstances all over the city. They weren't gunned down by machine guns.

http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~oliver/soc220/Lectures220/AfricanAmericans/LA%20Riot%201992%20Deaths.htm

[FarCenter]

15. Yes, between police and some guy in a parking lot in San Francisco

I was in a conference room several floors above the parking lot.

My more vivid memory is as a child seeing a neighbor woman who had been thrown out of a car, sitting bleeding on the ground. She was still alive, but she later died of her injuries.

[marions ghost]

16. My SO was in his office

in a quiet moderate sized town, on an upper floor. He was in a meeting when someone came in and said there was a shooter in the street. They all crowded to the window and saw a man in kneeling position with a sniper rifle shoot and kill two people. In broad daylight. In a "good" neighborhood in a "good" town. On the street where minutes before he had been walking to the post office. It changed him and me.

I've had a gun pointed at me several times, only by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. One was a crazy guy on mind-bending prescription meds. My grandfather died from a hunting accident. My friend was killed by a random assailant. My sis-in-law had a gun pointed at her head in her own driveway. A family friend was gunned down in a Target parking lot right before her wedding. Those are just the main ones.

I am very pro-gun control.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

25. Wow, that's a lot. nt

[marions ghost]

31. Suppose so--

but against the background of what you hear about daily in the news re. gun violence, murders and suicides, US sponsored "wars" and other atrocities, kids shot in the face, people shot accidentally (didn't know it was loaded)...against all that wanton death and destruction, in addition to the periodic mass killings--is it just the price we are supposed to pay for living in a country owned by the NRA and weapons manufacturers? The PTB appear to be telling us that this is the price we should pay.

Good question to put out here. We have become used to treating the level of gun violence in America as normal.

[leveymg]

17. Saw a young man twitching, flat on his stomach in a pool of blood. Shot in the back by a cop

during a drug raid. I stood over him about a minute after the shooting. His shirt was pulled up, which showed a single bullet hole to the right of his spine, mid-back. Eyes closed. Slight foam on the corner of the mouth. No apparent respiration but his body was shaking. Not any older than 20. Not sure if he was alive or dead. The Sergeant who shot him stood idly by with his gun drawn, about 20 feet away.

That happened in the alley behind the the public interest law firm I worked for on North Capitol Street in DC about 30 years ago. There was gunfire nearby several times a week back then. Spent the night at the office, once. That was a long night.

[haele]

18. Yes. Once saw someone shot on the street, once shot at, came up on the aftermath about three times.

Wrong place at the wrong time in the active shooting cases, aftermath was with bodies (twice as part of ride-along paramedic training, once due to a suicide in the hallway outside our workspace)

It shocks you and affects the way you deal with shock. And everyone's different in their reactions.

I'm not able to handle gory movies - the fake shootings, the fake blood spatter and flying body parts - because I get that adreniline rush and to be active when there's trouble like that. I can handle the noise, I just can't handle the visuals. I just resign myself to closing my eyes when it gets "real" on TVs or movies.
I've also gotten quite a bit more harsh and less sentimental when it comes to dealing with emergancies.

Haele

[rustydog]

19. I had a gun pointed at my face one time...other than that no.

I've been in the ER and assisted with way too many shooting victims to count, two horrific suicide attempts by firearms.
I've been outside the hospital at night, heard the gunshots (wayyyy too many times to count) then have the victims rushing into the ED via POV.

It is sad to see in our culture that violence, mainly deadly violence is the (Wayne LaDipshits words) "ONLY WAY" to stop senseless deadly violence.....

You can't be angry at someone and sue their pants off, or meet them after work, or at recess and duke it out, or just walk away in the other direction...You have to shoot the asshole! THE ONLY ANSWER!!!

[justiceischeap]

20. Not quite the same thing but I was mugged at gun point by 2 youths

several years back. It's amazing the things you notice and how you react at the time and how those things tend to stick with you (and there was no death involved for me), so I can only imagine how this may stick with you. For a while, anytime I saw someone on a bicycle (the youths rode up on me on bike's), I got panicked.

