General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: This message was self-deleted by its author [View all]When I was 16 I was home alone when a young man ( that I now being older and more knowledgeable recognize as suffering from schizophrenia) broke in to my house. I was a few rooms away from the door he entered and saw him down the hall come in crouching down and turning off the lights in that mudroom. I backed in to my parents room and got a .357 I knew where it was. (I'll say here I had been around firearms my whole life, knew how to properly handle a handgun, use hunters safety training etc). As I came out of there bedroom he came around the corner, I held the pistol on him and told him not to move. I called 911 with my left hand, we had corded phones then, this was a dining room open to the kitchen, and he was bouncing, screaming, talking gibberish that I was an imp from hell.
Long story short, police got there and got him in the patrol car.
That was 32 years ago.
I can not tell you how glad I am that I didn't kill him.
I've thought about it a lot.
I will tell you something. There was one point when I was on the phone that he sort of walked around a circle keeping his distance to the kitchen and was sort of reaching behind him, facing me, to the kitchen counter and I knew he was trying ringer a bottle or knife or something and I flat out yelled that I was going to kill him if he reached anymore and I completely meant it. This will sound weird, but you have to know my mom. Honestly the time not thing that kept me from shooting him until head was I was afraid of my mom if I shot this guy in her kitchen. I imagined blood and a hole in the wall and I knew I would never hear the end of it. That was my 16 year old thinking. I'm so glad as an adult that some thought so stupid got us through it. Because I pushed off shooting as long as I could because of that and they guy got enough reality to back it down. I know it must have flipped out the 911 operator, the cops got there fast.
Anyway, I don't know what my point is, other than I honestly don't think adrenaline would have made me miss. I was stone cold locked on to his forehead. But again, I am so, so happy I didn't kill that guy.