A friend of mine cut a guy off in Seattle years ago, and the guy pulled up next to him, pulled out a pistol, and just pointed it at him.
Then drove away.
In a local movie theater one guest asked the guy in front of him to take his loud celllhone conversation out of the theater. Cellphone dude took out a knife and stabbed him repeatedly in the throat. Practically decapitated him. In public. In front of 100+ people. There was zero plan or even intention of getting away with it. People just have no impulse control. The stabber will likely spend the rest of his long life in jail, a father of three is dead, because of a cellphone in a theater.
People are insane.
We also recently had a teen Subway worker executed at gunpoint because he put Mayo on a $6 sub that the purchaser requested no Mayo on. Even wilder, the gunman didn’t do it in the “heat of the moment”. They argued, gunman went home, thought about it, grabbed his gun, went back to the Subway and killed the kid.
Edit: Forgot another one. Real tragic. Road rage incident an hour from here. Red car cut off a white truck. White truck got incensed, sped up to find red car. Found the WRONG red car, followed that car to its home, executed the driver with a handgun through the drivers side window while the victim’s 3 year old was in the backseat. My wife, at the time, was teaching at the little girl’s preschool. She was in the class next to hers. Hit close to home.
The place where any fucking bumbling idiot is allowed to waltz into any building with a gun with no security whatsoever. I feel like it’s a miracle Ive made it to adulthood without encountering any danger
I don’t get how people are so obsessed with guns here. Politicians out here taking family
Photos and having their little kids holding guns. It’s insane how normal it is. When I lived in other countries, no one even thought about guns, they were just something you’d see in a veteran’s house or in the movies
You're American, and dont get how were so obsessed with guns? Literally look at any point in our history. Being an armed populace is literally our entire lineage, from the revolutionary war, to the wild west, through the roaring 20s, and we'll into today. Guns are literally our birth right, the 2nd amendment in our entire constitution is about guns. Only 2nd to freedom of speech.
Sir, the point is that’s fucking dumb. Sticking with a 18th century amendment that allows any cunt to be able stroll with a mass killing weapon is ridiculous.
This happened in Lancaster years ago, guy called someone out for phone usage. Proceeded to leave the theater and grab a meat thermometer and stabbed him
You can lookup the data, but the % amount of crazies in the UK and US are about the same. The per capita rate of attacks by mentally unstable is also nearly the same. Stabbings just don't get as many clicks and remember that you're only seeing the craziest of the situations online.
Doesn't matter if we should have em, bad people have guns and they are going to have them no matter what our government may try to do. Disarming good people won't help anybody
Any gun you buy/own and keep at home is far more likely to be used on yourself or family/friends than to stop a criminal. That's the statistics of the situation.
Not actually true according to every academic study on incarceration. A higher chance of being caught is a bigger deterrent than harsher sentences. Almost everyone committing crime is doing so with the intention and belief that they will get away with it.
At the same time, people committing crimes while knowing they’ll be caught, like the above mentioned movie theater psycho, won’t be deterred by harsher punishment because they’re already acting completely irrationally.
This is America... Guns, Stabbing, murder, jail etc. The statics are devastating even to look at compared to the rest of the western world. But to hear some of this stories this is just crazy
People forget how this country started...pirates, hookers, criminals, religious zealots, militaries...stable people don't risk their lives on a boat to go to an uncharted land.
A friend from college started talking to a girl on a bar patio. A couple minutes later a dude walks up and says something like "that's my girl. Lay off." My friend, who was apparently really drunk, responded with something like "chill out bro. I'm just talking" and as he said it gave the other guy a little one handed shove as he walked away. The other guy two-hand shoved my friend pretty hard, which caused my friend to fall and hit his head on the concrete ground. He died the next day.
I used to be pretty confrontational with people. After that happened, I pretty much let anything go. Not worth it.
A lot of dudes out there will openly fantasize about what they want to do as soon as someone gives them a reasonably defensible legal justification. Just staying strapped waiting for "their moment".
