who then shot himself. Coworker's wife shot herself in front of him and their kid. The list goes on but those were the two worst.

They caught him, I IDed him from the lineup & he did 7-12

I was lucky that he did not shoot me, but strangely, I was not afraid..and my husband was mad at me when I told him the next morning.. He could not believe that I did not wake him up when I got home that night from work.. (It happened at work)

Did I mention that I am always the calm one in an emergency?

that's how they met. They both went to the same school for the blind.

had a gun pointed at my head from across a street
ex's step-mother murdered by his father, allegedly
gun fight two/three months ago at end of the street, stray bullets through apartment windows, not mine but my neighbors
only the target of the gunfight got shot and he didn't hit either of the two guys with his gun.

I'm sorry for your losses.

pre-school last year and another friend was friends with one of the teachers killed.
So yes.

He survived after a long stay in the hospital. No arrests ever.

A nephew of a classmate was showing a friend his father's gun and the gun went off. The nephew shot out his "groin" and required "lots" of blood infusions. It was the first time I attempted to donate blood; I was underweight and couldn't so it stuck in my mind.

I never heard what happened to the nephew. He was 12 at the time.

eta: Oh, god! My cousin's son was shot to death. I had completely "forgotten" that trauma.

My cousin's son stepped between 2 guys having an argument in an attempt to "calm" and mediate the situation. He died. It was traumatic. I "forgot."

And one hunting accident.

Father committed suicide in his garage a few years back. Planned and toyed with the idea for at least two months, judging from the evidence. Even replaced all the batteries in the smoke detectors and cleaned the pool an hour or two before pulling the trigger. (He kept a log of pool cleanings and wrote the date on every battery he put in any device.)

He was isolated, depressed, not in good health, and his wife was delusional with newly diagnosed *moderate* dementia. (In other words, he'd been hiding her state for years and trying to ignore it until it was impossible to overlook.)

When I was a kid the guy next door killed an acquaintance/client in the front yard of his parents' house. The guy was a drug addict and fenced burgled goods (and burgled houses himself) to pay for his addiction. There was an altercation in his front yard one night, a punch was thrown at him and he threw a slug back at the guy. (The mother was a classic nutcase of denial--her angel son didn't do the shooting, wasn't involved in drugs, and had never fenced or stolen. He was a good boy. His prints on the gun, additional ammo in his dresser, which also contained stolen stuff from neighborhood burglaries and drugs were all planted by the police who had it in for them. She couldn't even imagine how these guys had picked her front yard. Says a lot about how he got to be how he was. He went away for a long, long time. I was maybe 9 or 10 at the time, and never saw him again before I left the state.)

Of several friends who committed suicide, only two were by gun. My best friend shot himself in the head at Christmas 20 years ago, and another friend died the same way 2 years ago (though we suspect that was a murder, and the police, after initially calling it a suicide, re-opened the case and investigation continues).

I was shot and seriously wounded by AK fire in Vietnam and I knew more than 60 guys who died there, but they were war casualties. All of the suicide victims I knew were Vietnam vets.

I had high school friends and my cousin who died in Vietnam.

And for the loss of your brother, which must have been especially traumatic for you. You've certainly had more than your share of loss and grief.

I tried to separate the war casualties because that's the norm for war. Being shot was personal, but that still was in war. What is obscene is the horrendous level of casualties from gun violence here at home, far removed from military combat zones. That is just insane. Clearly, our current public policy has failed, miserably.

ETA: The friend killed by a burglar was a former Marine Corps Captain who got out after his tour in VN.

a total of 4 cousins in my dad's family commit suicide by firearm in the past 10 years--one female and three males.

He and his girlfriend were going to the United Center for a Bulls game and got caught in gang crossfire. Neither of them were injured, but he did have a bullet hit the back of his car. Cost about $500 to repair it. Scared the crap out of both of them.

my mother got caught - but not hit - in that when she was in NYC one day. This was in the 80's when there was so much shooting in the city that people wouldn't walk in front of their windows if they lived on low floors.

