There are many times I have been on the right end of a gun. Hunting with my Step-Dad, gun range at the police station in Orlando, shooting things out of trees with the Dad of one of my high school girlfriends and the great and wonderful pellet gun I had as a teenager. I loved that pellet gun until I got in trouble for shooting my little sister, also the neighbors dog and big bulb Christmas lights around the house. But lest I forget that the title of this page is about being on the wrong end of a gun...
Of course when your little and you have a Daisy pump action b-b gun in your possession its bound to end up in a sibling or friends hand, which in turn gets turned on you. Especially after you have pelted them a few times first.
Then there is the a fore mentioned Dad of a high school girlfriend who happened to listen in on a dialogue on the phone one late night and decided he had enough of certain young man climbing in his daughters window. I unsuspectingly walked up to her window, slid it open, and before I could reach in and shake her awake like I had done several times before... "BAMMM"
There really is no sound like a 12 gauge shot gun going off within 2 feet of you when you are not prepared for it,and I couldn't remember a time prior to that where I thought my life was ending, but apparently I was not dead even though I was suddenly on the ground involuntarily. As I look up 'Dad' shoves the 12 gauge in my ear and says,"Don't move the cops are on their way."
Laying on the ground, I noticed that in his back pocket was the 22 revolver I had bought the bastard for his birthday. Guess I am glad he didn't use it first. After what seemed like an eternity of him, his wife, and the girlfriend yelling back and forth over me, the squad car arrived. The officers came up and took me to their car and sat me in the back seat. Then they returned to discuss the situation with the girlfriends family. About 10 minutes later, they came back, drove me to my car down the block and said that since I was 18 and she was 17 and 10 months that it wasn't statutory rape, but I hadn't heard the end of it. About a week later a sheriff came to get me and drove me to see the Asst Attorney General of Okeechobee County. During our meeting I learned that a 500 yard restraining order had been imposed between me and the girlfriend. Which was silly at best because we had the same classes in school and worked at the same fast food restaurant, but I also ended up being charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor that never actually stuck in the long run.
Few years later I started working at a little known convenient store with 2 numbers in the name. During one shift, a guy walked in and showed me his gun inside his jacket and explained that he was going to go over and look at magazines, I was suppose to push the buttons on the time lock safe that dropped twenties, tens and fives every two minutes to make change. Since it took two minutes before I could push the next button it took almost an hour to get all the money out of the safe. I was also told not to make any cash drops while customers continued to purchase items over the hour he read various magazines. Since it was midday I was the only one on shift and our panic button was in the back near the entrance to the cooler. Since this was the early 90's, the stores idea of video surveillance was a 35mm camera staged inside a fake speaker mounted on a shelf behind the counter. If the right money was pulled out of the drawer, the camera would automatically start snapping pictures. This guy knew about this particular security and when it was time for him to leave he had me empty all the paper money I had in the drawer except that particular $5 bill. Not long after that incident I became one of the managers and spent a lot of hours on the graveyard shift. And a few months into the new shift there were two of us working, but the other guy on the shift was in stocking the cooler. It was pretty quiet and I was filling the cigarettes in the over head bins. I heard the door bell of someone coming in and when I raised the cigarette bin so I could assist the customer all I saw was gun. He told me to empty the drawer and grabbed some stuff we had sitting out on the counter. I took every bill I had out of the drawer, and as soon as I removed the special $5, the camera behind me started taking pictures. Not sure if it was because it was older than dirt or because of the moment, but it was the loudest camera I had ever heard. 'CLICK' 'RRRRRRRRRR' 'CLICK' 'RRRRRRRRRR' over and over till it went through a whole roll of film. I thought for sure he heard it, but he was more concerned with getting the money and running. When the cops showed up, the only thing I could remember was that the gun was a revolver, very large and black. And the noisy camera you ask? Was angled wrong and took pictures of the friggin cigarette bin above my head. One other time during my time as a convenient store manager, a man walked in, fixed himself a large soda and grabbed a sandwich. Walked up to the register, showed me his handgun and had me empty the drawer. After handing him the money, he apologized and left. The girl that was working with me that night was coming out of the back just as he pulled out his gun. In her wisdom, she stayed out his line of sight, but was able to get a good description of him. When I left the next morning she stayed on to help with the morning rush. That morning, during the hustle of coffee and donuts, he came back in wearing his work uniform. She immediately recognized him and after he left she told the manager on duty who he was based on his uniform and the name badge he was wearing.
I could go on about other negative times that I have been around guns, but we will save that for another blog....
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