But the things I remember most was hoping they wouldn't rape me (that was my first thought because they told me to lay on the ground) and the second was that their guns sounded like plastic (come to find out later, they were plastic BB guns) when they tightened their hands on the grips. Of course, when I told the detectives that I thought the guns were toys, the older one laughed at me. A**hole was wrong, not me.

Anyway, I also was really calm, like I suddenly took a calm pill, I had my hands up in front of me, telling them to be calm, I'm guessing as a way to keep me calm? I also tend to get jumpy when someone sneaks up on me still and this happened, like 6/7 years ago.

I wish you luck!

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

22. Witnessed a drive-by shooting outside a club

Last edited Mon Apr 8, 2013, 09:11 PM - Edit history (1)

I was coming out of an Asian bar called the Singapore Inn in Long Beach, California and the guy going out through the front door just ahead of me was some kind of notorious hoodlum in the Filipino American community. I heard the crack of gunfire and bullets going through wood through the open door and saw him go down. I remember a bullet whistling past my head on its way into the interior of the club. Then there was the sound of squealing tires as the shooter's car took off down the street. The guy who was the target lay on his back in a pool of blood as an ambulance was called. It could have been me if I'd gotten off my stool just seconds earlier and been first through the door. Fortunately, the guy survived after taking a bullet through the chest but I saw him several months later after he recuperated and he was greatly diminished in muscle mass and weight and looked about twenty years older.

It was a pretty unsettling event after coming so close to getting shot myself and I'll admit that it struck fear in my heart. Even after the police arrived I was scared to exit the club. But I overcame my fear and escorted some of the frightened ladies in the club to their cars outside and I guess my sense of chivalry and the desire to not look afraid to the ladies settled me down.

I was also robbed at gunpoint by what seemed to be two tatooed gang members as I exited my car in a dark parking lot in downtown L.A. on my way to another colorful Asian club named Dragon Lady. These incidents took place in about 1990. Fortunately for me, I stopped visiting these dangerous clubs years ago.

[Cleita]

23. I've been held up at gun point, but no shots were fired.

Even so it was scary enough.

[Greybnk48]

24. Lee Harvey Oswald, live on T.V.

shot in the stomach by Jack Ruby. Extremely shocking!

[Cleita]

42. Oh, yeah I did see that. I forgot after all those years.

My TV reception though was pretty grainy so I didn't get the full horror.

[kwassa]

59. I saw it, too, as clear as day. I was 11 years old.

Most of the country saw it. We were all living in front of the television set for several days after the Kennedy assassination, it was so wildly traumatic.

[mrdmk]

27. A police shooting where the suspect was wounded

At an ex-girlfriend's house, her teenage son aimed a rifle at me and pulled the trigger. He exclaimed, "liberal, get out of my house!"

[marions ghost]

32. "ex"

that's good.

Liberal hating teenagers with guns.

Oh yeah.

[SamKnause]

30. Shootings

No.

I was robbed at gunpoint 38 years ago.

[Ron Obvious]

33. Guns

This thread will confirm the worst suspicions about life in America to any foreigner reading along.

Never saw anyone shot, but I was mugged three times and a guy was murdered right outside my motel window one night. Slept right through it, and the first thing I knew about it was when the cop banged on our door. I wasn't even awake enough to ask for ID or use the chain, so that was very foolish. He pointed to the fresh corpse a few feet from my window and asked I'd heard or seen anything. I hadn't and felt weird and stupid.

I've seen a stabbing, and heard another one getting stabbed in the next motel room and screaming about it.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

34. The thing is, I had never been witness to a murder until last week.

And hopefully will never witness another one in my life.

It's not something that was on my bucket list, that's for sure.

But it will probably stay with me for the rest of my life, just like I can still remember to this day seeing the Challenger explosion live and in person. I was just a small kid yet I can still vividly remember every little detail of that day.

[Ron Obvious]

36. As humans, we get used to just about anything.

We're just so wired to adapt to changing circumstances, so I expect how you feel right now will fade soon enough. You won't forget it, but you won't be thinking about it all that often either after a while. Talking about it probably helps.

