Has a friend or relative of yours ever been shot?

[pscot]

I've lost an aunt and a friend to gun violence. Another friend committed suicide and a fourth was accidentally shot on the street and survived. I got to thinking about it and it seemed extraordinary. All these people were well known to me. These are not just incidents I heard or read about. It set me to wondering just how common the experience is.

[tk2kewl]

1. My cousin's daughter was shot and killed by her stepfather

very sad

[premium]

2. Yeah,

my cousin I grew up with was shot and killed by some POS thug who shouldn't have even been out of prison.

Still a huge hole in my heart for his loss.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. My half brother shot and killed my father.

[Just Saying]

4. My best friend's mother was murdered in broad daylight

Outside the library where she worked by her abusive husband. Police had been called the night before and removed weapons from his home. So he went out the next day, purchased a handgun, went to her job and killed her.

They were fighting because he thought her job was in a bad neighborhood and too dangerous.

[Buzz Clik]

5. My brother was shot in Vietnam.

Does that count?

[hunter]

6. Yes.

.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. I've had two co-workers commit suicide with guns and that's all.

[stevenleser]

8. Uncle and Grandfather shot by the SS in Latvia to where they were forcibly deported. nt

[onehandle]

9. A high school friend of mine has shot himself in the leg, twice.

Libertarian teabagger, NRA lifetime member.

I've known two people who committed suicide with guns.

A couple of people who were shot in military combat and survived, and one who did not.

Two women who were shot by spouses/boyfriends and survived by some miracle.

[Cleita]

10. My husband's doctor committed suicide by gun.

Needless to say we were shocked because he was such a good and kind person and took such good care of my husband who was dying from end stage renal disease. To this day I never understood why and especially why such a messy death? As a doctor, I'm sure, he could have killed himself in other ways if that's what he felt he had to do. It turns out it was a bi-polar disorder coupled with a broken heart from his fiancee breaking up with him that sent him over the edge, not to mention access to a weapon.

Of course having been through all wars since WWII, there were those friends and neighbors in the military who never came home.

[tenormadness1]

11. The doctor who delivered me...

...commited suicide by handgun. My brother was shot in the shoulder during a bar brawl in some small town in Nebraska and I shot myself (by accident, about age 5) in the abdomen while being babysat by the town's police chief's daughter while the chief and my asshole father (also a pig) were out eating and drinking. I'm still here, 45 years later.

[Rowdyboy]

12. My baby brother was murdered by his estranged wife Labor day 1995...

He was 29.

[CakeGrrl]

13. Stepbrother survived multiple gunshots

while battling drug addiction; luckily survived that too.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. I got shot at

Does that count?

To this day I am jumpy around fireworks and popping balloons

[Skidmore]

15. I have had three cousins

commit suicide by gun within the past 6 years. One of them shot himself in the bedroom of his parent's home with one of the guns they kept on hand even though they knew he was suffering from a major depression and his mother had taken him to the VA the day before begging them to hospitalize him so he could stabilize. His parents have become teabagger types and are always spouting 2nd amendment bilge. One of these days I'm going to quit biting my tongue and remind them of how they tearfully sat and told me about cleaning his brains off of the ceiling in their home.

[Decoy of Fenris]

16. Several. Two to suicides and two to ongoing crimes. n/t

[uppityperson]

17. Aside from wars, friend committed suicide per gun.

[bunnies]

18. I was shot by a stalker.

Just grazed though, luckily for me. Especially since the bullet grazed my head.

[olddots]

19. two freinds succeded in suicide because they had guns

the gunaphiles will be making snappy graphs to disprove guns making suicide very easy .

[Phentex]

20. A sister, a boyfriend, two separate incidents...

My sister was shot in the head during a robbery where she worked. She survived.

My boyfriend was carjacked with another guy and his girlfriend. He was shot twice in the leg while made to lie face down on the ground. He survived but the rest of the story is grim. I left the restaurant 30 minutes before they were carjacked in the parking lot.

I don't think war counts. If it does, that's another matter.

[enough]

21. The teenage child of very close friends was killed in a random shooting.

We have seen up close how the suffering never ends.

It's clear from the responses in this thread, that many people here have experienced that suffering.

[lumberjack_jeff]

22. Does "while in the army" count?

If so then yes.

[pscot]

23. I haven't been responding to individual comments

because I know how difficult it has been for me to deal with those events and I don't want to inadvertently push anyone's buttons. It's definitely an experience that leaves a mark.

[procon]

24. My brother, sister and I were shot

As children we were playing in our front yard when a group of hunters in a stubble field just across the road fired at a covey of birds they had flushed. The hunters were negligent in hunting too close to our farm and they disregarded basic safety precautions when they all fired directly toward our house, peppering each of us kids (and the dog) with dozens of birdshot pellets in their zeal. We spent several painful hours at the doctor's office having them removed. Even though it was a hunting accident and not an act of violence, the semantics don't matter all that much when you and yours are frightened and hurt by guns.

[Bay Boy]

28. What was the distance?

Just curious.

[procon]

31. It was a very, very long time ago...

Let's see... there was our fence line, then a one lane dirt road and a weed-choked, shallow irrigation ditch next to it where birds and small critters liked to congregate. The 5-6 hunters were walking in the field parallel to the ditch when they flushed the birds and then started shooting as they flew towards our house. I don't know what the actual distance was, but they were close enough to hear us screaming and crying when we got hit and my Gramps yelling at them to stop shooting.

[Marie Marie]

25. Sister-in-law's nephew accidently shot & killed himself with his gun.

Whole family on that side are huge gun advocates.

[woodsprite]

26. My aunt was shot/mugged in Baltimore near the harbor. Almost died. n/t

[Bay Boy]

27. My great great grandfather was the victim of gun violence

by some damn Johnny Reb about 1864. You probably heard about that time in the US.

[bravenak]

29. My cousin was shot in the chest by his roommate. Lived.

My step dad killed himself in our house. Another friend was shot and killed by some bloods over a girl. My friend shot a guys eyeball out on our way to the L store for telling him he couldn't serve on the block. He lived. Got grazed by a bullet on time in a drive by. It burned. Another friend got shot and killed in the parking lot of carrs grocery store. It's becoming commonplace.
My uncle shot his wife multiple times through the bathroom door. He went to prison.

[JNelson6563]

30. My brother, shot in the leg. Accidental.

In Detroit about 17 years ago. Sometimes it still bothers him. At least he's alive, unlike so many others.

Julie