-- Posted by ixi at 10:45 am on May 26, 2008 I grew up around guns, my step father has always had a few and it was just pretty common for me to be around them.  He was always safe though, as far as I know they were never loaded in the house with me. I also live in Phoenix, and if you don't know this, Phoenix has terrible gang problems.  People do drive-bys all the time, and seriously, you always hear about people getting shot. In addition to that, at least two people in my family have been killed by guns.  One was a horrible almost murder/suicide in like the late 80's, and the other was when my cousin shot and killed himself.  I have ALWAYS associated guns with death and murder. So last night I was with the person I'm dating and a few of his friends, and they had all been drinking a little bit, except I wasn't so I could drive home.  Around midnight, we went across the street to pick up his friends gun; the person I'm dating went inside, grabbed it, and brought it out.  and then accidentally shot it about a foot away from me into the garage door because his stupid fucking friend never bothered to tell him the gun was loaded. His neighbors thought it was hilarious, but all last night and even this morning I'm incredibly freaked out bu the whole thing.  So many bad things could have happened.  For some reason no one called the cops for shots fired, which proves how ghetto Phoenix can be because people are sort of used to hearing that.  He could have shot any of his friends OR me.  The bullet could have gone in his house. It was a shotgun, by the way. I know this is really long, but I feel like I overreacted.  He kissed me goodnight and went inside, but he was obviously in a horrible mood, so I called my friend who came and got me because I was really crying and couldn't drive home. I don't know, what do you think about the whole thing?  It just makes me even more scared of guns, I think I had like a panic attack or something. -- Posted by Disposition at 11:02 am on May 26, 2008 That sounds really scary. I don't think you overreacted about it. Obviously, guns are something that really frightens you, and when the guy you were with accidentally shot it near you... I'm sure anyone else would have been just as frightened in the same situation. I'm not going to try pussy-foot around your fear. I'd say it's a very legitimate thing to be afraid of. Because of the environment you're in, you're around guns a lot. Guns are very dangerous if the people handling them aren't in the best state of mind. But this situation could teach you a really important lesson about carrying weapons and that sort of thing while one is drunk, and thankfully, you didn't get hurt. Would it make you feel better to call the guy you were with and talk about what happened? Oh, and one more thing... Maybe you could take your fear and turn it into something really productive. Like taking measures to talk to your friends about not using or being around guns when they're intoxicated and the like... I'm sorry you had to go through something really scary like that. For now, just try to breathe and stay calm about it. Remember how lucky it is that no one got hurt because of your friend's negligence with the gun. Good luck. :] -- Posted by ixi at 4:52 pm on May 26, 2008 We talked a little bit about it today, and I'm about to go over to his house, so I imagine we'll talk about it some more. I think it was really stupid of them to be anywhere near guns while they were all drinking, giving it back to the friend could have waited til morning.  It was messed up of the friend to ask his friend to keep it for him without mentioning it was loaded, and it was dumb of him to be waving it around and pulling the trigger regardless of it being loaded.  The whole thing was just stupid and never should have happened if people were even a tiny bit responsible.  Owning guns is a huge responsibility, I don't even understand how anyone could take that lightly.