Thing is, we're so casual about guns & violence in our entertainment and on TV, that you don't really understand what it's like to witness it in real life until you actually find yourself in these kinds of circumstances. It's true that time really does slow down and your senses become much more acute as you think "whoa, this shit's REAL!". It makes you feel very vulnerable about every aspect of life for a while, but as I said, it fades fairly quickly.

I'm fortunate to be clear-headed and calm in a crisis, but I usually feel the fear sink into my legs when they're over as I start thinking "what if..."

Funny you mentioning Challenger. I'd just gotten married a few days before that happened and missed the whole thing. I was a big fan of the Space programme too.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

39. My "Shit Just Got Real" moment....

After I had determined the shooting had stopped and I exited my personal office, I went to check on my co-workers in my suite. We all went into one of the front offices by the window out onto the street.

I remember seeing the news helicopters focused above our building, and seeing the police cars race to our street to shut down traffic, and then seeing one officer get out of his car and start jogging to our building with his rifle in his hand.

For some reason, that image got burned into my head, like the stuff you see on the news or on TV but you don't believe you are actually seeing in person.

[marions ghost]

35. Foreigners from countries where guns don't rule

should know about how it is here.

That Australian woman who was a teacher up in Newtown when the shooting occurred comes to mind. She and her husband had researched to find a place in the US (accessible to NYC) that they felt would be "safe." They were afraid to move to the US because of it. The woman was shattered by the experience & spoke on Michael Moore's town hall.

[Ron Obvious]

38. Yes

My European relatives are often very startled with how casually we talk about crime here.

I remember telling them once about how we always took handguns with us when we drove into the desert on a Friday night when I lived in El Paso in case we ran into smugglers, who we often saw driving there with their lights off.

When I told stories like that, they looked at me like I was making the whole thing up. And it's true that it is rather strange for a suburban kid from a good, middle-classed family to find himself sitting with his friends, hand on gun, quietly waiting and hoping that the truck with its lights off is just going to continue on and not bother us.

[marions ghost]

44. Sounds dangerous

--and this was the norm?

[Ron Obvious]

45. It was very dangerous

Especially as we were stupid twenty-something year old boys who went into the desert to drink, smoke weed and look at the stars (which ARE fantastic that far away from any city lights and in that thin desert air).

The situation I described occurred twice, and nothing ever happened, but my friends from the area seemed to think this was normal. I (who had moved there) assumed at the time they were just trying to impress me and I wasn't more than mildly worried at the time. I found out years later that they had found several mass graves in the area, and of course, we all know how brutal those Mexican gangs are now, so I think back to these times and feel very different about it all.

I've mixed feelings about guns. I've never owned any and don't want to. Unless you're highly-trained, they're almost certainly more likely to make your life far more dangerous, not less. But I also saw the occasional ranch out there in the desert, maybe 50 miles from civilisation, and realised that those people were way beyond the protection of the law and had to depend on themselves for protection.

I'm also not entirely immune to the right to self-defence argument, but I certainly feel a lot safer in countries that aren't as gun-obsessed as we are.

[shanti]

37. No, and I hope I never do n/t

[UnrepentantLiberal]

40. Did you know the woman he shot?

Did they find out why he did it?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

41. I'm sure I saw her once or twice in the elevator.....

....or maybe I passed her when walking to the bathroom. (We share a bathroom with their office.)

That just makes it all the more chilling. You see a person that you don't really know beyond a face, and you have no idea what type of turmoil his or her life may be in.

From the multiple-hand accounts that I've heard, apparently she wanted to end the marriage. That morning she came to work and told the receptionist that if her husband comes by to tell him that she wasn't in. He came by and somehow made it past the receptionist, into her private office, closed the door, shot her and then shot himself.

I remember the gun shots sound very close in succession to each other, lasting no more than two seconds. Unless there was a final shot I didn't hear, I can only guess he turned the gun on himself and pulled the trigger almost immediately after firing at her, almost as if not to give himself time to get off the adrenaline high.

