Self-defense nightmares

[MaDuce]

I just had one last night. Funny because I overheard someone talking about one in a gun store yesterday.

I myself have 3 or 4 of them every year. I was in a situation in Florida where someone pulled a gun on my friend and I happened to be coming out of the woods undetected with an M1 Carbine. I didn't have to shoot, but it came very close. A scene in that book info I shared in a previous thread was modeled after the experience. That all means that when I DO have SD nightmares, they tend to be very realistic, both in content and feeling.

Anyway, I learned a couple years ago from another message board that this is seldom talked about but actually fairly common among gun enthusiasts. I use to think most gun people are just a bunch of ego freaks and only pretending to actually worry about the real horrors of weapon usage and I still do to some extent, but after reading up on some of these nightmares, I've started to realize that many of us are really thinking seriously about this and are genuinely afraid being trapped in the situation of having to use a gun on someone in a real situation.

So, I am curious which of you have had these sorts of nightmares and would like to hear your stories.

[planeflyer21]

Like sleeping nightmares?

Occasionally.

One I remember most was a confrontation that started with being robbed at knife and gun point, three people with two of them engaged directly.  Drawing the 1911 that was constantly on me at the time, one started shooting and I was more than willing to reciprocate.  The single most frustrating part of this dream was the realistic lack of immediate cease-and-desist on the two I was perforating.

Very realistic, only took about ten seconds from start to finish.

Had one recently but can't really remember much.

Jon

[MaDuce]

A couple of my own.

The one from last night.

The purp was a friend's friend. As is often the case with nightmares, the friend of mine is real but the purp was made up by the dream. The purp being the friend of someone I know is usually the case in my nightmares.

Anyway, this fellow looked like he was 6ft 8 but very laid back and easy going, so I let my guard down. At some point I was helping him get stuff out the back of his truck when he came over and sneakily tied my leg to something in his truck and shoved me over, causing me to dangle upside down. He started talking like a serial killer, saying that he was going to take me somewhere and basically torture me to death. Then this mouthy neighbor of mine came out (this is only a short distance from my house) and started yelling at him unaware of what was going on. He started walking towards her and I took the time to get my foot loose. I stuck my head around the front of the truck to see him walking fast towards her with a snub nosed revolver in his hands. Realizing I was entirely powerless to protect that lady, I chose to use the situation to sneak past him and get home to a gun. By the time I got to the corner, he was on top of her and fired the first of 3 shots at her. I raced on home and as I was unlocking my door, I could sense that he was closing in. I actually thought about why he didn't just take a shot at me and figured he was a thinker and wasn't going to risk one of his last 3 shots at distance.

Anyway, I got home and grabbed my HK USP .45 and started moving towards the door. It was kind of a quick and aggressive action at this point on, making it kind of a blur, but I basically started pursuing him very aggressively and woke up.

One thing that made this one unique among all previous SD nightmares is I was not at all concerned about the ensuing legal problems nor any emotional dilemma. My sense was that this guy was so bad that he was basically not a person and the things he was planning on doing so extreme compared to any legal repercussions that I just wasn't worried about it.

...............

This one happened about 2 years ago.

I use to have a neighbor who was very belligerent. Although it happened AFTER the nightmare, this guy actually pointed a gun at a friend of mine, just because he was mad. Believe it or not, the police took his gun and gave it to his sister and didn't even arrest him, despite the fact that the guy he pointed the gun at was testifying against him in court at the time. How he managed to evade arrest is beyond me.

Anyway, the nightmare wasn't about him but actually about a friend of his made up by the nightmare. My neighbor kept telling his friend how terrible I am, apparently just venting his anger (in real life, the man was always mad about something and vented on me, apparently because I am one of the few people around here who won't promptly beat his butt for it.

Anyway, they were both yelling at me and threatening me in front of my drive way so I told them to leave and went inside, closing the door. A few seconds later, the door opened and his friend stepped in with a hatchet and this "I'm gunna get you" grin on his face. I grabbed my 10mm Beretta, aimed it square between his eyes and told him to leave my house right now. This was that moment where you start REALLY thinking about both the legal repercussions and the inner effects of having taken someone's life. On top of that, I knew that my neighbor was a bluff and had no idea if his friend was either. In other words, I feared my life may not be in danger but I may end up killing this fellow do to lack of knowledge. We all know the logic, but it's a different matter to think it through in a real situation, and this was probably the most realistic SD dream I've ever had.

At this point my back was literally against the wall (a counter actually) and he kept coming, now within arms reach, and I fired one shot, putting a very clear and rough hole between his eyes. The man fell back and started bleeding out on my floor. My neighbor who was watching the hole thing outside my front door started yelling obscenities. something along the line of, "What the F***! He wasn't gunna hurt you. What the F*** is the matter with you, you SOB.

I turned and yelled back at him something like "I can't read your minds. If you didn't want this to happen then you shouldn't have put me in the position." I went for the phone to call 911 and as I did, I started getting furious with my neighbor, realizing the dead man on my floor was put up to it by him and basically realized that he had orchestrated this entire scene yet probably wouldn't spend a day in jail for it. I woke up while talking to dispatch.

