Several times. One time it was an AK 47 fifteen ft away. That was one pissed off Afghani! Good thing their aim sucks!
As a Region Manager I was visiting one of the bank branches in my zone when it was robbed. As ranking manager it was my duty to stand outside, wait for the police and let them know that the robber was gone and it was not a hostage situation. Since the cops had neither read our procedure manual nor looked up my profile on the bank web site, they elected to approach me with weapons drawn and aimed. A bit nerve wracking, it was, for both them and me.
Fortunately, 99.87% bank robbers are idiots and this one was quickly apprehended and all the cash found.
When I was nineteen, I had a job at a drive-through convenience store, where people could drive up and buy milk, eggs, bread and the like without getting out of their car. There was a small office that opened directly to the drive-thru, with a drop safe where we deposited the day’s receipts when we closed up. After closing one night, I was in the office preparing to deposit the cash, when the door banged open, and there was a cop with a semi-automatic pistol aimed at my face; the barrel looked to be about two inches in diameter. He thought we were robbing the place, as most of the lights were off. I was able to produce a paycheck stub from my wallet, and he relaxed. But it was an exciting evening, I can tell you.
False alarms in the vault had me covered by a suite of shotguns and M-16s on a coupla occasions, and once a German security goon thought I was a terrorist breaking into a radio site. He must have been yelling ‘hands up and don’t move’ because that’s what I did, and he didn’t shoot.
I used to take friends who had never shot to the range, so they could try my pistols and see what it was all about. I stopped after 2 friends (well, a friend and the wife of a friend) on different occasions took my loaded .357 magnum, fired a couple of shots, cocked back the hammer, thought better of it and (both of them on separate occasions) tried to hand me my loaded, cocked .357 magnum by pointing it at my abdomen from less than 1’ away with their fingers on the trigger. :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:
The second time was when I decided I wasn’t taking anyone to the range anymore.
Have also had one pointed at me in anger. Didn’t like that much either.
No. In fact apart from police officer’s holstered guns, I’ve only ever seen a loaded gun once. An acquaintance on a farm pulled out a rifle to shoot a groundhog. I was standing about three feet away beside him and was amazed at how loud it was. Like beyond the threshold of pain loud.
(I’m in Canada.)
Well, I *assumed *it was loaded. It was being pointed at me by one of the two young men who had followed me home from the 7-11 (a distance of one and a half blocks). They shouted at me to put my hands up when I was about ten feet from my front porch–the first I’d noticed them on the walk back. I whirled around and saw the men, but mostly I saw a gun. My hands went up, as instructed, and they left with my wallet.
I suppose it’s possible that the gun was unloaded, but that possibility did not really cross my mind at the time.
(“He who steals my purse steals trash”–there was a dollar bill inside it when I left for the store, but I spent it on envelopes. So they came away with very little of interest, even less once I canceled the credit cards.)
Once from an idiot playing around. His older brother smacked him upside the head and said that was the last time he got to hold it. Once a guy was waving a gun around at a lot of people including me, luckily he calmed down, don’t know if it was actually loaded.
The big one was a coke dealer who thought I might be a narc. Stuck a loaded pistol right up against my temple. I finished my bong hit then talked him down. I kept an eye on the news, he was in jail soon afterwards, coke dealing wasn’t the only thing they wanted him for.
Yes, I was working the front desk at a hotel in downtown Milwaukee when I was held up at gunpoint. It did not scar me for life or anything but I do think of it from time to time. I was very young, about 22.
Twice.
Second time, an angry hooker shot out the rear window of a car in which I was a passenger. I told the driver not to tease the damn hooker, but he was sure she’d flash us if we cruised past her just ONE more time…
The first time, a rancher of my acquaintance played a joke on me. He did not actually point the gun in my direction, but I had reason to think he might be angry, and I did not give him the chance, fleeing at top speed. He fired in the air a few times. I was quite sure he was trying to kill me.
There was another occasion, well after I grew up, in which I found myself surrounded by curious suspicious cops, but none of them actually drew their weapons, although several of them did in fact have their hands on them, ready to do so if I had a sudden attack of stupid. When they were satisfied that I wasn’t the guy they were looking for, the situation evaporated, but I don’t really recommend it for the faint of heart or the high of blood pressure…
Not with hostile intent, to the best of my knowledge. There were several training incidents in my career where things were heading that way very quickly before they were stopped verbally or by more direct intervention like grabbing the weapon as the muzzle swung my way. There was an incident that involved wandering in to the edges of the .50 caliber surface danger zone of a live range. Technically they wouldn’t have been pointing at me. They were shooting and bullets could have landed near me.
Passing through a security checkpoint near the border with Northern Ireland our car was under constant aim from a trooper in a bunker.
I assume it was loaded. I walked into an armed robbery once at a Blockbuster. Teach me to pay attention to shit.
I really could have gotten it - I’m sure they didn’t intend to shoot anybody but I surprised them. Instead they just ordered me onto the floor.
Out hiking in the back of beyond, and bullets came whirring past me. (Two separate occasions! Jeez!)
So, no, I didn’t actually see the gun pointed at me… But the bullets were flying in my direction.
(I hit the dirt, scrambled for cover, and exfiled via gulleys.)
Way back in the '60s I briefly lived in a commune that was frequented by the Hell’s Angels. One night a few of them showed up and were dropping acid. One of them pulled out a loaded gun and pointed it directly at my head, at a distance of about two inches. He was serious. Fortunately, one of the girls talked him down, and I made a VERY quick exit.
Yes, by a Houston police officer when I was 21. I was a passenger in a car driven by an idiot friend who thought it would be fun to turn and go the other way when the police signaled him to pull over.
Like G0sp3l, I still remember every detail of that revolver “staring” me in the face.
With the other things I remember you saying, you oughta make a “Panache’s counterculture adventures” thread.
My older brother shot me in the leg with a rental .22 at his gun range. There was no malice, just poor gun handling skills.
I did tease him about it for the rest of his life. The last time he called me, I was outside and it took me a bit of time to get to the phone. I said “Sorry it took me so long to answer, I had to limp to the phone.”
A couple times - at least three (maybe as much as five depending on your definition) with intent to kill or cause serious bodily injury; and I’m still here to type about it. So somewhere along the path of life I must have done something right. Or very very wrong.
I was 18, baby sitting for 2 kids 11 and 13 overnight, the 11 year old boy, unbeknownst to me, was taking a lot of shit from some of the neighborhood kids about being a bedwetter, things escalated quickly and he pulled a shotgun on me when I tried to step in and calm the situation. I called in a neighborhood mom who defused the situation, blessedly. I was totally unprepared for this, and am so grateful she was able to step in.