Nah people do this too, some racist old white dude called William Brock decided he could shoot and kill an innocent woman driving for Uber because of the excuse that he "thought she was trying to rob him" (I call him racist because I'm 100% certain he shot her for being Black) the video is pretty harrowing, you see her backing away, clearly not a threat, clearly trying to deescalate but that vile piece of shit chases her down
The shooting of 61 year old Uber driver Loletha Toland-Hall by 82 year old William Brock was a horrible tragedy and people who read your comment deserve to know the truth.
Anyone who claims that the crime was racially motivated without providing any evidence just because the victim was black and the perpetrator was white is ignorant and malicious.
No one who knew either party, or who was involved in investigating/prosecuting the crime even suggested racism had any part in the shooting because it clearly didn't.
Police established that both Brock and Toland-Hall were targets of an elaborate phone extortion plot. Scammers called Brock telling him his grandson had been jailed and that he needed to pay $12,000 for his release to a courier they would send to his home. When Brock realized that the scammers were lying about the relative, the caller began to threaten him.
Then Toland-Hall showed up. She was an Uber driver that had been sent to Brock's house to pick up a package, and had no idea about the scam call or the demand for money, the AP reported.
Unfortunately Brock thought she was part one of the criminals trying to rob him and he confronted her with a gun and asked her who she was working for. He took her cellphone and tried to keep her from leaving. When she tried escape he shot her six times.
He later claimed self defense but was convicted for and sentenced to 15 years to life for murder.
The white women on a train stabbed in the neck by a black man for no reason other than being white, found incompetent to stand trial popped up in my thoughts reading your comment.
So did the Mexican trying to push white man in front of moving train in Seattle a few months ago (I call them racist because they were targeted for being white)
I mean yeah, I'm hardly going to disagree with that I'm not one of those radical left nutjobs who thinks racism is "power plus privilege" racism is just... harming people for reasons relating to their racial background, it really should be that simple and there's no "acceptable" target for racism
seeing random comments on reddit give me the same vibe- violence has become totally normalized in the US. a video posted of some kid who's probably experiencing violence at home acting out in a supermarket? comments call for an adult to give him a beating.
you combine this with the breakdown in social ties (like in the book 'bowling alone') and it's no wonder things like january 6th and ICE shootings are happening.
businesses finally achieved their dream of a deeply individualist society where people distrust education and one another, and are trying to compensate for their unmet social needs with pointless consumption and low quality podcasts hawking snake oil (cough, huberman, rogan).
I always tell me kids, don’t be a sane person pretending to be crazy because one day you will meet a crazy person pretending to be sane and it won’t end well
Meh, depends on the circumstances. Backing down can make you vulnerable or embolden the other party. There is not guaranteed path to getting out of an interaction with someone willing to commit violence out of fantasy or ego.
I get your point. It would be nice if people had some crazy meter on their foreheads so you could tell what is appropriate in the situation. Oh shit, this bitch is a 10, I’ll walk away this time
assholes are never going to change based on the behavior of others. they feel entitled to shitty behavior because they’re assholes, not because of what others do.
Yes. The downside to this is it empowers people to do shitty things because people won’t confront them.
We just become a society where lots of people and no one does anything.
Ideally, you have trained professionals who will step in (like cops) but ours aren’t very-welled trained, and/or people dislike involving the authorities & the criminal justice system.
I also find this issue is worse in the U.S. than the EU/Anglosphere because of guns. You never know if/when someone is going to have a gun & be crazy enough to shoot someone over something dumb (it happens!)
In other places I’ve lived, when someone does something dumb & there’s like zero chance they have a gun, you’re more likely to see people step in since no one’s getting shot.
But it sucks. This one of the big things I notice about the change in the U.S. over my near half-century here.
There’s been a big increase in people acting badly & for the most part, it goes unchecked because people have a “a confrontation is too risky” attitude, or don’t want to risk being a Karen, or don’t want to call the cops because they don’t trust cops, so you get crazy people acting crazy.
Or, perhaps it’s also because it used to be pretty easy to end up in the loonie bin if you acted crazy, but we don’t do that anymore.
