Loosely Associated

Thinking of the murder of my friends son earlier caused a flood of loose associations. The surprising thing that occurred to me was the number of people I know who have survived gunshots. I scratched out a list that comprised 12 people. It is very much an "off the top of my head" list and could expand with some thought-actually one more just came to mind.

B.O.a Vietnam veteran whose unit discovered their hootch mama (lady who cleaned their living area) had been stealing maps and sketching their defences for the enemy. They acted like they had left for the day and stepped back in to find her rifling through a footlocker. As soon as she knew she was busted she produced a small pistol and started firing. B. was near the door so that's where he headed,as he raised his hand to knock the door open a bullet went by his head and passed through his right hand.

W.W. built a bolt action .22 pistol and took his sister out to shoot targets. She loaded it,fumbled shutting the bolt with her finger on the trigger causing the gun to discharge. The bullet went into his right thigh and travelled downward stopping above his knee. You can still see a bluish discoloration there and his knee kills him in cold weather and I swear he can tell you is it's going to rain based on increased pain and stiffness.

T.H. was riding in a car with a loaded rifle. For some reason a guy in the backseat tried to pull it to the back causing it to discharge tearing up his left foot. The round went all the way through his foot and exited the bottom of the car. Strange facts concerning this story? He thought he wasn't even hit until he realized that his side of the car was covered in a fine mist of blood, then he thought the world was going to end because of the terrible pain. They drove straight to the hospital without first aid so the blood ran out the hole in the floorboard and dripped onto the parking lot.