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Just got home seconds ago from an incident minutes ago, that was the quintessential American experience.
We were in the car after dinner and a pint in our local area, When I hear a series of fireworks going off almost immediately behind us, its only when I see the vendors and customers at the food stalls across the junction running and hiding that I realize those fireworks are gunfire. I tell the wife to drive, dont care, just drive, a guy running at full speed runs out in front of us, he doesnt stop, he doesnt slow down,, I assume he was either the target or associated with the target, although I suppose he could be the shooter. Its odd how it just happens, out of nowhere, how close the lines are between night out and danger, how just turning the corner people are getting about their lives as if nothing has happened, the bus continues on its slow way, with us stuck behind it, caught between panic and adherence to normal rules and behavior. My wife is a nurse, and I am glad our child was with us as she knew she could not return to help anyone injured and risk them, if our child was not with us, I know she would have turned around. |
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Several years ago now, we were driving home, not through the best part of town, when we saw blue lights ahead. With the benefits of hindsight we should have stopped and turned around, but didn't. When I reached the blue lights, two police cars were entirely blocking the road, but there was no sign of the officers. Then we realized that they were behind us, arms drawn, two with pistols, one with a shotgun raised to his shoulder, surrounding someone they were trying to arrest. :eek: So going back was inadvisable and going forwards wasn't possible. Luckily I was able to drive over the curb to one side, across the sidewalk, around a corner, and leave the area, quickly! Thankfully we never heard gunfire that night, but I was prohibited from taking that route through town at night again. Mrs P won't drive that way during daylight either.
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30 year old found by police with a gun shot to knee, he is being being uncooperative according to the police
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Originally Posted by kimilseung
(Post 12809969)
Just got home seconds ago from an incident minutes ago, that was the quintessential American experience.
We were in the car after dinner and a pint in our local area, When I hear a series of fireworks going off almost immediately behind us, its only when I see the vendors and customers at the food stalls across the junction running and hiding that I realize those fireworks are gunfire. I tell the wife to drive, dont care, just drive, a guy running at full speed runs out in front of us, he doesnt stop, he doesnt slow down,, I assume he was either the target or associated with the target, although I suppose he could be the shooter. Its odd how it just happens, out of nowhere, how close the lines are between night out and danger, how just turning the corner people are getting about their lives as if nothing has happened, the bus continues on its slow way, with us stuck behind it, caught between panic and adherence to normal rules and behavior. My wife is a nurse, and I am glad our child was with us as she knew she could not return to help anyone injured and risk them, if our child was not with us, I know she would have turned around. |
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Terrible This gun business would put me off the US.
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I was tempted to blame the USA, then remembered my mum saw a shooting, while she was waiting for the bus, in Southport, two years ago.
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Originally Posted by Pulaski
(Post 12809981)
Several years ago now, we were driving home, not through the best part of town, when we saw blue lights ahead. With the benefits of hindsight we should have stopped and turned around, but didn't. When I reached the blue lights, two police cars were entirely blocking the road, but there was no sign of the officers. Then we realized that they were behind us, arms drawn, two with pistols, one with a shotgun raised to his shoulder, surrounding someone they were trying to arrest. :eek: So going back was inadvisable and going forwards wasn't possible. Luckily I was able to drive over the curb to one side, across the sidewalk, around a corner, and leave the area, quickly! Thankfully we never heard gunfire that night, but I was prohibited from taking that route through town at night again. Mrs P won't drive that way during daylight either.
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I see cops going about their business all the time, but usually if they think there's a chance of shooting they'll block the road and alley with police cars, sometimes for a 2 block radius, and a couple of times I've seen the SWAT team do their thing. The next day it'll be in the paper, escapee arrested, robbers caught, meth, guns and cash seized, that sort of thing. When I hear shooting it's almost always the gang-bangers trying to kill each other or shooting into each other's houses. The police here don't get in many gunfights.
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Originally Posted by kimilseung
(Post 12809969)
Just got home seconds ago from an incident minutes ago, that was the quintessential American experience.
We were in the car after dinner and a pint in our local area, When I hear a series of fireworks going off almost immediately behind us, its only when I see the vendors and customers at the food stalls across the junction running and hiding that I realize those fireworks are gunfire. I tell the wife to drive, dont care, just drive, a guy running at full speed runs out in front of us, he doesnt stop, he doesnt slow down,, I assume he was either the target or associated with the target, although I suppose he could be the shooter. Its odd how it just happens, out of nowhere, how close the lines are between night out and danger, how just turning the corner people are getting about their lives as if nothing has happened, the bus continues on its slow way, with us stuck behind it, caught between panic and adherence to normal rules and behavior. My wife is a nurse, and I am glad our child was with us as she knew she could not return to help anyone injured and risk them, if our child was not with us, I know she would have turned around. I hate to hear this. Glad you are all safe and ok. |
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Shooting doesn't even make the city newspaper web pages, just the neighborhood blogs.
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Scary.
I had a shooting in the neighborhood I grew up in once, an out of control party some teens had while their parents were out of town, some rival gang members showed up and a shoot out occurred, only injuries were other gangsters but our house was hit by one bullet, my dad found the whole in the wall in the morning, luckily it was about 12" high so it missed me. I had a gang banger pull a gun out on me on the train in San Diego back in 2010, I worked graveyards and the route I had to take to get downtown goes through some questionable areas, at the end of the line not far from the border with Mexico there is a prison, when the prison releases people they do it at night and drop them off at the train station, and of course some are met by their gang banger friends, after that I refused to take the train again after dark, chose the bus instead even though it took double the time. The last few nights someone has been shooting a gun off in our area, into the air, clearly not fireworks, and the police always respond, they shoot the gun 1-2 times and then nothing, but still scares the life from me. |
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Sorry you had such a scary experience kimilseung.
Not at all condoning gun use in the USA but this report from pbs.org may be somewhat reassuring. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/...the-u-s-stands For this latest report, researchers pulled data about 195 nations and territories, using nearly 2,900 different sources — a median of nine different datasets per nation. The study looks at data from 1990 to 2016, and was largely based on death certificate reports, Murray said. In the United States, 37,200 people died as a result of overall gun use in 2016, the second highest number worldwide. But when it comes to gun deaths per capita, the U.S. ranks 20th, at a rate of 10.6 per 100,000 deaths — putting it on par with the Dominican Republic. Many places with high gun death rates had fewer deaths than the U.S. because of smaller populations. For instance, El Salvador produced the highest combined gun death rate of 39.2 per 100,000 deaths, but recorded 2,500 deaths overall. When it comes to gun-related suicides, Greenland has a higher rate than the U.S. — 22 per 100,000 deaths — but 11 deaths overall. |
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I don't know if it is all that reassuring to know that the US is slightly safer than most of the countries it destabilised in the last century. The list is mostly South America, the US is the only developed country in the top 20.
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Originally Posted by petitefrancaise
(Post 12811106)
Sorry you had such a scary experience kimilseung.
Not at all condoning gun use in the USA but this report from pbs.org may be somewhat reassuring. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/...the-u-s-stands "suicides linked to guns occurred in the U.S. at a rate of 6.4 per 100,000 deaths — a total of 23,800 people — the second highest rate worldwide." |
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Originally Posted by Jsmth321
(Post 12811298)
And of the 37,200 gun deaths in the US, 23,800 of them were suicides.
"suicides linked to guns occurred in the U.S. at a rate of 6.4 per 100,000 deaths — a total of 23,800 people — the second highest rate worldwide." |
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