What I want to know (but haven't yet found out) is if I actually passed the shooter while driving into the building. We have a multi-story parking garage under our building, with tight corners. When I was driving in, I had to stop at one of the corners to wait for a large SUV to turn the corner because I couldn't get buy. The driver appeared to be exiting the garage. I then went to park my car. About a minute later when walking towards the elevators, I saw that same SUV come back into the parking garage. I thought it odd that a car that appeared to be leaving was returning so soon this early in the morning. I do remember the driver was a male who looked to be around the shooter's age, but I can't say for sure--without identifying the car--that it was him. If it was him, that makes it even more creepy.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

51. Spooky and horrible.

[SalviaBlue]

43. My very unstable neighbor shot 4 police officers across the street from me.

He then held his children hostage for about 12 hours. I was sitting in my living room with my husband, my sister and my 2 week old baby. We heard gunshots and immediately realized that our neighbor, who we knew was unstable, had shot at the police.

My sister and I got in a closet with my baby while my husband crawled around the house trying to see what was happening. It was terrifying. The gunshots were exchanged several times over the first hour or so. But the silences were terrifying too. We lived in the country and we were not sure where the neighbor was at any given time. I was so afraid that a bullet would come through the walls.

It all started at about 8PM. We were in the closet until the swat team finally evacuated us out our back door and across a vacant field at the rear of our house at about midnight.

My neighbor was mentally ill. When the police attempted to question him at a convenience store he flipped out and ran home and locked himself in with his children. He shot, but did not kill 3 police officers. One officer was hit and fell in the middle of the road and the other officers used their vehicle to deflect some of the gunfire while rescuing him. He is paralyzed.

This happened in the 80's.

[marions ghost]

50. We are asking the police to engage in gun battles

in the line of duty. It's not right.

[Demo_Chris]

46. Yes, more times than I can recall

A good number up close and personal.

Millions of people in America deal with this and other horrific violence every day. Not just police and fire, but the entire medical profession. And let us not forget the tens of millions of Americans living in violent inner cities, where the sounds of gunfire are so commonplace no one even bothers to duck - let alone phone the police.

How one responds is just a reflection of what they have experienced in life to that point. And someone who can step over a screaming shooting victim bleeding out on the street, might very well be left trembling in fear at the thought of speaking at a PTA luncheon. So it means nothing.

Hopefully whatever trauma or discomfort you feel passes quickly.

[MFM008]

47. in 1979

We live in a very small seaside town, one day my brother and I were in the family home and we heard what sounded like fireworks outside in the street. 3 men shot a taxi cab driver and took off into the woods across the street. My brother went out and stayed with him until the cops showed up. He survived but was paralyzed from the waist down. . Another cab driver was murdered in his taxi down the street the next year. It can happen anywhere.

[Pathwalker]

48. Yes. My ex shot at my head three times. He missed, but

it hit close enough to where I was hiding that I was deaf for three days. Does this count? It was decades ago.

[marions ghost]

49. I think it counts

If you were hiding how did he shoot at your head?

[Pathwalker]

67. He found me.

n/t

[Bennyboy]

52. 10 years ago I was involved in a shootout....

A guy put a gun to my face and pulled the trigger. the gun jammed and I didn't die. 27 shots were fired by three teenagers in my little town.

I still have nightmares about this. For a couple of years i was devastated, I had no clue. it was like the life had been sucked out of me. Depression to the max. I lost everything and still haven't come close to recovering from it.

[PDJane]

53. I've been shot at. It hit my ear, so it mostly missed.

The fact that someone would hate you enough to shoot at you is a kick in the head at 12. I worked with a woman who was beaten to death by her husband; he killed himself with a gun. I heard about that after the fact. I missed the Eaton's centre shooting, although I did witness the 'riots' in Toronto around the summit. And this is in peaceful Canada; I have no wish for it to become worse.

Most of the handguns here come from the US. And yes, it's illegal, but it happens.

[rightsideout]

54. Yes, in Baltimore

Actually, it was a failed gas station robbery attempt. The guy doing the shooting was the gas station worker. I saw it happen from the Greyhound Bus. LOL.

The bus was passing by the gas station. I saw a guy run with a sack of money from the gas station and running after him was the gas station worker. He fired two shots and one shot took the guy down. The bus had passed by just before the guy hit the ground. This was 20 years ago.

It was kind of surreal and only took a matter of seconds. I don't think the bus driver knew what was going on since he was navigating the bus through the heavy traffic.

