And I also knew somebody who was shot dead (the facts of the case are up in the air)

But arguably I have been "affected" by gun violence.

standing on a corner and shooting down the street count?

I was 20 years old, working the night shift at Sambo's (yes) . We knew what had happened, but when I went out to my car I saw the chalk outline of where the body was . This was 1971, and I guess they still did that then. It was right behind my car, so there was plenty of blood still there. It did leave a lasting memory.

While going up a creek fishing. Texas has open water laws. There was no sign, fence, or nothing posted. If there had been it would have been illegal for them to do that. Guy came out on the bank and told us to get off his property. We were in the boat fishing. He started shooting towards us with his shotgun. Luckily he was a distance away and using birdshot. The shot hit all around us. He tried.

Approximately 23 years after my Mom left my alcoholic father, he came back - This time with guns. By this time, he was over 70. Still just as big and mean as he was all those years before though. He was stalking Mom at her place of work and left a message on my answering machine that read "The difference between you and me is that you care whether you live or die and I don't." Subsequently, I filed for a restraining order. I sought the maximum permissible - 3 years. Despite playing the answering machine message in court and presenting evidence that my father had been seeking to obtain additional guns, the judge stated that "the family court is not intended as a means of elder abuse." I knew better than to take that bait and let it slide. A one year restraining order was granted, during which my father was required to turn over all his guns. Absent that time out period for him, yeah, me and my Mom may well have been actual victims of gun violence.

P.S. - Not long after the restraining order lapsed, police were called to my father's apartment, where they found him with a gun on a nightstand, screaming at them to shoot him. Instead, they admitted him to a psychiatric unit. His medical records indicate that he had to be restrained 24/7 and was spitting at medical personnel. Two weeks later, he was dead. Judge me if you will, but regardless of the fact that he was my father, I breathed a sigh of relief.

Some fathers are little more than sperm donors. It sounds like your relief is entirely justifiable.

I hope you are OK.

....as an USAF medic.. in my case I scrubbed on a surgical trauma case of a man in a domestic dispute with his wife. He said he was going out ... she said he was not... when he open the door she shot him multiple times in the back with a .22 caliber revolver.

He survived the surgery and was discharged from the hospital several days post op.

If memory serves me right he had several wounds to both lungs. But no other serious organs were damaged.

He lived. They actually stayed married.

Then, 25 years later, my grandson shot himself in the head and miraculously survived but with mental health issues.
So, yes, we’ve been affected by gun violence.

One cousin used a gun to kill herself. Teo situations where I would have been justified going to lethal force but deescalate worked at the last moment.

Military- both ends of gun violence.

:/

while working overnight as cashier/attendant in a 24-hour gas station in a suburb just outside the city, where he had worked many years without incident.

His response was to quit that job.

Less than two years afterward at that same station,
the overnight cashier was killed in a robbery, a crime which to my knowledge, has never been solved.

Both of us were pretty glad that he had quit that job, at that point....!

worked at a bank during her working years and experienced 3 or 4 bank robberies. The first bank robbery she experienced, one of her tellers was shot and wounded. The other robberies, nobody was shot, but a gun was used during the robbery. All happened during the 1980’s.

The shooter was a serial killer from California who was going across the country killing people...made my cousin beg for hs life and then shot him according to his confession. He was my Mom's double cousin...His father and her Father were brothers. and they married two sisters. They were as close as brothers and sisters.

But my brother was shot in a hunting mishap (years ago and he's fine now).

The poll options mention "guns and gun violence" and I'd answer "yes" for for former but "no" for the latter.

It’s literally hundreds of miles of waterways that’s bank are accessible to fishermen from many points. Most of the sloughs are wide enough that a passing boat and skier isn’t disturbing your fishing, but some fishermen would get upset if we found a particularly nice run and made several passes. On one such occasion the clowns on the bank decided it would be fun to shoot their rifle into the water behind our skier to intimidate us and fired off several rounds. Unbeknownst to these idiots, I knew there was a sheriff’s boat tied up a couple turns down river at a ramp and after getting my skier out of danger I hightailed it over there and luckily they were still there. They weren’t too happy about people shooting guns into open water and immediately went to straighten those guys out.

Not a particularly violent episode, but it was one that highlights how “responsible gun owners” can turn into irresponsible gun owners when they take the step from a firearm being a defensive weapon or hunting/utility tool and turn it into a offensive weapon of intimidation. Something that crosses my mind constantly as I drive the roads in Texas where I presume every crazy driver also has a gun under their seat.

He took off his pistol and slammed it on top of the filing cabinet before the attack.

I wasn't shot or even close to being shot. However, the threat was there and I'll never forget that metal on metal sound.

a family member shot themself and made sure to have their child find them first. Fucked up my relative for life (I'm being intentionally vague, sorry).

Dad tried to choke out mom, 14 yr old sister broke a coffee mug across the back of his head to get him off her, dad then attacked my sister. My sister and 13 yr old brother ran to hide in our parent's bedroom, which I was near when the attack began. I grabbed a rifle from the bedroom closet and loaded it when I heard my mom screaming. Dad kicked the door in to get at us, I pointed my gun at him, and he turned and ran out of the house before I could get off a shot.