However, getting caught in crossfire isn't normal for me or my friend, so I decided to share it.

Was caught in the crossfire of a gang shootout in L.A. I wasn't hit, but I heard a LOUD ricochet right behind my head, so I think I probably came within inches of having my brains splattered.

A young man, son of a friend of ours was killed in a robbery. We'd known him since he was a little kid. The extra awful thing was that he'd been hit by a car when riding a bike when he was a very young teenager. He was in a coma for a very long time and emerged from it with some brain damage. His mother traveled about 100 miles round trip a day - after work - to help him rehab, which he did, although things were still harder for him than they would have been otherwise, but he kept on keeping on and made progress. He was in his twenties when this happened. He had gotten his own place and was working in an electronics store in a perfectly OK suburban neighborhood. Two guys had just been released on parole, got hold of guns, went in to rob the store and for whatever reason, shot him dead. They killers were caught, but that was small consolation for his family and friends.

Early 80's. Went into a sketchy neighborhood to buy some pot. Group of teens came up to the car window. One put a gun to my neck and felt around my front pockets. Guy I was with reached his leg over and pressed the gas. No idea what would have happened had he not done that.

Do I think eliminating my right to own a gun would stop the modern day version of the coward who assaulted me? No, I don't. Just the opposite.

He was just transferred to Kodiak, AK.. He left behind a wife, two kids, and a shitload of friends heartbroken.

Some have murdered with guns.

One of the more troubled kids I taught had witnessed 3 murders by guns before he was 7. His dad was a gang banger who was finally murdered when the kid was about 16. He's an adult now and I'm not sure he will ever get over the trauma.

A 14-year-old murdered the woman who raised me, dragged her from her car at a busy L.A. intersection on a sunny August afternoon, twisted her hair and threw her to the ground, pistol whipped her violently, thrust the gun into her left eye and put two slugs through her brain. (I can believe anything you tell me about 14-year-olds. Anything about people whatsoever.)

My first girlfriend's father blew his brains out with a shotgun.

There were more, but yeah, I've been touched by gun violence. I don't anyone who hasn't.

The shooting was determined to have been unjustified and racially motivated as the cop feared a car with four black passengers must be a danger. Nevertheless, no charges were ever filed.

1) In about 7th grade, the mother of a friend was accidentally shot and killed by her husband's gun. The husband was a cop. There were rumors that she might have killed herself, but as far as I was aware, she dropped the gun and it went off and killed her.

2) In about 8th grade, a kid I knew found his dad's gun and took it to show some friends. The story is his older sister found out and went to take it from him before some one got hurt. In explaining to her why he was not going to hurt anyone, he accidentally shot her and she died.

3) When I was a junior in High school, I was slipping out of last period early. As I walked through the gym level of the school, a kid grabbed me and put a gun yo my head. He said "don't say a word", to which I responded, "ok" ... he then said "that's a word" and he pulled the trigger, I heard the click, and nothing happened.

Then he and another guy (who I had not seen) started laughing and they took off.

Oh ... and then a few years later, a guy I knew killed himself. So that's 4.

..the daughter and niece of friends I grew up with killed herself with the same gun that her great uncle shot himself with many years ago. In 86, my daughters father was murdered....they were going to pistol whip him, and the gun went off. My husband and I own guns, and would not give up our rights to do so...though would like to see the laws around purchasing guns enforced and laws tightened. I would also like to see accessable, and affordable mental health care available...and background check to include checks on that. I carry when I ride...actually carry all the time...you just never know....and no, I'm not a "gun nut"....

He was in my dad's bar one day. Some young punk didn't like something he said, and he stuck a gun in my Grandpa's face.

Grandpa shot him dead, before the punk could follow through

I guess Grandpa was quicker, even when someone had the drop on him.

Kinda sad that some guy had to die on account of being too stupid to function. That's the thing with old people though. They don't particularly care to fuck around, ass they're too old to kick your ass, and they've already done most of the things they wanted to in life.


