I'm a reasonably intelligent, polite, level-headed person in real life, and I don't generally take on occupations with any inherent risk of violence. In spite of this, I was recently witness to my second on-the-job shooting.

The first time, it was a couple of people in a fight outside of the now defunct Katmandu on Hillsborough Street. At the time I was working security, so I guess there was some "violence" that came with the job, but up until the guy pulled out his shooter it had never gotten beyond escorting incoherent drunks out of the bar and into a cab.

So I quit that job. Ten dollars an hour ain't enough for me to risk getting shot. Flash forward a few years to the other day. Once again, I am working for $10/hr as a general-purpose lackey at an event center. At the time I was directing traffic. My boss, not far away, was trying to tell a person he could not go onto the property. The guy ignored him. My boss pulled out a pistol and fired it into the ground.

Now, it was definitely into the ground, and my suspicion is that it was a blank, just to get attention. But I gotta hand it to the interloper; he didn't even turn around. I was a hundred feet away and still almost shit my pants just at the sound. He just said, "You and I both know you aren't going to shoot me." Which was true, although my boss did tackle him (which struck me as something he should have tried before drawing his gun, but whatever).

Tomorrow I go to interview for a job stocking shelves at a Target (shit work for a guy with a Master's degree, but I just need a few ducats between now and the Peace Corps deployment). I predict that within the month I will be shot in a robbery.

[/verbiage]

[Edited on November 1, 2011 at 2:00 AM. Reason : ]

11/1/2011 1:59:26 AM

I read this, but I have no response

11/1/2011 2:20:29 AM

How about, glad you're okay.

11/1/2011 2:20:56 AM

11/1/2011 2:29:05 AM

::shrug:: I thought it was mildly interesting, I guess America really is the Wild West and nobody is even phased by this shit anymore.

11/1/2011 2:32:49 AM

I saw 2 broads get TASER'd yesterday

11/1/2011 2:36:45 AM

When you restrict people's freedoms, there comes a point where people just don't give a shit anymore.

11/1/2011 4:37:21 AM

the landlord where my company's office is located prevents carry in their buildings. pretty fucking stupid if you ask me. too many companies disarm law abiding people only to allow criminals to have their way

11/1/2011 7:27:40 AM

I cant carry with my job, but then again, I don't feel the need to.


Did your boss get in any sort of trouble for discharging his weapon?

11/1/2011 7:30:28 AM

the banned weapons list at my work reads like a middle school orientation booklet. we can't have dirks, daggers, stick canes, throwing stars, etc. it's bullshit.

11/1/2011 8:40:26 AM

The whole point of throwing stars is that no one knows that you're carrying them until WHAM!

11/1/2011 8:45:56 AM

During my first couple of summers in undergrad I worked at an office, pretty much just hanging out, answering the phone and posting on tww . It was just a small company, two other employees and my boss. My boss and the other coworkers were hardly in the office but one day both the other two employees came in and were working in their little room. At some point this other man came into the office and went into the room that the other guys were in and shut the door. It was very unusual, usually I sat in the building by myself for hours. Then all of a sudden there was a lot of yelling and things being moved around. I started getting nervous. One of my coworkers came out and went out of the building then came back in and came to my office door and told me to shut the door for awhile, he then showed me his gun and said that it was all right. He went back into the room.

I grabbed my purse and left. I got in my car and called my boss. I was super upset. I had never, ever seen a real gun before. I told my boss I quit, but he calmed me down. Nothing bad happened, no one was shot after I left. My coworker who had the gun was fired. Apparently the stranger who came was the husband of a woman who said she was sleeping with one of the coworkers.

That was a Thursday, I took Friday off and came back in that Monday and my computer screen was still showing the last thread I was reading.

11/1/2011 8:56:48 AM

That's cool you're doing Peace Corp, GrumpyGOP. Where are they sending you?

11/1/2011 9:10:04 AM

I don't work in Durham

11/1/2011 9:14:16 AM

Handguns are effective hunting tools.

I'm Krallum and I approved this message

11/1/2011 9:14:35 AM

I get to shoot things at work...

11/1/2011 9:15:40 AM

Common denominator?

No, I'm kidding. Where are they sending you for your PC deployment? Might wanna invest in some Kevlar.

11/1/2011 10:50:18 AM

Quote :

"he then showed me his gun and said that it was all right. ... I was super upset. I had never, ever seen a real gun before. I told my boss I quit,"

Haha that wasn't the response he anticipated. I think most lawyers end up with a gun in their face at some point. It comes with the territory of being a professional asshole.

11/1/2011 10:57:21 AM

Anyone that would pull out a gun and fire it into the ground is a dumbass. Anyone who knows the first thing about firearms/self defense is that you only pull your gun if you intend to use it and you only shoot to kill.

11/1/2011 10:58:03 AM

Screw self defense, that's the first safety rule of any weapon. Never point it at something you don't want to die.

11/1/2011 11:03:43 AM

^ Last I checked, the ground was generally immune to death.

11/1/2011 12:21:35 PM

Quote :

"the landlord where my company's office is located prevents carry in their buildings. pretty fucking stupid if you ask me. too many companies disarm law abiding people only to allow criminals to have their way"

The only landlords who prevent carry are those with metal detectors and searches.

11/1/2011 12:49:40 PM

Quote :

"That's cool you're doing Peace Corp, GrumpyGOP. Where are they sending you?"

All they've said so far is "Central/South America," I'll know specifically after the medical stuff gets sent in and I am officially invited.

Quote :

"Did your boss get in any sort of trouble for discharging his weapon?"

Nope. Which is interesting, because the place was crawling with police. I'd have at least expected one of them to, you know, show up and ask what was going on. What's crazy to me is that everyone involved was so nonchalant -- the people whose attention it was supposed to grab kept walking like nothing had happened, and after my boss tackled them and kicked them out, he went right back to directing traffic for all the world like that altercation was normal.