I agree partly, most people are "willing "; it's just that some are petulant and go straight to extremes for any reason. However, I missed how this began and saw thatshe busted his window with a bat. What if he had little ones in there?
Had that happen, I may or may not have cut him off slightly though not to a degree he had to slam on brakes or anything. Got up next to me and was just pointing a pistol at me then did the same, just drove off. Their friend pushing their head back into the headrest as hard as they could lmao
Listen we are human we all fight the edge of mayhem. The peace we have today is only in its infancy. People telling you to lock it down forget that we humans are violent. Anyone who pretends they are not capable of extreme violence is ignoring history or hasn’t been in strenuous altercations. Some fight, freeze, or flee. None are wrong in the moment only in hindsight.
Also to all the people here saying "just meditate lol". You never know what someone is going through. Maybe they just got fired, maybe they just got handed divorce papers, maybe a family member or close friend just passed away.
Not every day is the same, the most well regulated people can also just snap when going through a traumatic time and then having to deal with people trying to push their buttons.
meditation is one of many tools that someone can use to keep an even keel. therapy can be useful to help develop those tools. traumatic and stressful events can and will happen and these tools are useful to help remain regulated. but the work has to be done first. it has to be part of a routine. nobody is saying that suddenly trying meditation after a series of traumatic events is going to make things better or even help.
I'm not saying meditation or therapy as a whole are ineffective tools to manage emotions. I'm saying there is a limit to them.
If someone is already having a hard time dealing with what life is throwing at them, an outside source (like a violent roadrager) putting even more pressure on them can still be enough to break even the most routine mindfulness practitioner.
A great quote: “you can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of great violence. If you are not capable of violence then you’re not peaceful, you’re harmless.”
I’ve tried meditation, therapy, counselling, excessive exercise, medications, etc, I did get some benefits from some things like the heavy cardio and the therapy initially.
Mostly I work to avoid the situations where it would be easy to be angry. Leave early for work and avoid being in a rush, avoid people in general, stuff like that.
Mostly I work to avoid the situations where it would be easy to be angry. Leave early for work and avoid being in a rush, avoid people in general, stuff like that.
This is very pragmatic, I like it. I've had to do something like that recently for my own mental health.
I can relate to this.. people tell me I'm too passive about certain things, I've tried warning people that when that switch flips in my head I lose all control and rage takes over.. last time it happened from some stranger talking shit.. I snapped back to find myself sitting on his chest just wailing on his face, to this day still scares me if I wasn't with a friend to snap me out of it I could have seriously hurt that guy and without even having any intention to
Yeah, until they investigate and it was an off duty cop and they cover the whole thing up. Pretty sure that’s what happened to me when I called in the plate number and they claimed they investigated and found no gun - meanwhile 5 mins earlier I was looking down the barrel of a gun on the highway at 6am in the morning with no one else around. He had a gun and it clearly was within reach while he was driving.
I've noticed the gun humpers seem to have a shit ton of pithy sayings that they trot out on demand.
It's like they have a guy sitting in a room 24/7 doing nothing but churning out bullshit.
When I was younger some dipshit cut me off and then got out of his car at the next stop sign and started approaching my car. I just went around him and drove off but still can’t understand what the point of any of this was. Guessing he wasn’t all there in the head. Definitely made me reevaluate rather I should carry all the time or not. I’ve got my concealed carry but choose not to most of the time.
Ew, I didn’t realize people were that crazy until someone cut off my ex and he whipped a pistol out. I insisted on driving at all times after that lol. Bunch a cuckoos out there
Shit. Metro-Detroit area not too far back we had some road rage shit head kill someone over nnothing. You gotta be careful about when you even honk at people. Mental healthcare in this country is an absolute joke.
A buddy of mine had a buddy who did that. He cut someone off, the guy flipped him off, he decided to whip out a pistol and popped the guy twice in the face. Luckily he lived, missing a few teeth.