Miss you Grandpa.

was shot and killed by my brother Pinkie who was 15, back in 1971. It was an accident. It was tough on Pinkie, no counseling for him. He ended up drinking and drugging himself to death. He died October 5 at age 54.

so traumatic

my brother Glenn drank himself to death at age 48; I know he never got over the suicide of our father

I was stationed in Germany in the Army at the time. Just a big blur getting back to the states. He was in a coma for a week before he died.

so horrible and senseless

And shot himself in the head in a cornfield, back in 1991. I was 14 years old.

remember what an emotional roller coaster that time period was for me. Don't want to give them easy access.

I am so very, very sorry for the loss of your young friend.

but I remember getting that phone call like it was yesterday. He's buried in the same cemetery as my father in law, so I see him and think about him often.

I'm happy there weren't guns in my house at that age. It was an awful time in my life (parents just divorced).

25 years old. left behind two little girls.

He still has two projectiles in his chest.

Several gunshots, 2 in the morning, went outside, saw my neighbor in his car, panting as blood squirted out of his body. As I was calling 911 on my cell, I saw him die.

The punk who shot him was caught walking down the street, totally doped up with the rifle in his hands...

my uncle committed suicide with a shotgun.

He was nice to us...very helpful even. But apparently he was schizophrenic.

he lived for six days - day number three was my birthday

he had a lifelong history of serious depression but he could buy a gun ANYWHERE

murdered by a disgruntled graduate student at the University of Iowa in 1991. I met him on a couple of occasions (they had a commuter marriage). He was the type of cheerful, gentle man often that women sometimes describe as a "teddy bear."

But he was ok, went right through his hand. No one was ever killed by guns that was close to me.

He died from a self inflicted gun shot. My daughter is at the candle vigil right now.

guy who was upset that he didn't get a promotion. I was off sick that day, I was 19 years old.

In 1968 when I was 13, I was sitting in a room with my garage-bandmates taking a break, when, pop, a 22 rifle that one of them had been monkeying with in his lap went off and gave me a new part. All sound stopped, and they stared at me like, what the hell was that? I didn't even know the gun was in the room, let alone pointed at my head.

Kids thinking that happiness, or anything good or fun, can be found in a gun, warm or cold, is a recipe for tragedy, over and over again and again. And guns seem to be everywhere and in unexpected places.

Horrible time, but we made it.

using a gun (separate incidents). Fortunately neither of them saw any need to kill anyone else in the process.

in the street of my little town, 1990. 2 killed, one of whom I knew.

And in '03 a co-worker and his wife were shot at home by their daughter. They didn't like her boyfriend.

3 year old thought he was playing and shot at daddy. Lucky for him it just grazed his head but could have killed him instantly.

Needless to say, they woke up and got rid of their gun.

These weren't close friends just some people I knew. That is child indangerment to me.

And then one of the ladies in my bookclub, her son committed suicide last winter using dads gun that was supposed to be locked up, but he knew where keys were. Depressed guy in his late 20's.

and a 16 y/o cousin who shot himself going through a barbed-wire fence while out hunting. A good friend's husband shot her then himself six months after their wedding, thankfully ... she lived. My Dad ended his life with one after becoming seriously ill. I've seen other suicides and a few accidental shootings while with the ambulance. While I do see the need for a gun in certain situations such as farming / ranching and even personal protection in the home if one really feels the need ... the thought of anyone carrying a loaded gun around in public nauseates me. People who do own guns need to smarten the hell up and lock them away if they're not living alone. I really, really dislike guns. My heart goes out to everyone involved in the school shooting tragedy.

were in a mall and my nephew insisted they stop into the Eddie Bauer store for a minute. A soon as they got in the store a gunman started shooting people in the hall right outside the Eddie Bauer store. They all could have been killed. My sister still talks about it.

My brother's best friend in high school wrecked his car soon after getting his license. He was super close to his parents. He went home and shot himself in the head.

Had a friend from high school who committed suicide with a gun.

Worked with a girl who was having a hard time in life. The story goes that she and her boyfirend were asleep in his car - he in the front seat, she in the back seat. He supposedly changed position and the gun discharged, killing her. I think about her often. She was trying so hard to get her life on track.

