Gun shots out my window, AGAIN

[BainsBane]

Someone just drove by and unloaded their gun on the street outside my window. This is the fourth time in the past 18 months I've had to call 911 about gun fire. It seems to be more frequent, and 911 seemed less concerned than the other times. One time they unloaded a bunch of rounds into an apartment building. I'm not going to my window to see who or what was shot. I'm not suicidal. I hope they send the police to check it out. This being Minneapolis, you never know. We have one of the worst police departments in the country.

So you gun enthusiasts who live in small towns and rural areas, understand this is how we in the inner city experience guns.

[FrodosPet]

1. You never get used to it

Most of the time it is fireworks. Sometimes cars backfiring. But there is a certain rhythm and crack of the traveling bullet(s) that tells you when it is gunfire.

[BainsBane]

4. I don't think so

I've gotten so I can tell the difference. This was eight to ten shots.

[FrodosPet]

6. Be safe

Hopefully someday people will not have to live in these conditions.

[BainsBane]

8. the cops have come

So that's good. Yes, that would be nice. Our murder rate has gone down a lot. They used to call us Murderopolis.

[FrodosPet]

15. I'm less than two miles from Detroit

Alas, they STILL call it "The Murder City" with good reason.

[backwoodsbob]

23. which direction from Murder City?

used to live just west of Telegraph off Cherry Hill.

LOVE the area.Would move back today if the wife wasn't so scared of the area.

[FrodosPet]

36. North, in Southfield.

Which nowadays seems barely any better than Detroit when it comes to crime. My neighbor was killed by an ex-boyfriend two years ago, and my co-worker's wife was killed in a Southfield nightclub when it was shot up by some sh*tstain mad over being bounced.

Recently, there have been several other high profile murders and shootouts in Southfield as well.

South side Warren, Royal Oak Township, and Hazel Park also have some rough reputations. And then there is Pontiac, the city I grew up in, which has been a scary place almost as long as I've been alive.

But none of it is as depressing as Brightmoor, near 5 Mile (aka Fenkell) and Lahser, where it seems 1 out of 3 houses is a charred ruin.

[Warpy]

34. One of your neighbors has likely pissed off a drug dealer

Most of the gunfire in my 'hood are pitched battles between cars one street over or drunks firing into the air on holidays.

My city reflexes are good: turn out the lights, sit on the floor, and wait for the punks to go away.

Some neighborhoods are bad enough for this that they put the kids to sleep in the bathtub to keep them safe.

And yes, this is how city people experience guns. This is why we want fewer of them out there with liability insurance required plus taxes on ammo. Having everything the NRA's way is not working for anybody but the jokers who are so frightened of life that they think they need a home arsenal.

Fuck 'em. And fuck guns.

[OneGrassRoot]

2. I'm sorry.

I have nothing of value to say but wanted to acknowledge your post and the situation and say I'm sorry you and others have to live with such violence and that general environment.

It's so unnecessary.

[BainsBane]

3. Thank you

[Warren DeMontague]

5. Oy vey.

Stay safe.

[BainsBane]

7. Yep, cops did come

They are down the block. Staying safe is why I don't go look out windows, especially at night when my lights are on and the shooters can see me better than I see can see them.

[Warren DeMontague]

9. sigh.

that -really- sucks.

I rode out the Bush I recession in a fairly crappy urban neighborhood. There were elements of excitement to it I vaguely miss, but that sort of thing is certainly not one of them.

[BainsBane]

11. This really isn't that crappy of a neighborhood

exactly. There are many far worse in the city. It does border against a busy street with a lot of apt buildings though. So they generally drive down the busy street and shoot out of the car. The cops must have found something a couple of blocks down (the direction I heard the car drive after the shots) since they've been there a while.

[Warren DeMontague]

12. Hope they got 'em.

[BainsBane]

22. They shot up my car!

Which now has two bullet holes. They also shot up other cars along the street, evidently while trying to kill someone who was running. Fortunately no one was hurt.

[Warren DeMontague]

26. Oh, Jeez. That SUCKS.

Sorry to hear that. That really, really sucks.

Like you said, at least no one was hurt. But ....erg.

[graham4anything]

10. Reinterpret the 2nd and ban all bullets from individuals on the street.It takes ONE vote.

One little bitty itty vote and the NRA and bullets can be gone forever.

and ever and ever and ever and ever.

Reclassify the NRA as a terror org, audit them and follow the money trail.

[FrodosPet]

17. Prohibition never stopped drugs or alcohol

As easy as it is to make guns and ammo, why would prohibition work on them?

I suppose the point is to reduce, as opposed to eliminate. What worries me is, how far towards a police state are we willing to go in the quest for safety?

Please note: I am not saying this as a gun lover. As I have pointed out before, I've seen first hand the effects of gun violence. From the deaths of close friends, neighbors, and the wife of a co-worker, to sitting in a storefront office and staring at the spots where I know people have been killed, gun violence has affected me personally. I am just coming from the perspective of opposition to a police state, regardless of how "benevolent" that police state may attempt to be.