[MaDuce]

The single most frustrating part of this dream was the realistic lack of immediate cease-and-desist on the two I was perforating.

Very realistic, only took about ten seconds from start to finish.

That sucks. I here you though. Had a few like that myself.

[planeflyer21]

I have had a couple of other shooting dreams.  Many times credits run, like I was watching a movie or something.

Far more common with me in the past were dreams about physical confrontations, where punches/kicks/stabs/strikes were ineffectual on the perps.  Very frustrating.  Most of these were when I was much younger.

I did have one, not long after shooting my first Class 3 weapon in real life.  In the dream I somehow had this specialized Uzi sub-machinegun, which fired penny-like projectiles (not unlike the toy guns that shoot the plastic discs) at many many hundreds of feet per second.  Anyway, some bad people got into the house somehow and they tried to avoid me by fleeing into the bathroom, where I unloaded a roll of pennies into them, and they collapsed into the tub.  Upset, I asked my older brother to call the police.  He said he'd take care of it and started stuffing their bodies into trash bags, which further exasperated the situation.  Somehow I left the house but still had the magic Uzi in hand.

Dreams are odd.

Jon

[unforgiven]

As I have driven my family through out this great country of ours mine was the drive.There are so many blind turns where if there was a person or animal on the road at 35 to 40 there was no stopping or the tight 2 lane the head on collision I finally told the wife and the nightmares stopped.When I carry and the situation looks skechy It's the what ifs and how it would play out.Some dreams of my past are so vivid I could taste it been lucky they have stopped at least for awhile especially the one where Ceaser died.Once you have felt the life drain out of the persons body and they go cold it's something you never forget. :(

[MaDuce]

I have had a couple of other shooting dreams.  Many times credits run, like I was watching a movie or something.

Far more common with me in the past were dreams about physical confrontations, where punches/kicks/stabs/strikes were ineffectual on the perps.  Very frustrating.  Most of these were when I was much younger.

I did have one, not long after shooting my first Class 3 weapon in real life.  In the dream I somehow had this specialized Uzi sub-machinegun, which fired penny-like projectiles (not unlike the toy guns that shoot the plastic discs) at many many hundreds of feet per second.  Anyway, some bad people got into the house somehow and they tried to avoid me by fleeing into the bathroom, where I unloaded a roll of pennies into them, and they collapsed into the tub.  Upset, I asked my older brother to call the police.  He said he'd take care of it and started stuffing their bodies into trash bags, which further exasperated the situation.  Somehow I left the house but still had the magic Uzi in hand.

Dreams are odd.

Jon

LOL. That sounds like a combination of 2 different kinds of dreams I occasionally have.

1. The kind where something completely bizarre happens that; while you're awake, sounds like something to laugh at but when you're actually having the dream, tends to be very terrifying for whatever reason.

2. Where you (as it appears in the dream at least) handle a moral and/or legal dilemma as well as you can but the jacka** with you does something completely berserk and ridiculous, creating a situation that could get you in to all kinds of legal or social trouble. LOL

The weird thing about these dreams is that when you're awake, they seam like something to laugh at. Almost like a scene from a spoof cartoon or movie. But when you're having them, they're a nightmare.

Getting thrown in jail or killed over someone else's stupid behavior may be a good laugh in a joke or movie, but when you're having the dream; in your mind, you're actually getting killed or thrown in jail for it.

[Magwa]

I got my first gun when i was ten that was 1960 to this day as far as I can remember i have never had a dream with a gun in it.... wow i never even thought about having a gun related dream...

[392heminut]

This stuff is very common with cops. Most generally they dream of a shooting and the bullets come out of the gun very slow and fall to the ground or their shots aren't having any effect on their target. Many times during my career I experienced the nightmare where I was shooting at someone and my shots were having no effect. It's a really shitty way to wake up! I don't believe I ever experienced the slow bullet one though.

[Matt.Cross]

That's funny you mention that heminut, I've had the ineffective fire nightmare several times, and my dad has described having the slow bullet nightmare.

[Robocop1051]

This stuff is very common with cops. Most generally they dream of a shooting and the bullets come out of the gun very slow and fall to the ground or their shots aren't having any effect on their target. Many times during my career I experienced the nightmare where I was shooting at someone and my shots were having no effect. It's a really shitty way to wake up! I don't believe I ever experienced the slow bullet one though.

+1

Until I switched to my .45 <thumbsup> Even my dreams couldn't deny the .45!

[SDDuc996]

What seriously bugs me, is for as much as I love guns and as much as I train, whenever I have an SD dream, the gun never EVER works.

One that specifically comes to mind was a dream where I had to engage Nazi's (Couldn't make that up) in a library in a large house. I was behind a large grandfather clock, went to engage and pulled up a pump action Thompson M1A1 that was 1/16" thick rusted steel. To clarify, the Thompson was a flat piece of 1/16" thick rusted steel, and the forearm had to be "pumped" to load each round, though I have no idea what it would've shot.