The man who ran my high school bookstore committed suicide by gun. A classmate of my older brother's was killed in a hunting accident. A co-worker I didn't know very well killed himself while talking to his girlfriend on the phone.

I know there are some others, but they don't come to mind easily. But no one close, no parent, child, cousin, close friend, nothing like that. But still, I know at least slightly several people who've died that way. I bet if you posted this question in any other country in the world you wouldn't get people posting about multiple friends or relatives who've been touched by gun violence.

Before I was introduced to this world, my grandfather occasionally enjoyed drunken delusions that neighborhood dogs were living under his house and liked to shoot through the floor, until his brothers found out and removed his gun from his possession.
When I was in grade school one of my friends shot himself dead.
In middle school a church friend shot himself, ending in paralysis and eventually death.
A couple years back my dad shot his own finger off. Accidentally. The man who taught me gun safety. That made an impression.

We were driving by Clackamas town center when that event occurred. Saw all the cops going offroad to get around stopped traffic on the highway, but just assumed it was a car accident until we heard the news later.

My sister has held educational programs for the kids at Sandy Hook Elementary. I didn't even think about her being in Connecticut and working in schools until she sent us an email saying "hey, I'm alright, wasn't working there this week"

I've personally known a couple of people in my life who have committed or attempted suicide, there's no words...

Earlier my 39 year old 1st cousin committed suicide by shooting herself. She was found by her 13 year old son.

Although I guess one of the incidents was more of a gun accident than violence. That was when my boss's .380 went off when he slammed the drawer it was in. The idiot had a round chambered. The bullet missed me by about 2 feet and a co-worker by about 3. It hit the wall right between us. Luckily (?) it hit the wall at about knee level, so even if it had struck one of us, it probably wouldn't have been fatal. Even though he was my boss, I STILL gave him a sound verbal thrashing about that one. When it takes about a fifth of a second to chamber a round, there's no reason to have one chambered. It's just asking for trouble especially with an automatic.

Also, I had a gun pulled on me and a couple of friends once when I was doing something I shouldn't have been. That wound up being a robbery.

But the most distressing incident occurred when my friend Rob's girlfriend was murdered in a bank robbery along with several other bank employees. I knew Tanya, but not as well as I knew Rob. That was over 40 years ago and I still remember him showing up on my doorstep the day it happened.

I think there were a couple other incidents too, but I just can't think of them off the top of my head. I probably want to block them out.

accidentally killed himself while cleaning his gun after a hunting. He was 13 years. Of course this wasn't violence perpetrated by someone else, but it was a violent death nonetheless.

One of the boys was limping and she convinced herself that she had passed her mother's polio on to him through birth. She didn't want to be responsible for giving polio to her children so she killed them (this was the early 70s). The boy was limping because he hit himself in the knee with a bowling ball, but she couldn't be talked out of her paranoia. She fed them, slipped them a sedative and killed them while they slept. She was a very sweet woman who needed help.

My aunt was married to a man who had a son and daughter from a previous marriage. The boy found his father's gun and shot his 8yr. old sister. I was 12 - 13 at the time. Her spinal cord was injured and she can stand and walk with a cane. She uses a wheelchair if she wants to get somewhere faster.
Her brother is in prison for a crime he committed as an adult.

Now she has a CHL and regularly carries her gun when she goes to the city.

Although the violence itself did not touch me or anyone I know it was a shocking event that touched the entire village. I was working at the local Hollywood video at the time and the police came in and asked to search our back room. They went in with guns drawn and search dogs. That was a bad day. Something that I will always remember though, was the panic on the police officers faces. Nothing like that had ever happened and they had no idea why this happened or were the man went. The best guess is that he got on I-80 right near the store and took off to God only knows were. Its still an open case and they are not anywhere near an arrest last I heard.

Did it make national news?

Sorry to hear it has not been solved.

armed.

Personally? Cops of course with their shit aimed acting a fool at a traffic stop a couple of times. Shot at in a crowd by drunken yahoos doing nothing but hanging out at a party that turned into a pretty dangerous brawl, could have used a piece in that mess for sure.