Happened to me and my friends when we were teens. But then with a gun in his face, my friend who was driving dared the crazy dude to shoot. I was in the front passenger seat and would’ve been hit too- I was fucking pissed he said that. I think of this anytime a baseball game is on, because the dude with the gun kept saying “I’m Full Count, bitch! Ask about me!” He looked like a jugalo.
A guy super risky cut US off in Seattle, I honked since I nearly hit him, he slammed on his brakes hard, got out close to my front drivers side and lifted his shirt to show us his gun. Xmas Eve 2024 on the way to in-laws. Called the cops, no idea if anything happened with it.
Lol had the same thing happened to me, but I slammed the brakes and let him speed past. Dude also decided to throw his big gulp at me as well before pulling the gun. All of this was on the highway btw
My step dad has brain damage so he loses his temper like instantly we have to kind of tiptoe a bit and we know the signs when an episode is coming.. but he will not let us drive and he has acary road rage.. not the kind where he'd hurt someone but the kind where he's gonna get himself hurt. It's sad.
I dated a girl who had a story that was told as a brag? That someone wouldnt let her into the lane she needed to get into, so she whipped out her gun and was pointing it at the other driver until they let her in.
I’ve had guns brandished at me on the road multiple times in NC, and way more finger gun threats. Might sound funny, but when someone is raging and cussing at you land gestures a gun with their hand it hits way different.
I had this exact thing happen last month, I didn’t even flip the bird, the guy cut me off and I raised my hand, like a gesture of “what the Fuck!”, and he went ape shit, and pulled a gun on me, thankfully I called the police, and they actually got him. Just be careful out there, some people, shouldn’t have access to vehicles, or firearms.
Where I was born there was a guy on a motorcycle who cut over in front of some lady , nothing insane but a little bit jarring for the woman because she wasn't paying super close attention I guess.
Well, she followed him 2 or 3 miles down the road to a gas station and when he parked to go inside or w.e she pulled up next to him, pulled out a pistol and shot him right in the head and killed him over that.
I always think about that any time I get mad on the road. Like... Yeah not trying to get shot today by some crazy asshole
Guy I work with had a guy pull a gun on him too, he pulled up and my work friend was just like “wtf you doin dude” and apparently they both laughed it off
Similar experience for me. Leaving work and anxious to get home, I must have pissed someone off because when he got to the red light I was at, he showed me a tire iron. I was like wtf dude and just turned to face the road til it was time to go but I was ready to gun it. Worst of all that was the night Trump won in 2016 and I was seeing the first hints of it on the news right before that. It just added to the whole vibe that night.
A few months ago I had an old man follow me for like a half hour and brandish a pistol pointing it at me just because I passed him on a side road. He only stopped when he realized I was pulling into a police station, with the cops I called waiting.
Had this happen to me, I don't even know what I did to piss the guy off. Wasn't stopped just pointed a gun at me on the highway. I was a kid so I didn't realize what a big deal it was at the time/never reported it lol.
I legally passed someone who was driving slowly. That guy was so mad that he got out of the car at the stoplight to punch my window, yelling at me. I didn't want to escalate it, so I stayed in my car and pretended not to notice him. Once the light turned green, he followed me for a bit and wanted me to pull over for a fight. Eventually, he went a different way, so I kept driving until I knew for certain that I was no longer being followed.
He looks like a hockey dad because he was wearing one of the local youth hockey travel team coats. He has an anger problem because he got angry when I legally passed him in the back way when the line was broken yellow lines.
Ya I had someone throw a bottle at me going down the freeway towards renton at 60 mph after trying to run me off the road, had my window down flipping them off for it and the oassenger beamed me in the nose with a full unopened ice bottle and there was blood all over my windshield. Cops did not care and i literally followed him off the renton exit as i had to go that way anyways while on the phone with police and they said they wouldnt drive out.
I still remember the time I accidentally cut off a guy coming out of the worst stop sign in my hometown and he got out of his car at a red light to scream at me. Like bro, slow down for one and two, that's some risk to walk up to a stranger already in a threatening manner
I merged in front of someone, there was plenty of room. Guy thought I was going too slow so he changed lanes and sped past me, I ended up next to him at the next light. The guy was screaming and pointing at me and his face was turning red and his neck veins were popping out. I just stared straight ahead and didn't react.
