Three weeks ago I was mugged along with my bf and a best friend from college. It was dark, but not late, and we were paying attention to where we were going. There was a group of four assailants and two of them had guns. It was fast and scary and not anything I want to experience again. My friend was hit three times and I was struck above my eye. They got our wallets and phones, but no cards were used and the iPhones can never be reactivated. Their haul was only two gift cards. One for Regal and one for GameStop. I got some Steri-strips at the ER (on the advice of the paramedic) which was a rather terrible experience, but otherwise everyone was physically fine. The reaction by friends and family was very kind and everyone offered to help us with anything we needed. I almost felt bad at how deeply concerned people were. While the event was traumatic, nobody was seriously harmed and I don’t like having a giant fuss made over me.
After a week of waking up in a murderous rage every morning, my stress and anxiety about that night subsided and now that it’s been three weeks the only thing that lingers is an increased worry when I’m out alone at night.
Initially I replayed the events over and over. A couple of people shared what they would have done with their guns if it had been them being robbed. May I say that words like that are pretty much the worst thing you can say to a victim of a robbery/assault. However, I cannot deny that a major part of replaying the events involved me having a gun at my side and trying to figure out what would happen next? Would I have threatened them? Would I have just shot and tried to scare them off? Would they have run away because their weapons turned out to be fake or non-functioning? Would four bodies lay scattered on the street? Would I have been shot?
The reality is that even if I had a carry permit, I would not have had a gun on me. We were leaving a restaurant where I had a beer. I would never have carried a gun into a restaurant/bar. I was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
This experience has opened my eyes to a few things that I’m going to mull over, but for now this is all I have to say.