Social Lives are the Devil in Off Topic

ID:143
 
May 15 2005, 12:53 am
So I went to my friend's birthday party last night (his birthday is the day after mine) and I got a nice reminder of why I'm a hermit. Some guy (who I will refer to as guy 1) had started drinking early and was getting on some peoples' nerves a bit. He was told to leave, and being hard-headed (and drunk) he saw it as some type challenge. I'm not sure of the exact details, but he was egging on some other guy (a new neighbor, referred to as guy 2) to fight him. Guy 2 walked off to his house rather quickly, and this is when I took notice. Guy 1 was having a not so friendly talk with one of the people who lived there, and with me being one of the two people there that was bigger than guy 1 I went over to keep the peace. They were arguing calmy, but in each others' faces so two other guys walked up to break up a fight if need be. One of those guy asked me to put his shirt on the table, and when I turned around to do so guy 2 was walking back with a pistol. He shot into the ground twice and told guy 1 to leave. Did I mention guy 1 is hard-headed, he just stood there and stared at him while me and the two other mediators yelled at guy 2. Guy 2 wasn't happy with the outcome so far, so he shoved the gun in guy 1's face. It was quickly pulled back by one of the other mediators, and I don't recall seeing guy 2 again. The cops were called, and I was severly happy with this. Guy 2 didn't know guy 1, he also didn't know that guy 1's dad is a cop and both guy 1 and his brother can get to those guns. Guy 1 left (not sure where), and his brother left making it plainly obvious that he intended to come back armed. Luckily, his mom was awake, but he did come back un-armed. The cops were already there, though, and they took guy 2 away.

Want to know the real kicker? Had somebody simply asked guy 1 to leave politely instead of trying to look like a badass, he would have left. These weren't kids, it was a couple of full grown men acting like this. I can't stand these hormonal bastards always ruining a good time to prove their manliness, and I'm done with being there to stop stuff like this from happening. People suck.
#1 May 15 2005, 1:55 am
Yep, alcohol has such a pleasant effect on people who already behave less than rationally.

I have a similar story from college. I was at a party and we had asked a guy to leave who was being belligerant and had thrown a whiskey bottle at someone. He came back later, threatening a girl who hid behind me. (Fun how people do that when you are fairly large and trained to fight, even when you make it clear that behavior is purely for self defense :-/) So the guy gets in my face as a I patiently ask him to try to calm down. He just gets worse and by now I am getting a bit impatient as the police had shown up a short time ago and were handing out tickets to a few minors there. Fortunately, yelling jerkwad was attracting their attention. He moved to push me (normally I would have had the guy arm locked on the ground by now to prevent him going for a weapon, but I figured that might not be a good idea surrounded by police) and a female officer rushes in and does it for me as another officer plowed him against the wall. Turns out he was loaded with knives (I figured he had something; that's why you try to calm them down!) and got to spend the knight in jail before facing charges.

Needless to say, the party was pretty much over at that point.

Guns are even worse,though. They cause so much damage, so fast, and so indiscriminately. I am glad to hear nobody got hurt.
#2 May 15 2005, 6:28 pm
Oh man, this reminds me of my friend. He never weighs his pros and cons of fighting, he just wants to make himself seem bad, so he ends up with tons of people wanting to literally kill him, including his neighbor, and gang members.
#3 Jun 2 2005, 2:18 pm
That sounds really, really scary.

Just how old were Guys 1 and 2?
#4 Jun 2 2005, 2:20 pm
Guy 1 is a couple years older than me, 24-25. Guy 2 I've never seen besides that night, but I'd guess he was in his thirties.
#5 Jun 3 2005, 3:27 pm
Wow... That's stupid to pull out guns.
#6 Jun 10 2005, 12:50 pm
I don't like guns.
I was hit by one about 10 years ago (I didn't get shot, just hit upside the head) by someone who had broke into our house. The gun got wrestled away from him and he got shot, but ever since then guns scare me. I can shoot extremely well, but that doesn't mean I have to like them. I prefer knives.
#7 Jun 10 2005, 2:40 pm
Guy 2 wasn't happy with the outcome so far, so he shoved the gun in guy 1's face.

He should have his butt kicked enthusiastically and at length until he learns the first rule of gun safety: never point a gun at anything you don't intend to shoot.
#8 Jun 10 2005, 2:50 pm
Well, he may have intended to shoot Guy 1.
#9 Jun 10 2005, 5:28 pm
He should have his butt kicked enthusiastically and at length until he learns the first rule of gun safety: never point a gun at anything you don't intend to shoot.

That's how I feel about it, and as far as I could tell from his actions that night, he didn't intend to shoot anyone; just wanted to look tough.

I don't like fighting at all, but sometimes it's un-aviodable. Sadly, this wasn't one of those times. It was just the typical alpha male bullshit that generally follows that crowd. They always feel the need to express that they are tougher than anyone else, and if there's more than one hanging out it just keeps escalating. =(

As an added update, Guy 2 has been charged with...

possesion of marijuana. So much for that Florida 10-20-Life thing, eh? Maybe this just doesn't count as a violent crime.