Totally agree with you, Michael! In the academy, they taught us to always ‘shoot to stop’, and you don’t stop someone with a wound to an arm or a leg. Same thing with “warning shots”!! If you need to use your sidearm to defend yourself, you can’t afford to waste a round…especially when that bullet will come down somewhere you can’t control!!
I don’t ever want to have to kill anyone, but that choice is theirs, not mine. I did come real close a couple of times and that was hard enough to deal with.
Too true that a situation like mine was when you find out who your friends are. He didn’t even hesitate…wait a minute…maybe he did enjoy that a little too much!! It sure did hurt! BTW, he was a SF Army Capt. in VN. His name is Terry Vaughan, on the odd chance you knew him. (pretty slim, I know, but it is a small world!)
2 negligent discharges in my life, one at age 15, the other at age 25. I remember BOTH–VIVIDLY. Thank goodness, “Muzzle in safe direction” prevented property damage and injury. The dimensions of the matter recede over time, but the details will remain fresh forever. The more recent event was 40 years ago.
When I was much younger my husband and I ran around with another couple. One day the husband brought over his father’s Lugar that came from a German in WW2. We were all in the kitchen and he turned it over in his hand and bang, it went off. The bullet lodged above our heads in the wall. He was so upset he had to leave and his wife told us on the way home he stopped the car and threw up. It turned out the gun needed repaired. It took him years to get over it. So Bob is not alone. I am a retired school counselor and I urge you to have him seek counseling. Something like this can eat at him and become so much larger in his head because of the “what ifs.” Counseling would help him sort this out and arrive at a place of acceptance and peace. I can’t imagine why a professional counselor would have a duty to report this situation. Generally, the duty to report revolves around harm being committed to yourself or someone else. Hopefully an attorney will comment on this.
That’s like a doctor asking if you own guns. What I’m sharing here is not advice, but my take on counseling. I’d like opposing views. I look at all the anti gun rhetoric about preventing mentally unstable from owning guns. Who gets to decide what’s unstable? The government? I know many veterans refusing treatment for PTSD because they don’t want any record of them having had counseling of any kind. Who gets to decide? How would the fact that once you needed to get some clarity in your head one time, be used against you someday. There was a time decades ago, my wife and I were having financial struggles. I was in the Army and sought counseling at Family Services. A year and a half later, during an unrelated inquiry, I had an officer bring up the fact that I’d once sought counseling and maybe the problem our neighbor thought they saw and reported, was caused by financial stress. I decided then, that I’d never get counseling on the record again. Instead, I’ll talk to others that have gone through what I’m going through. I’m not advising against real professional help to someone than can benefit from it. But for me, the chance of losing a pastime that brings me relaxation and stress reduction (shooting) because of antigunners, is always rattling in the back of my mind.
I would never dissuade anyone from seeking counsel in an instance like this…but the FIRST counsel you should seek is from an attorney before laying out feelings and emotions surrounding ANY significant act with a firearm. Bias alert–I live in a VERY firearms-hostile state, and endured several years of employer harassment after 1 lethal threat management scenario with direct involvement and projection and 2 others lacking projection that bracketed the more serious event.
That harassment took the form of Pshrink Shopping–a Captain trying (unsuccessfully) to find a psych doc that would play his games, as well as polling citizens I dealt with trying to elicit complaints.
Long story short–police body armor has a front and back panel–the front panel to stop crook bullets, and a back panel to resist admin pogue back-stabbing. Moral of the story–if cop admin will do their loyal subordinates like this, imagine how they will do a citizen self-defender. LAWYER UP.