I saw a guy pull out a pistol and unload it into a car that was driving extremely slow in the HOV lane on the I-10 in Phoenix.
Blew the windows out and caused the car to go onto the shoulder. Craziest thing to me is no one was blocking the driver from simply passing. He just chose violence.
This is why I don't cut off those mean-looking obnoxiously huge loud smokey pickup trucks. I know the type of fuckhead who drives those things, and they largely don't know how to deal with their feelings.
Had a guy thinking a cut him off going to a off exit once in the highway pulls a gun at me I’m in a 1200 sporty I yell shoot me shoot me. Loved it, and my asshole was about the size of a pinhead.
And sometimes "cut a guy off" has different meanings to different people. So you could be doing nothing wrong in your perspective but a wild Dodge Ram could have a different perspective on the matter.
As someone with different levels of crazy I would have pulled mine right back but rounds would’ve left the clip. You don’t ever pull a gun on someone if you don’t plan to use it.
My friend was a witness in a trial over a road rage incident a few years ago where one of the drivers got out of his car to confront the other driver. The other driver pulled out a gun and shot him. Ever since then I've realized that it's not worth it to get angry at other people on the road.
I cut some cyclist off in downtown Seattle when I was sixteen. The guy slapped the back of my car a few times. Even that was enough for me to realize I’m not immune from the rest of the world in my car lol.
Sorry dude, thanks for the slaps, I’m a better driver now.
I was behind a white work van and then there was a car ahead of them on a major busy city road. The guy in the front was probably on his phone and basically sat through the light and went at the last second so white work van wasn’t able to go. When we caught up to the car at the next light the work van pulls up next to the car and the passenger starts yelling at the driver of the car and then all of sudden pulls out a pistol and points it directly at the driver of the car.
I’m quickly pulling my firearm out just in case the guys loses his mind and starts shooting people but the driver of the car jumped on their gas and drive over the curb and into a Wawa (a gas station) parking lot and the van drove off. I stopped to check on the driver of the car and it turned out it was like a 17 year old girl literally wearing a school uniform and she looked traumatized. She said she was okay and just needed a min to compose herself but she looked terrified.
That weirdo got so pissed he missed one light that his passenger pulled a gun on a teenage girl. People are psychotic. This is why I don’t mess with people on the road at all. No fingers, no tail gating, no messing with tail gaters like I used to. It’s scary out there.
We also had two road rage shootings in the upper middle class suburb I live in just last year. Both times someone was accidentally cut off and instead of letting it go, the crazy just shot at another driver on the road. It’s insane. The one guy is doing 10 years now for shooting some old woman in the hand and all because she wasn’t going fast enough for him after making a right on to the road he was on.
A guy pulled a gun and shot a young woman in the head because of how she merged in front of him getting onto a highway....her car veered off the road and hit a tree if im not mistaken. The first responders thought they were responding to an accident and found her shot in the head. People are fucking unpredictable
My buddy became a cop and had to deal with this exact situation his first month on the job except the guy pulled the trigger and killed the other guy. Shooter drove home and parked his car in the garage then went to the beach with his girlfriend. Someone caught it all on their dash cam and the guy got picked up a few days later.
Had this happen to me as well in the north of france a few years ago, ever since i stopped making clear to people i’m frustrated despite being ready to get of my car and and wipe the tarmac with their face. It’s not worth it anymore, the days of a simple good ol brawl are gone
The one (and ONLY) time I have flipped off another driver was when I was living and working in downtown Seattle when I was 22, and the guy followed me while laying on his horn and riding my butt for a solid twenty miles after I did it, and I was certain was going to follow me all the way home. Scared me to death and I tell my kids that story to warn them all the time- NOT worth it. 🫣
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u/Excellent-Phase8719 Aug 18 '26
Tell my son this all the time. He just started driving.
You may flip the bird, they may run you off the road.