what are your experiences with a firearm taking a life.

G

GUNSNGOLD

New member
im not military or battle/combat proven, just a civilian that has seen firearms take a few lives. all when i was growing up before the age of 18

when i was around 7 or 8 years old a biker guy shot himself in the head with a shotgun, i used to play with his kid and they lived right across the street.

when i was 12 or 13 a very good friend picked the trigger lock on his fathers revolver and shot himself in the head, we never knew if he had intended to commit suicide or not.

and when i was in high school a friends father was killed in the line of duty in our city.

this all just dawned on me because of a discussion on another forum about how useless a magazine disconnect saftey is, if firearms had MDS back when i was growing up my friend may not have shot himself.
 
this all just dawned on me because of a discussion on another forum about how useless a magazine disconnect saftey is, if firearms had MDS back when i was growing up my friend may not have shot himself.
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I thought your friend picked the trigger lock on a revolver, which by definition can't have a magazine disconnect safety.
 
if firearms had MDS back when i was growing up my friend may not have shot himself.
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Might have also been referring to similar safety features. Trigger locks aren't terribly hard to "pick," I can get mine with a bent paperclip. But I also don't use them - no kids & no one in the house who I would need to worry about getting a hold of them.

But as much fun as target practice might be, or spending a day at the range with friends and family, or competing in organized events. The sport of shooting utilizes a tool, which the primary purpose of is to cause damage, whether to a paper plate or to another organism.
 
I have known people who have been killed or who have committed suicide with firearms but my worst experience happened about two years ago when my ex-girlfriend's stepfather committed suicide with a shotgun and, in an attempt to spare the family any further grief, I accepted the task of cleaning up the aftermath.

He was a great man and one of my best friends.
Rest in peace, John H. Kuhn III.
 
Quite a few years ago I was standing out side a house when an officer shot and killed a guy for not putting his knife down. He had just tried to kill his girl friend with the knife. My self and one other paramedic went in to see him while two others attended to the girl. She was the only one we took to the hospital. I worked for a private service and it was pretty un-nerving when the county guys are running for their vests and my partner and I are going well I hope it don't get worse and if it does I hope this fiberglass ambulance at least sloes it down. That is when I learned not to trust a county unit and follow them in. from then on I waited till I was cleared by PD though dispatch.
 
what are your experiences with a firearm taking a life
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I've never known a firearm to take a life.

I have known a couple of times when a person has used a firearm to take a life.

Years ago my Aunt shot her husband, my Uncle of course, then turned the gun on herself.

Then I guess 10-15 years later, my wifes Uncle shot his wife, her aunt, then turned the gun on himself.

I found that somewhat ironic.

A fellow I used to work with was shot and killed in a hunting accident.
 
what are your experiences with a firearm taking a life
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Personally, never.

But one town over, a firearm just up and started shooting. He ran out of boolits and ran over and grabbed a knife. He was trying to cut everybody until somebody showed up with a cutting torch and cut him in two.
 
I grew up in a small town in West Virginia, although it was way too big to actually know everyone. We then moved to the country in the next county when I still in high school. I went to college in another part of the state. Between those three places, I personally knew six people who were killed with guns. One was killed in her sleep in bed at home by her husband's girlfriend. I was related to three of those people.

I never knew anyone who had defended themselves with a gun and I never knew anyone who was killed with a rock, a brick, a sharp stick or a 2x4. I did know someone, however, killed with a razor and I was related to him, too.
 
I disagree with the entire premis of the original post. I wonder if ANYONE would ever talk about a rope taking someone's life or a bottle of bills or an ice pick, or any other inanimate object,

If a person is determined to kill themselves there is no shortage of ways to do it, and guns aren't at the top of the list.
 
I disagree with the entire premis of the original post. I wonder if ANYONE would ever talk about a rope taking someone's life or a bottle of bills or an ice pick, or any other inanimate object,

If a person is determined to kill themselves there is no shortage of ways to do it, and guns aren't at the top of the list.
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I don't think anyone here is insinuating that "guns are bad" or "guns kill people".
I think maybe you're misinterpretting the author's intentions.
 
Join the military (Army or Marines) and you will get a close and personal insight into what it is to either kill with a firearm or see one of your buddies get killed. My heart goes out to the current veterans that have done multiple tours. I did one tour in Vietnam and have been suffering with PTSD, flashbacks, and nightmares for years.

Killing humans or watching one get killed is a life altering experience that you would rather not experience.
 
In 1972, a distant cousin of mine was shot and killed leaving his own bachelor party in Manhattan. Undertakers did a less than adequate job in concealing the wound as the .22 entry wound was still visible through the makeup next to his nose.

I've also known store keepers who were shot and killed by robbers over the years: Three at a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Oceanside NY, the manager of a shoe store in Rockville Centre New York and the manager of Continental Arms, in Manhattan, who attempted to defend himself with a .25 auto that malfunctioned after one round. Then, there was the owner of a jewelry store in the Woolworth Building, Manhattan NY, where I bought jewelry for my soon-to-be-wife. There were a few others but I can't remember them for the moment.
 
Join the military (Army or Marines) and you will get a close and personal insight into what it is to either kill with a firearm or see one of your buddies get killed.
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Although the Army and Marines have a far more likelihood of seeing someone they know shot/killed by gun fire, the other branches of the military also have a chance to encounter it also.

I was in the Air Force. I have a nice little hole in my leg. I hope like heck the guy responsible for it has a much bigger hole in his body.

When I worked mortuary affairs, I handled a few cases where the deceased was Active Duty Air Force.

The Brotherhood of Arms is called by many different names, crosses many boundaries and affects many people.
 
The same subject always comes up in this connection, how you can be killed with anything. Any inanimate object or poison. Yet I've known several people who were killed, as I mentioned, but none who were killed with rocks, hatpins, pillows, bats, 2x4s, paperweights, ashtrays, candlesticks or anything like that. To suggest that guns and knives (and razors) are no worse than other inanimate objects is pushing your credibility.
 
If you're only going to talk about how the OP worded the title, don't post.

As far as that thing called the topic, which is what we're supposed to talk about, I have little substantive experience with it. I've had people I know that are involved, but never me personally.

But hey, I'm young. There's still time.
 
I think this discussion cuts to the heart of the gun control debate.

Do guns take lives?

Absolutely not. No more than Amonia Nitrate and fuel oil does or a small machined copper disc does (EFP)

If guns take lives than all guns should be banned, just like if penises rape a woman, no man should be allowed to keep his.

In my most recent tour in Iraq I didn't see a single US casualty from gunfire.

Every death or injury we had was from IEDs and crashes. Did the MRAP that rolled over take a life? Was the copper disc and plastique cause my injury? Is the homemade pressure plate responsible for my limp and scars?

No.

Deaths and injuries are NOT caused by inanimate objects, and if I could have brought home a war trophy I would have wanted it as a reminder of my buddies there that made it back unscathed, not because we took fire from someone carrying it.
 
One of my cousins (oddly enough, he was an identical twin...) died in a hunting accident back in the mid 90's.

He was hunting alone and was going over a fence and somehow the gun caught on something and went off killing him. I was young so I do not remember all of the details but it was pretty sad.

That is just another reason to observe gun safety AT ALL TIMES. No shortcuts.
 
About 9 years ago my 22 year old niece acquired a .357, lay in her bed at her parents' house with a pillow over her face and fired a JHP through the pillow.
Closed casket. Very sad.
 
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