People I know who have died by being shot

[dcarch]

My cousin had a bad habit I'd prefer not to talk about. When his mom and dad got divorced, the stress of the divorce plus the guilt from his habit caused him to go out and shoot himself in the woods. I still wish there was something I could have done.

 

[theCloud]

My Mother was shot and killed after being shot 5 times with a gun that was not a registered or legal firearm. Had she or my sister been allowed to legally carry a firearm she might have still been with us today. Gun laws did nothing to prevent her murder. In fact, the law made it impossible for her to even make an attempt defend herself without breaking the law at the time. And she was quite capable of effectively using a handgun. If she hadn't been such a "law abiding citizen" she would have at least had a chance.

I'm sorry for your loss.

I saw a friend's mother shot to death as we were playing baseball- that was when I was a little kid. As I was waiting to bat, I saw the guy walk up to her, didn't think anything of it and then turned to the game. Next thing I know I hear a BANG!. I turn to look and the guy shot her several times in the chest and ran off. The scary thing is I think she did not know the guy at all. Well... nobody told us what happened afterwards, like who was the shooter or whatever. I'm guessing that's to protect the kids. Maybe she did know him.

But looking back on it, if I were there now, as a grown man with a gun on me, I still don't think I could have prevented her death. It was too sudden. It was a beautiful day and I didn't have a care in the world. After the first shot, OK, that would wake me up and I'd spring into action. But still, the guy's got an advantage, the gun is drawn at point blank range and he's just squeezing the trigger over and over again. I just wonder sometimes, would a gun have prevented her death? I don't know...

Just as we shouldn't be so quick to blame the gun for violence, we shouldn't see the gun as an all powerful protector. Unfortunately, sometimes we can't avoid horrible events happening to us or to our loved ones. Life is a fragile thing.

 

[M2 Carbine]

My Father shot himself when I was young.
Did the gun kill my Father?
No, my Father killed himself.

Anyone that believes otherwise is a idiot.

 

[jcwit]

Only person I personally know that died from a gun shot was a close friend of my fathers. Dr's informed him he was terminal with cancer and there was nothing more anyone could do for him. He solved his suffering and problem with a shotgun, painlessly I presume.

 

[Ghost Tracker]

Guys, this is (at least for me) sharply peeling-off some old scabs. Maybe it's time? Almost 40 years ago, when I was a teenager, I was phoned & asked by my best friend & his older brother to join them for a perfectly normal evening of out-running-around. I happily declined 'cause I had a much-pursued first date with a strawberry redheaded cutie & rubbed by Bud's nose into the fact that I didn't have ANY interest in joining them considering my alternate plan. He laughed, agreed with my choice & we said goodbye. Early the next morning (after a terrific date the night before) I got a call from my friend's oldest brother (he had two) & crying, he told me that both his younger siblings had been shot. My best friend, David, was dead. His brother, Charlie, was in critical condition. I'll spare you the details of the shooting, but it's never changed my opinion that a gun is simply a tool. And I'm still friends with that redhead. Regardless of the reason why I so narrowly missed the tragedy, I'll always be indebted to her for agreeing to go for pizza... with me.

 

[SSN Vet]

I smoked my first cigarette with an older kid in my neighborhood who years later was into some pretty serious doo-doo. He was murdered (and mutilated) by a frustrated "sugar daddy" for stealing drugs and not putting out.

Lot's of moral dimensions to this guys demise, but none related to inanimate machined steel objects.

and sadly, I have both kin and friends who have ended their lives with firearms.

It wasn't the firearm that made them despair.... but rather addiction to drugs and alcohol.

 

[Axel Larson]

We do have some hunting accidents each year but for the most part there isn't that many firearms related deaths in Vermont. The thing that annoys me is people talking about hunting accidents and saying that if we didn't guns this wouldn't happen, I usually ask them if they are planning on not using their car because without cars we wouldn't have as many deaths from car crashes.
Hello to my fellow Vermonters.