[DollarBillHines]

55. I saw a friend's mother get killed.

I think I was eleven years old. While perusing car magazines at a local grocery store, I saw my friend Rolando's father storm in through the door and saw Rolando's mother (who was a checker or whatever you call the folks who work the register at a store) start screaming and running right straight towards where I was.

He ran up to her and shot her in the face and shot her a couple of more times while she was down. He then proceeded to put the gun in his mouth and blew his brains all over the front window of the store.

It happened maybe five feet from me.

I remember wondering just who was going to tell the kids.

[Throd]

56. January 22, 2000

I saw a 17 year old stick a .22 pistol to a 16 year old's chest and fire a single shot. An ambulance scooped him up almost immediately, but you could tell by his color he wasn't going to make it.

[bottomofthehill]

57. Too many times

Living in DC in the 80's was an eye opening experience. There were a lot of nights hearing gun shots and on 2 occasions after the gunshots hearing the screaming of the victims or those close by. I was carjacked one time and held up at gunpoint two other times. Lastly, I was at the Capitol the day the two uscp officers were shot. I was in the basement and when people started rushing around talking about the shooting, I left the Capitol via the Senate Office Buildings. All scarey events that do change the way you think.

[sarisataka]

61. Several times

mostly in combat, one suicide- I was outside the window, heard it but did not see, drive by in the neighborhood on Easter morning.

what were your feelings?- immediately, assess threat, take action for safety. Later- often anger, why did it have to happen? what made the shooter choose to do what they did?

Was there a sense of fear?- not at the time. In my case adrenaline overrides fear; later you shake like a leaf, maybe puke for good measure. I have seen reactions from paralyzing fear, to panic, to almost nothing.

What was your first reaction?- take cover, assess situation

What was going through your head, both when it took place and afterwards?- mentally analyze the sound to confirm it is gunfire, then look to fight or flight, what is required for the situation. Afterwards, the reality sets in, of having just been in a potentially lethal situation. Talking to people who understand, vets mostly for me, or a professional can really help the brain organize thoughts and feelings. PTSD is often subtle to come on and can be delayed quite a long time.

Your description of the sounds are spot on. Different guns make different sounds from boom to crack to pop and rarely are anything like the media leads us to believe.

Best wishes to you and your coworkers

[Tommy_Carcetti]

66. Thank you. nt

[freshwest]

63. Not during the time of the event, but directly after twice in a downtown location.

One a man came into the building to murder his wife. Then shot himself. Another when a man hit a car and the owner jumped out and shot him and killed him, then took off.

It was a daily occurence. We weren't allowed close, had to stay out of the way. We knew that flipping a person the bird in traffic was asking to be shot. And that women were going to be killed by their husbands every single week.

I've had to live with people shooting my animals and property, ya know, just for fun. The puppies were screaming in agony while they laughed like hyenas. Does that count?

Not sure what you're asking here. Isn't this world a lovely place?

[loli phabay]

65. yes, some suicides mostly though gunfights.

You dont dwell on them or you would break, worse for me is infant deaths.

[marions ghost]

68. So Tommy

thank you for posting this.

With the proliferation of guns in this country, probably we should have classes in dealing with gun violence, maybe even for kids.

Because there's a good chance many of us will experience it. This thread is evidence of that.

This is what i mean when I say, this level of gun violence hurts us all. The psychological toll of living with it around us is disturbing and profoundly negative.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

69. I can only hope it is not more pandemic.

Like I said, witnessing a murder was not something on my bucket list. But I'll remember it for the rest of my life.

[likesmountains 52]

70. I was a 20 year old, night shift waitress at Sambos

(gone now, i think they all became Denny's). A local, white kid shot and killed a native american kid in the parking lot during some rodeo week festivity. I heard the shot, and after the police came I went out to the parking lot to check on my dog who was in the backseat. I saw the white, chalk outline of where the body had been and blood. That was 40 years ago and I can still see it. As an aside, the kid got away with murder because of the racist, good ole boy politics in town.

[marions ghost]

71. kids killing kids

And the kid who did the killing, makes ya wonder how the rest of his life turned out after he got away with murder...