How close have any of you been to being the victim of gun violence?

[AZ Progressive]

I'm curious as to if other people on DU here have ever been close to or the victim of gun violence.

The closest I have was that I was a student in De Anza College in Cupertino, CA in 2001, and I was in the cafeteria lobby just about the time that a guy called Al Deguzman had planned to shoot the Cafeteria. He had a plan on shooting in the college Columbine style and had lot of weapons and pipe bombs. He was apprehended earlier that day after a photo lab worker in a drugstore called the police after seeing pictures he had developed of him posing with guns and bombs. That was really scary to know that I could have possibly been a victim of a crazed shooter.

[napoleon_in_rags]

1. Mugged at gunpoint.

In foreign country and unarmed. Definitely scary stuff.

[kickysnana]

2. I had been assaulted and was on my way to an ER...

one steamy August Friday night about 11pm.

I got to one point and decided that my injuries were not bad enough to hit the major trauma hospital so I turned and went to the one I could get in and out of much sooner.

Half a block from the trauma hospital a woman driving her car was shot and killed at an intersection. Her car was same year, make, model and color as mine and at the time I would have passed through there.

Nobody knows why she was shot or who shot her. That will mess with your sense of safety no matter who you are.

[coalition_unwilling]

3. Our (wife and my) bartender last night: "I know that within 5 miles of here there are

crazy people who probably fantasize about coming here and shooting the place up. But what are you gonna do?"

All my public policy wonkitudes fell into silence before the glaring truth of this bartender's words.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

4. My wife shot and killed an intruder who was threatening to do the same to me

It leaves an impression.

[Michigan Alum]

5. I was in an armed robbery with a sawed-off shot gun.

Thankfully we all got out alive.

[Lucinda]

6. Held up twice - working two different jobs. Both used handguns.

No one was injured.

[cliffordu]

7. LOL...

Sorry.

Had a sniper miss me by about three feet.....He was a lousy shot, it was a great distance and there was a REAL high crosswind.

Up against a car with a police officer at my skull with a pistol.

Sleeping in the back of a restaurant I was pinned with a pistol in my face by two cops that thought I had broken in. I worked there and was just too drunk to get home.

I had a .45 acp round go past me - a guy I later met in AA - who became one of my great friends - was trying to kill a dude after a party...I was just near the discussion. That one was very close.

When I was 16 my stepfather loaded a 30-06 and was heading for my room when I went through the window and escaped. He had told me before he went to get the rifle that he finally knew "what the problem in the family really is."

I heard him messing with the shells, trying to get them into the rifle, so I bailed.

He offed himself a month later. With a knife. Not the rifle. Weird.

But not lately.

[graham4anything]

8. I once had a gun pointed at my head, by a FORMER friend..but I never will pick a gun up myself

Was in my car in the drivers seat chatting with a friend sitting in the passenger seat in the backseat
had an argument over something stupid
he pulled a gun on me in the drivers seat
(if not mistaken this was around the time shortly after, of the Batman movie that Michelle Pfeiffer played Catwoman.)

we were at the time on W57th street in Manhattan near the (at the time) Hard Rock Cafe
and I looked at him in the rear view mirror, the car was idling at the time, I stepped on the gas pedal and put my hands on the wheel

I had noticed across 57th(which in NYC is one of the few two-way streets) that there was a cop car directly opposite and two officers were standing a few buildings down outside another building

I told him, I am going to make an illegal u-turn, go real quick, and am going to crash my car directly side swiping the cop car, at which point he would not be able to leave the car,
and I will ask the officers to please deal with the situation in my car and his legal or illegal gun(had no idea at the time)

I did not waiver in my eyes and well, he believed I would do it and well, we no longer were friends after that, though I did continue to run into him over the years.

Having lived in NY/NJ for decades, and being a frequent NYC visitor these days, I have
NEVER ONCE been bothered by any person negatively in NYC. NOT ONCE

And that includes the 1970s when NYC was the stereotype people yak about.
And I rode the subways at 3am sometimes.
Nobody bothered me,or my friends.

I never have picked up a gun. Not as a kid, not as a teen, not as an adult, not now, not never, nor will I.

Guns would not save me nor anyone in the situation that is stereotyped.
And even if someone is saved once, a gunslinger will come along quicker than me or you and the next time it will be their turn at winning the duel.

Guns are made to kill. Sooner everyone admits it and deals as adults the problems can be solved.

Reframe the issue. Make guns part of the war on terror and then we can deal with it.

and btw-had I gone through with the above true story, it would have ruined his career at that very moment on. Sometimes I wish I did it anyhow, but that was a nice car but I could have perfectly side swapped the police car and as said, trapped him in it and screamed to the cops, the guy in the back gotta gun.
He would have made the front page, and voila, his career would have been over instantly.

(btw, the Hard Rock now is right in the midst of Times Square, but the other location was the one in its hayday.

[pinboy3niner]

9. Does being shot with AK fire in Vietnam count?

I spent 18 months in an Army hospital being treated for my wounds.

But that was in combat, in war, and I would never compare that to gunshot casualties back here at home.

[Zorra]

15. Of course you wouldn't! They're altogether different things!

Yep. The same culture that produced that awful war produced Adam Lanza.

Violence is golden.

[safeinOhio]

10. Four times, back in the 70s, I've had

a handgun stuck in my face. 3 times I talked my way out and once I grabbed it and took it away. After the brief scuffle, I ended up with a scar on my left arm where he bit me.

For the most part I was young and was in places I should not have been at. Picked up a hitch hiker, was at a place where drugs were being used, stopped late at night at a party store in a bad part of town and tried to break up a fight. With a gun stuck in your face, it would be suicidal to reach for a gun, unless it's the gun pointed at your head.

[truebluegreen]

11. Had a gun pulled on me

by a law-n-order whack job at an anti-war demonstration in--I think--1970. Thankfully he didn't shoot, me or anyone.

In 1990 a mentally-ill man drove around our little town shooting people on the street at random. Killed two, one of whom I knew.

In '03 a co-worker and his wife were shot and killed by their 16-yr-old daughter because they didn't like her boyfriend.

[nolabear]

12. Held at gunpoint by a speed-crazed trucker.

Obviously I survived. Hitch hiking story. He wanted sex. We refused to get out of his truck til he took us somewhere public knowing he couldn't very well shoot us at close range in there. Yeah, scared me for a long, long time. Btw he failed to persuade us re the sex too. Lol!

[lunatica]

13. I was held up at gunpoint and once threatened with a knife during a robbery

[Shrek]

14. I had a close friend who committed suicide-by-cop

My brother was shot in a hunting accident, though I'm not sure if that counts as "gun violence."