 

[788Ham]

Many, many years ago, my deceased grandpa, his wife, and 2 of my relatives were out for the day in Central Oregon. My grandpa was one heck of a shot with any firearm, this particular day, he'd taken his .22 revolver with him. Gramp's had shot a grouse, was after another one, when his wife Mary, hollered "The cars rolling away". Grandpa ran after the car, Mary was also in pursuit, Mary got in the driver's side, and Grandpa got in the other. Grandpa reached in to grab the emergency brake, with the revolver in that hand, he pulled on the brake, but as he did, he also accidentally shot Mary in the back of the head. Mary passed on that evening. There have been a couple of other gun shot incidents in the family, this one's enough.

 

[sugarmaker]

Two of my classmates committed suicide with a gun, one in 9th grade and another in his early 20's. Another committed suicide by driving a snowmobile onto open water in January(yes, it was clear he knew what he was doing), My wife's brother Jumped from a bridge in winter, not found until spring.

All were tragic, I still don't advocate banning guns, snowmobiles, or bridges.

 

[95XL883]

A friend who I graduated with was working retail. The robber(s) took him to a back room and shot him in the head.

A neighbor's son was killed for his car a couple of years ago.

Another kid from my high school was knifed to death.

I've survived a heinous, violent crime.

I don't think any of the criminals were ever caught. I wonder how many more suffered or died after they got away.

If one or more of us had had a gun, well, they might be alive, the bad guys might be dead, the parents might not be grieving, the crimes might not have even been committed. I take my CCH class this weekend.

 

[wannabeagunsmith]

My half- cousin's best friend walked into my high school with a .38 (where he got it, I will never know his dad only owned long guns for hunting) fired two shots in the air and put one through his head. As he fell, his finger was still on the trigger and the gun discharged a fourth time, sending a round through a window and narrowly missed some girls who were standing nearby. The bullet holes are (strangely) still in the cealing and everyday I see them and remind myself to "keep the gun DOWNRANGE" and whenever a friend speaks of suicide I try to give, or direct them, to help. And the kid's dad still hunts, and has since even bought a pistol or two.

One of my mom's friends was murdered in a campus shooting and she was an anti for many years.. but she is doing better now.

 

[pashacavanna]

I only have had three violent deaths or near deaths in my immediate family and acquaintance.
One was stabbed to death by a drug dealer.
One was beaten to death in a brawl... with a baseball bat.
One jumped in front of a train.
One was stabbed in the gut, but survived.

As the saying goes.... "I'm just saying...."

 

[Viper]

I'm actually surprised by the number of people who have been affected by firearm violence. I'm 67 years old, but other than the two years I spent in Southeast Asia in the late sixties, violence by guns has never entered my life.

I will admit though, that had I been home when my house was burglarized and fifteen pistols were stolen, I might have been on the other side of the issue.

 

[lowerunit411]

when i was a young officer in the Navy living in San Diego the guy in the appartment next to mine shot and killed his wife then commited suicide. a close friend and hunting partner of my fathers commited suicide with a 7mm rifle after he was served divorce papers......a bunch of others i have known died from firearms but thats a different story...a lot of peoples friends died of firearms in that place

 

[MedWheeler]

wannabeagunsmith, you wrote:

One of my mom's friends was murdered in a campus shooting and she was an anti for many years.. but she is doing better now.

I take it you meant to phrase this differently..?

 

[-eaux-]

Death murder and suicide have touched my life as well.
I suppose this is high road conversation as long as it stays above board and classy.
The only reason I'm posting on this thread, which I've avoided reading on purpose, is to add this phrase that my Daddy said to me as I approached my teenage years: "suicide is a permenent solution to a temporary problem. It's a coward's way out. It takes a lot more b*lls to live in spite of it than to die out of spite."
Understand, I appreciate that this topic by its very nature is sensitive, and I don't mean to offend anyone. But it's sensitive for me as well, and I felt compelled.

 

[CajunBass]

My Aunt shot her husband (my uncle of course) and killed him. She then turned the gun on herself and died.

Years later, my ex-wifes uncle shot and killed his wife (her aunt), then turned the gun on himself and died.