Interesting. I didn’t realize how traumatic and devastating these incidents can be. It happened to me twice but none of the incidents were especially scary or traumatic. Three years ago at a shooting range with instructors and an average sized group of students, I accidentally discharged my shotgun. Several kinds of guns were laying on various tables, side by side, but all were separated into caliber groups. I was in the shotgun section and in my excitement to shoot and, believe it or not, enjoy the recoil (as strange as it may sound), for some stupid reason I barely touched the trigger before picking it up. I was stunned but not traumatized. No one even noticed because so many people were shooting. The area in front of the table was off limits, so the shotgun discharged into open space. All guns were pointed forward, even pistols. Also, we all had our ear and eye protection on and several guns were being fired at any one time throughout that day, except for some breaks every now and then. But I learned how easy it is to become very negligent even among instructors and after abiding by the basic rules of gun safety. I learned to be extra cautious after that incident.
The first incident occurred back in 1984 after I removed a .22 rifle from a closet in my home in a semi rural part of town where I used to live. The house was built in 1961 in SoCal, so I don’t know if the walls were less thicker than the homes that were built after the early 60s. I don’t remember how I shot off a round, but a bullet went right into the wall opposite of that closet and right below the window! The bullet’s trajectory was at an angle but it continued upwards. It exited right through the wall and eventually dinged a house’s antenna right behind us. I still remember hearing the ding and being surprised and perhaps scared. Nobody seemed to have heard it except me. Thankfully, the houses on that row were separated from ours by a huge wash. There was a huge distance between us. I was 17 and had only fired a .32 WS action lever rifle (which I recently inherited) two years prior to this incident. It was also the first time I fired a gun. That rifle’s recoil was a bit too much for me at that time as a 15-16 year old kid who had never fired a gun. It wasn’t a good experience for me. So after negligently firing the .22 I was worried and foolishly called the sheriff to report what I thought was important for them to know. Thankfully, the deputy seemed confused and uninterested. A very different time back then because LE would have been all over the place if that had happened today. I might have gone to jail for that, given the prevailing attitude toward guns in this jurisdiction since the last 20 or so years.
Ah, I see. I’m new to this community. I can understand the fear of having guns taken away and having it used against you. I am so sorry you had counseling used against you. I would like to think that it is something much more acceptable now to society, at least in the non-military arena. My husband informed me that this is a valid fear, that he has read of cases in gun magazines where this has been used against people. He says I don’t know the lengths that anti-gun people will go to. I guess I am naive. I do know of quite a few gun owners who have gone to counseling, and I hope someone who really needs it will check into it. Thank you for educating me.
@Judith2. I agree with you and I know that my post might have seemed a little paranoid. I’m really not, just mindful of my own past experiences. I do have a slight leaning as a conspiracist though. some times a friend to talk to is enough. Other times it’s not! Welcome to the community. Enjoy your time here!
Thanks to you and @judith2 for the commentary. I think the legal opinion from early in this thread was helpful in taking some of the fear out of the situation. Not legal, but not likely an arrest under the circumstances. Both Bob and I are trauma survivors and I also know that because of that, he had a long wait to get an appeal approved due to his mental health history. He didn’t object to the long process even though he didn’t like it. But it’s easy to see how in his situation the wrong therapist could intervene and mess things up by contacting the state police. His history, now managed, makes him stronger not weaker. So he trusts me and took a pass on other options. But peers who have faced the same thing are always ideal… At this point we both see he’s in good company with cops, soldiers, and all manner of professionals who made the same mistake. And everyone here owned up to it — also refreshing.
Yet I can’t understand why people don’t like safeties on their weapons. I have a 9MM with a safety. I only take it off when I’m about to put it in my holster. Good thing too, I had it in my hand and tried reaching for something and it fell out my hand and I reached for it–yes I know that’s a no no. Finger went in the trigger but a disaster was averted because of the safety. My other 9MM is DA/SA.
The thought of having to draw a firearm to defend myself, my family and property is intimidating to me. We train weekly for every situation I can think of. But living though the real thing is something you can never be 100% prepared for, at least mentally. So, for me it is such a fast response that can change your life forever.
some times a friend to talk to is enough. Other times it’s not! Welcome to the community. Enjoy your time here!