WTF over?

The only time an SD dream turns in my favor, is when there are no guns involved, just my hands.

Weird.

[unforgiven]

The 2 I was told by my bros: Frenchy Legionaire,had a coulpe of campaigns under his belt jumped into a battle in the congo where the natives high on narcotics on the ground with matchets were hacking the guys as they landed.Once on the ground they came at him swinging the machet,he said fire disapline went right out the window as he was trying to cut them in half at full auto.His nightmare was they just kept comin and he could not stop them.After the FF legion he joined Army went to Vietnam came to Chi. and died of a heart attack.Don was Army was in Vietnam fist contact he was shooting and droping mags till he ran out of mags.Dons nighmare that he never forgot was the rats runing over him as he layed on the ground.Don also died of a heart attack both were in thier 50's.Both great guys that it was an honor to have been bro's with.Rene

[SDDuc996]

Weird. My dad had the same type of nightmares. On a firebase when human waves were attacking, and all he had was a rubber M16.

[Matt.Cross]

I've had dreams where I managed to draw and attempt to fire, only to find that the trigger is impossibly heavy. Checking the safety reveals the firearm to be in firing mode, but returning to pulling the trigger proves fruitless. I usually wake up as soon as I decide to abandon said firearm, but sometimes make it to the point where I'm forced to engage my opponent physically...

[planeflyer21]

Dangit MaDuce!

No real combat in last night's dream, just stress.

House in the middle of nowhere-desert, serving as a trading post of some sort yet apparently abandoned recently.  Myself and several other people I don't know are there, discussing the currently on-going zombie apocalypse and listening to radio reports of people being eaten alive.  Reports are the zombie hordes are moving our way, so we are planning on bugging out, with a few of us setting up a perimeter just in case estimates on arrival are wrong.

Still listening to the radio, politicians are pulling their self-serving crap and it is announced that Jon Kyl and John McCain grant poor humans planet wide, the right to sieze any development outside of the politicos' "protection zone" if they swear an allegiance to Kyl and McCain against the zombie hordes.  While this news report is happening, I see one of the guys on perimeter watch in prone position sort of pivoting around on his belly.  Initially I think he is getting a better position but then realize he is dead and think he's being picked at/eaten from under the dirt.  About this time the earth starts trembling.

And someone shouts "The humans are coming!"  This is in reference to the Kyl/McCain give away, the trading post apparently a highly sought after "developed area".  We started busting ass getting supplies loaded and raring to go when the human tidal wave hit!  Think 99%ers on a world scale...topless African tribeswomen with rusty machetes, with little thin yoga mats.  The deal is (now we realize) that whatever area they can cover with their mats becomes theirs.

Fighting through the human wave with buttstrokes and barrel jabs, breaking through a wall, I woke up as I was running for the RV that served as our mobile command bunker.

All in all, a good dream!

Jon

[MaDuce]

This stuff is very common with cops. Most generally they dream of a shooting and the bullets come out of the gun very slow and fall to the ground or their shots aren't having any effect on their target. Many times during my career I experienced the nightmare where I was shooting at someone and my shots were having no effect. It's a really shitty way to wake up! I don't believe I ever experienced the slow bullet one though.

I am no cop, but I have had both of those dreams many times. Last one I had, I was actually flipping through guns while being chased by someone armed with a blunt weapon until I found one that got the job done. It was a 9mm of all things. LOL. Looking back at it, it sounds funny but while having it, nothing to laugh at.

Until just now, I though I was the weird one. I had no idea that this sort of dream was common.

Still listening to the radio, politicians are pulling their self-serving crap

LOL. The way you said that hit my funny bone.

[alelks]

Mine always revolve around a weapon that WILL NOT FIRE.  No matter what I do the damn thing will not fire.  Frustrating as HELL!

[imschur]

Mine always revolve around a weapon that WILL NOT.  No matter what I do the damn thing will not fire.  Frustrating as HELL!

I have had that dream repeatedly

[SDDuc996]

I can't say I've never had a good gun dream, it just seems like more often than not, the gun fails in one form or another.

[MikedaddyH]

Come on guys , didn't your mom tell you to not to eat the "3 Little Pigs pizza" before bedtime.  <lmao> <laughs>

[MaDuce]

Anyone ever kill themselves in a dream? Happened to me once a few years back. Some crack head broke in to a house my friends and I were restoring and tried to kill us for our tools. Not much to think about when the lives of people you care about are at stake. No trouble putting him down, but decided just afterwards that I wasn't willing to deal with all the legal garbage so I turned the gun on myself.

Ended up in some purgatory-like underground place with a bunch of depressed people. I suffered there (for real) too. How a dream caused real suffering is a bit of a mystery, but one theory is pain remembrance. That is, your brain setting off pain signals, triggered by memory. Odd what your noggin can do to you without your consent. LOL Not really pain in this case though. More like being overwhelmed to the point it feels similar to being suffocated.

That's the kind of dream you're relieved to wake up from.