16 year olds who heard a couple of gun shots are not traumatized for life.
Nowadays they are.
No, today they are. They can’t handle being addressed with the wrong pronoun of preference. Don’t even try to critique them honestly.
These weren’t just nearby; they were right in the yard by his house.
Have to disagree. People are affected differently when their homes are invaded or in danger. Lack of safety by gunshots heard is an emotional response.
When my wife and I were held at gunpoint in 1998 (by a 20 year old white guy, with about 40 people near a beach in Florida) some were crying and hysterical and others like me were strangely calm. I was able to get my wife to crawl under a parked car to hide as he approached. She said “I’m scared. What good is it to me if he kills you but I live?” I told her “I’m not going to die. I’m going to kill him.”
Three guys and I decided on a plan on how to rush him and get his gun if he came to us. For some reason I was still calm as though watching us from somewhere else. Weird.
The shooter it turned out went to the left, not the right, grabbed a man away from his wife (who screamed and then sobbed) and took him hostage, allowed to get in a car and leave by the many police and deputies who had dropped their weapons. The guy had shot several times around the crowd to terrify them.
He was from Michigan (like us) and had murdered an old woman in cold blood, shooting her in the head through her bathroom window. She had kindly given him a chance to do odd jobs for her small company. He stupidly thought her wealth was at home (she had all her money in the bank as the a-hole found out as he found a paltry $20 at home and $11 in her purse).
His accomplice said: “I seen him smile and then he was laughin’ that he was shootin’ the old lady in the head.”