11/1/2011 12:54:47 PM

Quote :

"Anyone that would pull out a gun and fire it into the ground is a dumbass. Anyone who knows the first thing about firearms/self defense is that you only pull your gun if you intend to use it and you only shoot to kill."

+1

11/1/2011 12:56:42 PM

I really find it weird that no actions were taken. Firing a weapon inside of city limits is a definite no no, especially if being used to "scare" someone

Glad he isnt in any trouble, but I know if that were me, even if it were to scare off a puppy murdering rapist, I would still get in trouble

11/1/2011 1:01:29 PM

Quote :

"That was a Thursday, I took Friday off and came back in that Monday and my computer screen was still showing the last thread I was reading."

Ahah. That's my worst fear. That I'll forget and leave TWW and it's something shameful. I don't think anyone I work with would understand TWW...

Also, old boss used to keep a gun in his desk. We had an office code word, which meant boss would come in ready to fire. I don't think anyone ever used it, but there were a few close calls. What ^^^^^^^ said about lawyers and pissed off clients.

Now, current employer doesn't allow guns on the site. I don't know if that includes parking lot. I haven't asked, and it's not in the handbook. So, I just assume it doesn't.

11/1/2011 1:04:25 PM

He's not in a city, it's pretty much the middle of nowhere.

Quote :

"Anyone who knows the first thing about firearms/self defense is that you only pull your gun if you intend to use it and you only shoot to kill.""

My boss is an...eccentric sort, rabidly libertarian to the point of anarchism, but he has made his life's work figuring out ways to skirt past the spirit of the law by following it to the letter in unconventional ways. It wouldn't surprise me in the least to find out that he had done research and found out that there is some obscure loophole that makes what he did legal.

11/1/2011 1:06:13 PM

come on duke, i wanna hear about the chicks getting tasered

11/1/2011 1:22:13 PM

I've always wanted to join the peace corps

11/1/2011 1:48:18 PM

yeah, shooting gun into ground is a dumbass move, anywhere, anytime - at that point the situation gets even more harry (psychologically). Not to mention that the particular situation didnt merit the use of a gun.


what's the deal with drawing a gun but not pointing it at someone (when you point a gun at someone, it's assault with a deadly weapon, iirc)?

11/1/2011 1:56:07 PM

Quote :

"you only shoot to kill"

11/1/2011 2:46:12 PM

^What's about that? You only shoot at someone if you intend to kill that someone. You don't shoot to "blow the gun out of their hand" or "scare them" or any shit like that, that's just plain ridiculous and ignorant.

11/1/2011 3:28:13 PM

I guess that depends on the person holding the gun doesn't it?

11/1/2011 3:30:12 PM

No, it doesn't. Anything else is, as I said, ridiculous and ignorant.

11/1/2011 3:31:10 PM

For those who aren't fully in the loop, you should look into the information covered in your standard Carry Concealed Permit class.

you shoot to kill (neutralize the situation), and you only do so if you feel your life is in danger.

11/1/2011 3:35:55 PM

Oh, is that what you think?

11/1/2011 3:40:31 PM

good enough for me

11/1/2011 3:43:57 PM

Well just cause you shoot someone in self defense doesnt mean your not going to get charged with awadwitk

11/1/2011 3:45:01 PM

^the argument there is:


rather be dead


or

rather be alive and charged?

11/1/2011 3:46:36 PM

in NC isnt it "life in danger" / "about to be sexually assualted" / "defending your family from these two things?"

shoot to kill, that is.

11/1/2011 3:47:01 PM

^yes.




[Edited on November 1, 2011 at 3:49 PM. Reason : "when it is necessary to utilize lethal force" ]

11/1/2011 3:48:18 PM

and you cant use any crazy shit like a bayonet or something-

jury is just gonna think your effin crazy then.

i wonder if they get peeved for shooting someone with a real old-ass gun?

11/1/2011 3:49:14 PM

Look up the castle law

11/1/2011 3:51:12 PM

Telling people they have to kill a person coming at them if they feel their life is in danger is definitely

If you were fighting with your fists do you have to kill the person then? Do you have to punch them repeatedly in the throat, jam your thumbs into their eyes, or can you just subdue/disable them to if you are able?

Just get the person to the ground and subdue them until the authorities come (you are probably not fighting Michael Myers), a bullet should definitely be able help you with that. If you feel like you need to be shooting to kill any threat to your life you are probably owning that gun for the wrong reason in the first place.

11/1/2011 3:52:08 PM

i think your life has to obviously be in danger.

not just because your escared.

or youre about to obviously be raped.

cant hesitate if these things are plain.

[Edited on November 1, 2011 at 3:55 PM. Reason : e]

11/1/2011 3:54:15 PM

fist fights do not constitute the use of deadly force, so your argument is not valid.

however, I'm sure at 5'-6" and 150# I will be able to subdue a 250# 6-Footer who's pounding my head into a bloody pulp...

11/1/2011 3:54:54 PM

could someone use deadly force to save you in that situation?

would they have to be family to defend you in that way?

[Edited on November 1, 2011 at 3:56 PM. Reason : -]

11/1/2011 3:55:54 PM

That particular situation is where it gets ultimately hairy. I dont know the right answer.

11/1/2011 3:57:42 PM

^^^^ True. If you look up and a ninja is falling from a tree branch about to knife your throat then by all means aim for the face. I wonder how many encounters where a gun is drawn are situations where the person drawing is definitely going to die in a matter of seconds.

[Edited on November 1, 2011 at 3:58 PM. Reason : carrots]

11/1/2011 3:57:46 PM

carets

11/1/2011 3:59:10 PM