Paintball gun shooting on south side of Chicago, Harmless Halloween prank or dangerous?
My mother called me this week and asked me was it quiet around my neighborhood during Halloween weekend. I told her that it was okay and nothing happened that stood out to me. Then she told me that my father had a different response. On his way home from a church event, two young guys aimed guns at my parents' car. My father took off speeding down the street thinking these guys were really going to shoot or rob him. Although he heard noises, he just kept on driving.
And then he got home, parked the car in the garage and finally got out of the car. He looked at my parents' car and saw yellow paint splashed all over their periwinkle Mercury Mystique. But instead of being mad, he was relieved that it wasn't real bullets. And while I'm glad he's relieved that these guys didn't have real guns, I'm relieved too. But I'm not amused. I'm pissed off that he even had to go through that type of scare.
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With the violence in Chicago being as ridiculous as it is and my parents living on the south side of Chicago in an area where crime has been notorious since my own childhood years, that just wasn't a smart decision. What if it hadn't been my father in the car? What if they'd have pulled out guns on someone who also had a gun because had it been some other family members and friends of mine, those guys may have seen their last days? And then you have some people who love their cars (read: me) enough to be so furious about paint being splashed all over their cars that they may have reported these guys to the police. It took a few days and a few washes for the paint to come off. Imagine if they'd have had to get their car repainted. That's one expensive trick. But more importantly there's another crew who wouldn't have reported this to the police and would've handled the issue on their own.
I'm not saying we should outlaw paint guns or people shouldn't have the opportunity to play with them, but there's a time and a place, and I know the whole "trick or treat" deal during Halloween, but this trick could leave someone dead. With Halloween over, I hope these guys don't continue with this prank because sooner or later, somebody is going to pull out a real gun and not be as calm or as forgiving as my father was.
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2 Comments
Joe the Cop said:
This reminds me of a couple of guys a few years ago who videotaped themselves driving around, shooting at people with paintball guns. They'd laugh like loons at the terrified reaction of their victims when they shot at them. You hit on a very good point--the pinheads with the paintball guns should count themselves very lucky that they didn't point those things at anyone with a REAL gun.
Message from Montie said:
I know very few people who are as even-tempered as my father. I think these boys were playing with fire as soon as they pulled out those paintguns. In the neighborhood they were in alone, that was the dumbest idea ever. I'm amazed they're still alive or maybe they chose their targets wisely.
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