A good friend was killed in a hunting accident.

 

[Owen Sparks]

If we were having this discussion 1,000 years ago the topic would have been "People I knoe who have died by being cut with a sword." If it were 10,000 years ago it would have been "People I know who have died by being hit with a rock." If it were 1,000 years from now it will probably be some sort of ray gun.

The tool is irrelivant. It is the human ACTION that kills.

 

[fixrspazz]

I'm sorry for your losses. Every human being has something to contribute to the world.

In 2007:

44,945 people died in motor vehicle accidents.

22,631 people died in falls.

17,352 people committed suicide by firearm.

12,632 homicides were committed with firearms.

But no one ever talks about "reasonable restrictions" on your right to own a car, or outlaw a ladder because it has "no legitimate sporting purpose".

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s0120.pdf

 

[mrseffengee]

I'm glad that most of us are in agreement that it is not the gun that kills. A gun is a tool.

My fellow Vermonter, Axel, points out a great comparison regarding cars.

There are more deaths yearly because of car accidents than there are gun deaths. The gun deaths just get so sensationalized by the media, making it seem like there are more. There is this OMG mentality when it comes to guns. It has to stop. People need to educate themselves and others.

We have taught our kids firearm safety, not only because it is our responsibility as their parents but because we also want to pass down the legacies that are their history and the simple joy that can come from target shooting or hunting.

Have a great weekend!
~Mrs. Effengee

 

[dagger dog]

My father had terminal cancer and chose to end his life with a pistol, 2 co-workers one in 1980, and the lastest, a good freind just before Thanksgiving this year,took their own lives with shotguns.

I still have some issues with guilt. In retrospect I always have the feeeling I could have intervened and changed the out come.

 

[Narwhal]

Only one, an uncle, and it was self inflicted. Had it not been a firearm I'm sure it would've been drugs.

 

[theCloud]

I'm sorry for your losses. Every human being has something to contribute to the world.

In 2007:

44,945 people died in motor vehicle accidents.

22,631 people died in falls.

17,352 people committed suicide by firearm.

12,632 homicides were committed with firearms.

But no one ever talks about "reasonable restrictions" on your right to own a car, or outlaw a ladder because it has "no legitimate sporting purpose".

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s0120.pdf

Well I think the reason ppl don't like guns is that it's not necessary. A car you use every day and it's an acceptable risk in the eyes of society. A gun is a symbol of violence. So the guns have an image problem. And the power a gun gives to people can often draw in the wrong crowd that ends up on the news. Which then puts everybody here in a bad light.

But I suppose for everybody's sake it's easier to stereotype than to challenge your views on a topic... Imagine what kind of world that would be!

 

[Carl N. Brown]

I have heard it said that a gun amplifies the will of the user for good or bad.

Academic gun control supporters like Philip Cook see only the bad: ‘‘If you introduce a gun into a violent encounter, it increases the chance that someone will die.’’ I know four instances where female relatives produced guns when faced with male intruders or assaulters: the increased chance that someone might die (the intruders) led them to flee in two cases, be detained for arrest by responding police in another, or be held off while the woman escaped in the fourth.

I see a world without guns as one where the strong can run over the weak, the young thugs can brutalize the elderly, and the gangs can threaten the outnumbered or the isolated with impunity.

I know of two shooting suicides in my family (including in-laws) 1948-2010 which probably could have been done by other means. A friend who died in the Viet Nam War. Most other family deaths due to medical or vehicle accidents, no criminal "gun violence" that I know of. I have had two family deaths attributable to alcoholism, one when the county was legally "dry"--no faith in prohibition working to save those lives.

 

[M2 Carbine]

The wife, of a pilot at work, tried to shoot him with a 22.

Later the pilot bought his wife a 9mm.

Later when the pilot stopped to make a call from a pay phone the wife got out of the car and killed him with the 9mm. Then she called the Police to report what she did.


Yeah I know.
Everyone asked, If your wife tries to shoot you with a 22, why would you buy her a 9mm?