Thanks for your service Jimbo!! I will second this opinion... I was in Afghanistan in '11, definitely keep my head on a swivel around here. Looking at moving out of the city ASAP. I definitely pay a lot more attention to peoples body language and where the exits are if I'm at a store/restaurant...

Not on purpose, but twice I've been in the line of fire without those shooting knowing I was on the lake.

1st time: I thought maybe it was a ricochet...then 4 more shots in the same area. We yelled and the kids (maybe mid-teens) showed up from around some trees. They profusely apologized. About 5 minutes later, their dad showed up and apologized some more.

2nd time: My Pops and I were fishing on a military base. We checked in with the game warden and range masters...all were said to be clear. About an hour into some epic fishing, along came a hummer w/ a mounted 50 cal. It was lighting up a pathway with tracer rounds and live ammo. We immediately ducked and TM over to the nearest largest rock. After a few minutes, we TM back to the truck and loaded our arses up. We went to the GW and range offices and told them what happened. GW went pale then jumped on the radio. All I remember was a ton of cussing and some military lingo. My dad heard a month later that a few Marines lost their rank and one was dishonorably discharged. Guess they took the hummer for a joy ride and found live ammo from the nights training prior. AHAHAHAHAHHA

guy fired a shotgun over the heads of me and my buddy when we snuck in to fish a private pond in high school

Y’all are living wrong.

Never. When I was 18 I had one waved at me trying to get money owed to me from a set of 9-ball. But he had one pulled in him too, so it evened out with me getting my $400.

my first time in vegas we were wak=lking down the strip when we came across a group of Mexicans starting to fight we kept on moving and got about 30' away when the shots rang out we ducked behind one of those giant concrete planters they have. so not sure if that counts since they weren't firing at me specifically.

man

We were overrun early one morning in Cambodia. A little Asian fella about four feet away did a half mag dump on us while his comrade presented us with a ChiCom frag. The frag gutted my best friend, who was three weeks from going home. The Kalashnikov got the guys on both sides of me and one of the guys behind me. Other than a bunch of little blisters on my chest I was unscathed (for a few more minutes, anyway). That night was good for a few years of nightmares after I got back. As much as I love to hunt, I was afraid to do it for a few years. I didn’t know if I’d react the wrong way if someone fired a shot near me. Fortunately, my fears were unfounded. I don’t bother the deer much any more, but hogs & coyotes fear me.

I have never had to face what you men and women had to face being in actual battle-
I can only imagine the fear and adrenaline and nightmares that you have experienced-
I’m glad you were able to get on this side of it-

Surely it didnt harm him though. A round that goes off in a fire usually just goes bang but doesnt go far. No way to concentrate the energy to create any velocity. Many moons ago when I was in the fire dept academy, we had a live burn going in one of the training buildings. They were showing us how fire moved along the roof and how it acted in certain situations. Hit a little water on it and showed us effects of steam and how uncomfortable it could be and right before they put that fire out, the captain through 3 9mm rounds into that fire. BANG BANG BANG they finally went off. When that fire went out, all the bullets could be found not too far from the cartridge and the point he made was, bullets really arent much of a harm in a fire unless they are loaded in the rifle or pistol when they go off.

I have but apparently those cops at that Uvalde school have not faced it, oh my god !!!

3 combat tours during my 20 years in the Army and 5 more years in Iraq as a defense contractor. I’ll leave this one for the street fighters

I was deer hunting in the early 1970’s in Mississippi. The club that I was hunting with conducted a drive with a truck load of walker hounds and there were about 80-100 hunters put out on stands. They dropped me off about 75 yards from a young teenager with a shotgun. About halfway through the drive as the dogs moved in front of us, I heard some crashing sounds to my right and this nice buck is going to get right between me and that teenager. He shouldered his gun and I put a tree between me and him. I didn’t move until he got real quiet. It was unnerving hearing that buckshot splattering the other side of the tree.

And, thank you guys that served and really understand how it feels to be under fire

Not really.

I’ve been peppered while hunting because some ding dongs showed up to a small public lake at 6 am opening day and thought 90 yards down the bank from us was enough space. They got there way too late to get setup, let alone get an actual spot at this place on opening day. But “they drove all the way out here to hunt,” so they weren’t going to turn around and go home. There were nine of them, too, which was ridiculous. We saw one bird all day and all nine of them skyblasted all three shots at it 80 yards overhead.