I don't count suicides, people serious about offing themselves do it. Countries with virtually no access to guns find even greater "success" rates.

He was waiting for a bus at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, in a neighborhood that wasn't terribly "bad."

The killers were 14- and 15-year-old boys shooting at each other on bicycles. That's right, it was a bike-by shooting because they weren't old enough to drive.

Lots of bitter ironies with this one. His girlfriend was with him - she was a trained EMT, and she couldn't save him. He was a part-time drug counselor who worked a lot with troubled youth just like those kids.

A friend I grew up with murdered by his gun-nut father in law. The FIL showed up at their house in the middle of the night and shot Marc in the chest 4 times. He apparently planned on kidnapping his daughter and grandkids - handcuffs in the car as well as several guns and hundreds of rounds. Rented a car for the crime and told his friends he was in Florida. Dispute over religion and distancing the kids from the abusive grandfather was the motivation.

Another friend I grew up with killed himself with a rifle a couple weeks ago. When looking online for the funeral/obit information, I ran across the foreclosure case.

Another kid I grew up with - shot dead by a dropped .22 rifle. Accidental. His father killed himself several years later. Gunshot to the head.

Two high school friends. Suicide with "family" guns. One was a close friend.

An argument and a gun. 2 people dead, many hearts broken... It was a case of someone losing their temper having access to a loaded gun.

All of them in their early twenties.

He and a another classmate were playing with a shotgun to see how fast they could eject the shells. My friend was shot in the chest. His classmate never recovered from the guilt and horror if it.

during an attempt to collect rent. The man shot her husband, who had accompanied her. She ran but there was no backdoor, so she headed to the basement, in a panic. They guy follwed her, cornered her, and shot her dead. All over a couple of hundred dollars.

murdered by her husband who was actually a certified schizophrenic who had a gun.

It was my first year of teaching. Very, very difficult.

2 friends to suicide. One was a devote Catholic. He had a lot of chronic severe health problems. He killed himself on Good Friday. I'm not religious, but knowing that he was in so much pain that he took his life, broke my heart. He thought he was going to hell, but his pain was just too much.

The husband of a friend was shot while playing basketball at a neighborhood court.

A friend from high school was shot and killed by her husband.

The mother of one of my classmates shot and killed her abusive husband.

My grandfather shot my father's dog to punish him.

If you are talking about someone actually being shot, then no.

father of a friend shot trying to stop a robbery.
Been shot at @4 times, but so far no hits.

A neighbors loaded gun slid down the wall after he came home from hunting and discharged through the wall.

Also a few of my former students have been killed by someone with a gun, or killed themselves with a gun.

Last edited Sun Dec 16, 2012, 06:14 PM - Edit history (2)

#1: suicide
#2: son of my father's best friend (ACCIDENT)
#3: daughter of my mother's best friend (MURDER)
#4: a very close personal friend (MURDER)
#5: a doctor I used to go to (MURDER)
#6: a worker at a candy store (MURDER)

Four cases with the word murder after them.

was shot by a man he pulled over because of a broken tail light. What he didn't know was that he and the other two men inside the van were transporting a lot of marijuana. He was shot as he was walking back to his cruiser with the guy's ID. One bullet went through his hand and lodged in his thigh, the other bullet struck his heavy metal belt buckle which stopped the bullet. A passerby came on the scene minutes later and called for help. He was in PT for nearly a year before he was able to return to work. His assilant...caught quickly because of the ID...but was convicted and out of jail before my friend returned to work.

The belt buckle was indented about an inch from the bullet. Way too close for comfort....my friend ended his career as a police detective.

my ex-husband was shot in the back with a handgun in 2007, while walking through a park, by someone he didn't know. my ex was unarmed. he is a paraplegic now.

also, in 1915, after abandoning my great grandmother and her three young children, my great grandfather shot and killed his girlfriend, and then himself, with his hunting rifle.

a former friend was raped at gunpoint.

a former bf suicided by shooting himself in the head with a handgun.