[graham4anything]

18. I don't belive in conspiracy theories, especially those talking about a "police state"

especially whilst debating on a world wide read public board

reinterpret the 2nd, then there is no NRA and no NRA blackmail and no guns in the street.

get rid of all bullets, and then there are no more gun deaths. 100% workable.

end of my discussion.

[beevul]

35. You'd have to do more than reinterpret the 2nd...

You'd also have to reinterpret the 1st - to get rid of the nra.

You on board with that too?

[Warren DeMontague]

27. We dismantled the bill of rights, particularly the 4th amendment, to stop pot smoking.

I think to hyperventilate about a "police state" at this point over something like gun regulations, is ridiculous. The Union can survive people having their access to firearms restricted.

[FrodosPet]

37. How has that "Stop pot smoking" thing been working for them?

Prohibition does not work. It just creates black markets.

Changing people's hearts, their attitudes and motivations, their peer pressures, and their anger levels seems like it would be far more effective than increasing even further the number of young African American males being stopped and searched and incarcerated by the police.

[Warren DeMontague]

41. It hasn't. But it's ridiculous to imagine that we can't regulate firearms tighter than we do now.

And the hyperbole from the pro-2A people smacks of disingenuousness. For supposedly totally meaningless laws that would have no effect whatsoever- like, say, limits on magazine capacity, or a renewed AWB- they sure do seem awfully worked up about them.

[BainsBane]

42. so true

quite the contradiction, isn't it?

[In_The_Wind]

13. I'm really sorry you have to live in fear.

[BainsBane]

14. not always

but tonight I'm scared. I won't lie. Thank you.

[In_The_Wind]

16. Twice I lived in neighborhoods where I heard gunfire on the weekends.

The fact that I own a gun didn't make me feel any safer.

I remember when people would fire into the air not thinking about where the bullet would fall. People do stupid things with guns sometimes.
I hope no one was hurt!

[BainsBane]

21. Turns out they shot up my car

and several others along the street, while trying to shoot a person. Luckily no one was hurt.

[In_The_Wind]

44. Is your car able to be driven? I'm really glad no one was hurt!

[geckosfeet]

19. I am sorry for your situation. Living with crime sucks.

Where I live, I hear gunfire every weekend, less in the winter. There is an outdoor range about a mile away, and my house is on higher ground and the sound travels. But aside from the noise I don't worry much about the shooters. Very low crime suburban area. Over the years it's gotten so that I hardly notice the noise. I remember when I first moved in I was very freaked out by the noise. Now I make half-hearted attempts at guessing what kind of firearm is being fired by the sound....

[femmocrat]

20. I can sympathize,but the rural areas are not necessarily safer.

We are surrounded by rednecks with guns. We hear ka-BOOM, ka-POW from dawn to dusk. It doesn't matter if or what varmint season it is. They shoot at groundhogs, squirrels, styrofoam deer, birds, paper targets on bales of hay and road signs.

My husband wears a fluorescent orange hat and vest just to walk the dog on our rural road. One of our dogs won't go outside to relieve herself. We have lived here a long time and it has gotten much worse over the years.

In addition, we live about a mile from a gun club so we hear pop-pop-pop when they are having their ham shoots or whatever the hell they do down there.

This does not minimize your situation which is far deadlier, BainsBane. I am just venting. I hate guns and the gun culture.

I hope you stay safe.

(Oh, we do not have police here. We have to call the State Police who are not nearby.)

[Hugabear]

24. Living in fear is a small price to pay so that gun lovers can have their toys

Pretty sick

[BainsBane]

25. couldn't agree more

I've been anti-gun proliferation for a long time. Now I have a personal reason for my views seeing as my car was shot up.

[Warren DeMontague]

28. You and I may not agree on everything, but I'm with you 100% on this one.

Sandy Hook put me over the edge and took me out of my "political realism" approach to the issue.

[BainsBane]

30. somehow I thought you were a gunner

I must have confused you with someone else.

[Warren DeMontague]

33. Nope.

Guns have always, personally, given me the creeps. Bigtime.

But I did buy the narrative about the NRA being instrumental in the 1994 election debacle, and I figured it was a loser issue for us nationally, politically. It still may be, but I don't care. There has to be room for some commonsense regulations.

[G_j]

29. and of course there is no way owning a gun

Last edited Sun May 19, 2013, 04:49 PM - Edit history (1)

would change anything, or make you safer.
Just had to throw that in, though its a no-brainer. The only defense is to run away or hide.

[Cleita]

31. Sorry BB. It's a shame anyone has to live like this

in our century. I hope things change for the better in the future. In the meantime protect yourself as much as you can and be safe.

[BainsBane]

32. thank you

Turns out they shot up my car http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022867169

[geomon666]

38. This kind of reminds me of the cops here in Miami.

When I'd call about people shooting guns in the park across from my house at the time and they said sure, yeah, we'll send an officer and they never show up. Good times man.

[Iggo]

39. Dude, you need to move.

[RebelOne]

40. Ditto to that. n/t

[newmember]

43. don't buy a gun

[HappyMe]

45. Holy crap!

You may want to look into moving.