Nothing quite like...

[winterbadger]

...sitting around of a quiet, early autumn evening, playing a boardgame with a friend, and hearing four rounds rapid, semi-auto, pistol fire going off a couple of blocks away.

Followed, several minutes later by a distant police siren.

This is not a frequent occurrence, but it's not uncommon.

Gotta love urban living...

Comments

[aitkendrum.livejournal.com]

Badgerz in da Hood!:)

Nothing exciting like that happens round our way.

[winterbadger]

People in the chain hotels in your town probably don't get done for possession of dangerous narcotics with intent to distribute either. :-)

We live right on the border between 'quiet little hippie town' and 'immigrant neighborhood with lots of young guys with too much time on their hands and very little community cohesiveness'. It's an interesting place.

On one side, a very diverse (nationalities, ethnicities, religions, incomes), very liberal (one of the country's first 'nuclear free zones' and one of many small towns to vote to impeach the president) community with old houses, tree-lined streets, annual parades and folk festival.

On the other side, an area that isn't really a coherent place, filled with what amount to dormitory apartment buildings for migrant workers (predominantly but not exclusively young, single men) and strip malls.

And then, on the far side of *that*, the estates of small, inexpensive but comfortable single-family houses that belong to the immigrant workers who manage to make it, settle down, and raise families.

And right through the middle of the second and third areas runs one of the overarching city's big commercial avenues, with a number of seedy shopping malls and chain hotels that have a very dubious clientele. That's the area where you don't want to be out after dark, and you *definitely* don't want to be staying at any of the motels.

[pisica.livejournal.com]

And that's one of the many reasons why we live here, dear. In addition to there being only one 'easy' route to get you into the USA.

WB, this is another plus for moving to Scotland. Idiot drunks next door would be like music to your ears in comparison!

[winterbadger]

On the up side, the gunfire is usually a pretty brief interruption; even if peoples' aim isn't good, it ends discussion rapidly.

Idiot drunks, however, from experience in E'burgh and Glasgow, can go on until at least 3am...

[gr-c17.livejournal.com]

Guess I know what I'm packing...err...bringing next time ;-)

[winterbadger]

*thinks of a similar incident at the Petersburg reenactment*

A three-pounder cannon on a heavy field carriage?

[gr-c17.livejournal.com]

HaH!! That did do the trick.

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

"Call that a gun? This is a gun!" One of those things we're never likely to have the chance to say, unfortunately.

Here's one firing. No, no tripod, no timer.
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/janewilliams/2518488891/)

[magaidhbhan.livejournal.com]

GAH! You're the second person on my f-list this week to say that they witnessed/overheard a shooting in their neighborhood.

My other friend lives in Harlem.

Scary!

[winterbadger]

At times, it could be firecrackers.

This was definitely gunshots.