I was 13 and babysitting. An 8 year old pulled his Dad's revolver out of the shoulder rig it was hanging from on the bedroom door and aimed it at my face laughing.
He wasn't angry. He was playing.
He didn't pull the trigger.

Scares me more now than it did then. I remember the gun pretty precisely and it wasn't small caliber. Frankly at that distance it didn't matter - I'd have been dead.

A drunken vet dying of liver failure cornered me one night and put a gun up against my temple. The man was a close neighbor who drank until he passed out with his music volume so high, my house vibrated. He loved 60s protest Vietnam music. I went to my car and drowned him out with rap, which is on the whole not my music, but has a great ability to annoy. He grabbed me and put the gun against my temple. It was a frightening experience for sure.

It was not a Joke in my case!!! As I see it... people that "joke" with guns... deserve to be "Shot" for Real.

Terror on Tibbets Mountain, Cashmere

Five gunshots. On a recent morning, Karen, Sue and I were hiking up Tibbetts Mountain above Cashmere. We panicked at gunshots above us. Were they shooting at us? Shooting over our heads?

"HEY!" we yelled. "STOP SHOOTING!" I loudly blew my whistle. We halted, anxiously listening and scanning for the shooters. On the hillside above, Karen spotted two men with a white dog. Another gunshot blast, this time on the far side of the hill.

Sue called 911. A Chelan County Deputy called back. He said it was legal to shoot guns in Hay Canyon, but not if they were shooting at us, or over our heads. "Hay Canyon is known for shooting," the deputy said.

I wanted to turn around. Sue and Karen felt it was okay to keep going. "They are heading away from us," Karen said. I felt terrified. We continued hiking, constantly scanning the hillside for men with guns. Turning, we headed away from the shooters and up a different ridge.

We ran into the shooters at the trailhead. They were two young guys who looked like extras from the "Deliverance" movie. "We were shooting at branches, aiming at the tips for practice," one man explained. "We didn't know that," I replied. "It was terrifying. Did you hear us yelling?" They did.

I told my hiking partners I don't want to hike in Hay Canyon anymore. Each time, we have been frightened by gunshots and men jumping out of trucks waving guns.

To warn other hikers, I posted this trip report on Tibbets Mountain on the WA Trails Association website. Also, I sent a letter to the Cashmere Chamber of Commerce.

We are living in a country where guns have completely gotten out of hand.

[wta.org]

At the trail heads there need to be signs: “Active Shooters. Unsafe for Hikers and Bicycle Riders.”