Cops arrived 45 minutes later. Threatened to arrest my mom as well if she pressed charges because my dad said she gave him the lump on his head from the coffee mug. Cops refused to listen to us kids about what really happened. They have us 15 MINUTES to collect our shit and stay at Grandma's. We were using garbage bags to pack clothes and essentials. It was the day before my senior year of high school. Then, my mom's car wouldn't start. Turns out my dad had pulled a spark plug while we waited for the cops. Took my dad's car instead.

A month later we move back home. He never touched her again while I was living there, but within 3 months of leaving for college, he beat her again, and she and my siblings moved out for good.

It took years of counseling to deal with the trauma.

Oh, also: my cousin's fiance shot himself while duck hunting and took off half his head with a shotgun. Trigger snagged on a hook inside the duck boat while the safety was off.

My daughter's elementary school went on lockdown and SWAT was called when she was in 1st grade, because people reported a man with a gun. Turns out it was an elderly man who lived next to the school, shooting squirrels in his bird feeder with a pellet gun, so false (but terrifying) alarm.

The President of the United States of America was assassinated in broad daylight in Dallas, Texas, and the country has not been the same since.

Of course, in the decades since, I have lost loved friends and family to guns through war, murder and suicide.

My nephew killed his wife and then his self. He was stepdad to her three girls all less than 13. Their dad’s families raised the girls after that. He was addicted to meth, she was an alcoholic. He had lost his job that day. He told the girls to turn up their stereos and don’t get out of their room. I preached his funeral. It was the hardest thing I ever did.

Two were women i worked with and saw every day. One was my sister-in-law two days before Christmas. We were planning to go to Christmas dinner at her house that year. Terrible.

Edited to add: I also had to defend myself with a .22 rifle from a man breaking & entering my house when i was 20yo and newly married. I never fired a shot and he ran away when he saw the gun, but I had PTSD for years.

Also, JFK, MLK and RFK all assasinated when I was under the age of 10yo. It seemed, frighteningly, like this was SOP for adults and politics back then.

and once as an endangered bystander. And that was in my career as a medical person working with children, so it's not like I was seeking danger.

for a sleep over. Still haunts me. It was an attempted robbery at an all night restaurant across from their bar and he happened to walk in at the wrong time.

Was shot at 6 times as a teen and in my 20s - was not in the military.

One of my best friends shot himself. Had lunch with him in the afternoon, he told me he was engaged. Next morning I heard. on the radio that he died that night from a self inflicted gunshot.

Just to top off a messy childhood, my mother tried to kill me as she tried to kill herself a couple of times.

Also was molested by the parish priest.

You are a WARRIOR. Being one can hurt like hell but surviving and not passing it on is a fight worth fighting.

and just kind of just try to make it through every day.

Lots more stories where those came from

Last edited Mon Sep 9, 2024, 10:02 AM - Edit history (1)

I don't shop ever on weekends, and avoid crowds as much as possible.

My ex husband and I were dumb enough to hitchhike in the very late 70s. We were picked up by a trucker who we thought would get us from LA all the way across the Southwest. We were also dumb enough to fall asleep in the sleeper and woke way out in the desert to a tweaked-out guy with a BIG gun pointed at us. He demanded we have sex while he watched. Crazy, but we refused. I had the presence of mind somehow to say that if he shot us at close range he’d blow us all over the inside of his truck and never get it clean. Then refused to get out till he took us to a very public place. It was awful but the worst? We went to the State Patrol in AZ, which was where we were, and they smirked at us and did nothing. We knew who he was. We had listened to him on his CB radio and knew his handle (Big Daddy and the White Lightning Express). They refused to help. So yes, my life was impacted by guns and cops. Someday I’ll talk about my Alabama State Patrol grandfather who talked about cuffing and pistol whipping black folks and my mother once afraid was going to kill us when they got into a massive fight. She was disabled and couldn’t walk. There are people who should never, ever be near a gun. Many of them are. Way too many.

Not a famous one, and no one died, and it was not K-12. But it was a school shooting.

It took a lot of therapy for me to be able to handle certain things, and I still loathe loathe loathe fire works and car alarms.

And no, I am not sharing details.

I was in some South Florida airport (Ft. Lauderdale? I forget where) in January where, a few hours before, some guy with a military grade AR (he was still active duty, I think) went to the terminal I was to fly out of (or already had?--at least I missed the real action) and started shooting all over the place. A guy from my outfit was there, saw some bullets hit near him, but he wasn't hit.

Also, I have had several Europeans tell me they were afraid to visit the USA for fear of being shot. So, directly affected? I guess I'd have to say no. But affected? I'd have to say yes.

it was night. Took me a bit to realize the guys running at me and yelling were cops.
Next thing I know I'm on the ground with a pistol aimed at my head point blank.
Fuckin scary shit