[Stay Low]

The day before Easter, I was shooting skeet at our range. A couple who were actually divorced but still friendly toward each other asked to join me. We shot a couple rounds. Yesterday, I was there and the fella asked if he could join me again. Sure, I said. He then asked if I had heard about his ex. Nope, not a word. Well, she left the range that day in April, went home and killed herself. Turns out she had been fighting depression. She OD'd on whatever she was taking to try to maintain her mental state. She was probably 45 yrs old or so. Pretty sad. So I got to thinking this morning. Wonder if she thought of using that shotgun on herself while we shot skeet? Or, wonder if she thought of using that shotgun on me, her ex, then herself that day? Think I'll keep an eye out on the folks around me a little better. Who knows. This girl certainly didn't sound, look or act in a way that seemed odd, suicidal, etc.

[45R]

Safety is always a concern when your at the range. Most of the people at the range that you will shoot with are pretty friendly minus the exceptions.

Problem with mental instablitly is that you will never know what someone is thinking from one moment to the next.....:confused:

[JohnBT]

I'd bet a buck she didn't really get really, really down until she went home alone the day before a Holiday. Holidays alone can be hard on people who equate them with family gatherings and such.

John

[Ebbtide]

If a person is really depressed, to the point of suicide depressed, they are very unlikely to go to the range let alone leave the house. Depressed people are not sociopathic, just depressed.

But as always, watch your six.

ehenz

[pax]

Stay Low,

What a sad story. Hope you are doing all right.

ehenz,

It's not quite that simple. While depressed people aren't necessarily violent, suicidal people may or may not be "only" depressed. IOW, if someone is suicidal, they could be sociopathic, manic, delusional, homicidal, etc rather than simply depressed.

Not only so, but those who have been on the ragged of edge of suicide could tell you that it is possible to be in that place and still holding up a pretty good facade -- still looking and acting normal as far as the rest of the world is concerned. They say there are always signs, and that may be true. But the signs can sometimes be mighty subtle and easily missed.

pax

Yes, there are more theories on depression than hairdos in a Dennis Rodman scrapbook. -- Mathew S. Keene

[E357]

Down here in So. Florida, where you get a lot of older, may sick or lonely people - one very popular range took the rental guns out of the display area at Christmas time because they had about one suicide per year with a rental gun.

Elliot

[Dionysusigma]

Problem with mental instablitly (sic) is that you will never know what someone is thinking from one moment to the next...

Or with anyone, for that matter...:uhoh:

[Cliff]

Just try to be aware of what the other shooters at the range are doing. Every once in a while,come out of your lane,back up,and just watch everyone else for a minute or so.

[GSB]

The issue with the medication may have been the big factor. I was very seriously involved with a woman who suffered from severe clinical depression. At one point the medication was not correct and it really sent her on a serious downward spiral that was incredibly sad and frightening to those around her.

Mental illness is a hard thing to deal with for everyone concerned. Unfortunately, unlike something like breast cancer, people who haven't encountered it in their lives can be rather dismissive of it ("oh, she's just suffering the blues. She needs to just pull herself together and take life by the horns... blah blah blah"). I know I didn't "get it" myself, until it impacted my life and I realized just how real it is.

[Ebbtide]

Pax,

It's not quite that simple.

Yes I agree. I was just trying to point out that "simple" depression of the 311 variety as a clinical diagnosis is not a reason to believe that a person would go on a shooting rampage as earlier indicated. Suicide, an end game symptom of many mental health conditions, is strongly rooted in depression. It is the subsequent and oft not diagnosed non-specified traits that make folks turn into the next murder suicide victims.

I just did not want arm chair mental health professionals/gun enthusiasts to think clinical depression makes a person any more dangerous to themselves or others than any other Joe.

ehenz

[Delmar]

Although you are never 100% safe anywhere, I feel a whole lot safer at the range than I do driving on the road to get there!