Good night, one rough moment

I attended a fundraising and awards banquet tonight for a Provincial Hunting Organization I am both personally a member of, and that I professionally partner with on projects.

Being a typical hunting association banquet, there were about 14 guns there, shotguns for the most part, to be auctioned, raffled off etc.

I was raised around guns - my dad and uncle farmed together, and my dad was a cop.  We were taught that guns were tools, for a specific job, and only for that job.  We were also taught to treat all guns as if they were loaded, and always always always keep them pointed in a safe direction.

You will also recall, from Stalking stories part 2, that I have has a gun, a shotgun, pointed at me in anger, albeit almost 20 years ago now.

I was working on the door for the banquet tonight, and about 15' behind me was a raffle for a Remington 1100 G3 shotgun.  At one point I turned to look over my shoulder and was staring right down the barrel.  I called to a gentleman who was on the banquet committee and asked him to please move the gun a little, as it was upsetting me.  He turned it enough that it was no longer pointing at me. 

Unfortunately, the woman running that particular draw got upset, saying that he had "ruined' her display, and moved it back.  He explained why he did it; she replied she didn't care.  I did not have myself under good control at that point, and I explained to her, voice shaking and with tears in my eyes, that I have been on the wrong end of a gun pointed in anger, and it was really bothering me to have to stare down the barrel every time I looked behind me.  She said "get over it". (For those of you who know guns, the action was also closed, not open as a displayed gun should be, and it was not trigger locked.)  Even though I *knew* the gun was not loaded, I just couldn't handle having it pointed at me.

I went for a walk to get control of myself, and then stood at a different part of the door table so I was not in the direct path of the barrel.  The gentleman I had spoken with, much to his credit, without actually saying anything kept himself placed between me and the muzzle of the gun, to block my view, until I was done and went to take my place at our dinner table.

I realize my reaction was stronger than it should have been, but at the same time I think the other lady could have shown a bit of compassion in the situation.  We were talking about a roughly 5 degree angle change on the gun in its display stand.