Have you ever been directly affected by gun violence? (poll)

[PeaceWave]

8. Does having been stalked by your gun toting lunatic father count?

Approximately 23 years after my Mom left my alcoholic father, he came back - This time with guns. By this time, he was over 70. Still just as big and mean as he was all those years before though. He was stalking Mom at her place of work and left a message on my answering machine that read "The difference between you and me is that you care whether you live or die and I don't." Subsequently, I filed for a restraining order. I sought the maximum permissible - 3 years. Despite playing the answering machine message in court and presenting evidence that my father had been seeking to obtain additional guns, the judge stated that "the family court is not intended as a means of elder abuse." I knew better than to take that bait and let it slide. A one year restraining order was granted, during which my father was required to turn over all his guns. Absent that time out period for him, yeah, me and my Mom may well have been actual victims of gun violence.

P.S. - Not long after the restraining order lapsed, police were called to my father's apartment, where they found him with a gun on a nightstand, screaming at them to shoot him. Instead, they admitted him to a psychiatric unit. His medical records indicate that he had to be restrained 24/7 and was spitting at medical personnel. Two weeks later, he was dead. Judge me if you will, but regardless of the fact that he was my father, I breathed a sigh of relief.