I was laughing and talking to a friend of mine in the neighborhood park.I bid him farewell and he said tomorrow I challenge you to a game of handball. I said OK around noon.That morning I woke up and started to read the morning paper .On the front page it said "teen murdered over jacket" I opened the 2nd page and his picture was there. It was him who was killed shot in the chest.I cried so bad.

Was the 13th murder in Rochester NY in 1991. Random act of violence - gang initiation. He was 21 . . . His father gets drunk the first two weeks of April every year. Prayer for the parents of the children murdered this past week - in CT and Oregon. Regardless of their ages - they are someone's baby somewhere.


20 years on and not a god damned thing has changed in this world.

... lost his mother and father in a murder suicide. He was heavy set and a bit isolated from other kids in school. As a new kid myself I had earlier tried to reach out to him a few times in the class I was in with him then, but right after this event he wasn't in school and never returned again.

Fortunately, he and his fellow airmen were able to escape their captors. Other people like an Israeli diplomat who were killed at that time with other "Red Brigade" style violence then weren't so fortunate. She was my favorite teacher then, and that teacher Victoria Soto reminds me of her.

They hadn't been married very long, he shot her in the head. He walked, of course.

Several other friends over the years committed suicide with guns.

My late husband almost did too, he had a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger but the gun misfired. That really freaked him out, he never tried it again. I know it's true because I saw him do it. He lived 25 years after that before dying of several simultaneous illnesses. He didn't try it out of a sense of "giving up" but out of fear that he was going to harm someone else. He had extreme PTSD after Viet Nam, and nobody knew then what to do about it.

A classmate in high school shot and killed his uncle. His uncle was drinking and started beating my classmate's mom.

My ex was a victim of 2 armed robberies while working at a convenience store.

A cousin and an uncle committed suicide.

Another cousin was murdered with his own gun, possibly in a drug deal gone bad. No one was ever arrested.

And I was walking home from work one night, two blocks to my apartment. A man drove by, pulled a gun on me, and I was abducted and raped. They never caught that guy, either.

I don't like handguns.

My brother was robbed at gunpoint when he worked in an all-night kinko's several years ago.

was shot and killed by his ex-roommate at the age of 19.

My daughter just started a job at Walgreen's Liquor Store and a young guy came in and pointed a pistol at her mid-section and demanded the money. He got the cash but the cops never got him. Also, a gal I worked with lived in a dicy neighborhood so her husband bought a hand gun for their protection. Wound up he shot her dead with it during an argument and then ran next door to tell the 2 little old ladies there that he had just killed his wife.

my older brother was accidentally killed in a hunting accident. I've had both a close friend and a lawyer I worked for commit suicide by shooting themselves. The phlebotomist who used to take my blood for my hypothyroid was murdered by her soon-to-be ex-husband. I was a correctional officer for a year and a few of my former charges died in drug-related shootings after their release. The aunt of an old friend of mind was murdered by Bob Hansen, Anchorage's infamous butcher baker back in the '80s who picked up women in town, flew them out to the wilderness in his small plane and then stalked and hunted them for sport.

I'm sure there are more, I just can't think of the, right now.

Oh, my first husband was murdered some time after we split up, four years after I had last seen him. I'm not sure how he died, other than that he was hitch hiking, but the story is that pieces of him were found scattered around in the Utah or Nevada desert. I only heard this news second hand and after the fact so I'm not clear on the details.

As a child victim at the age of 16 of gun violence, I am VERY anti-gun. My father shot my mother, my future step-father & then killed himself. If he had not had easy access to a gun, my life & my sister's lives may very well have turned out differently. At now the age of 57, this tragedy is something I will carry with me til the end of my life.

when he played little league. A few years later, this................
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Teen-who-fired-into-car-killing-2-gets-60-years-1051313.php

One accident, two murders (this was 1994, the worst year for gun violence in US history).

I've also been held up at gunpoint, twice, in DC. The city that bans guns.

My mother never recovered from the news of his death. She died a few years later at the age of 60.