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Last night, I was jarred awake by the sounds of my sister shrieking and hollering outside our apartment and flew out of my bed, out the door and into the parking lot, pistol in hand. I could see her car, and her hollering was coming from there, but I couldn't see her so I ran to her car and found her having a complete come-apart inside. She was drunk and having PTSD issues related to a car wreck in which her boyfriend died and she survived. While I have compassion for her emotions, I'm pretty well miffed at her right now -for obvious reasons and because my feet feel like there were flayed from running bare foot across the old, rough asphalt.

So I have two questions here.

The first involves running outside my apartment with the pistol. I genuinely thought she was in trouble and I didn't think twice about charging out ready for a fight. In retrospect this was probably not the best idea, but I had no clue what was going on. I still don't have my CHL (the interminable wait continues), but from a CHL standpoint - concealment wasn't much of an option since I was wearing only my shorts - and dressing to conceal simply wasn't an option given the scenario. How much trouble could I have gotten into if a LEO rolled by? She woke half the complex up with her awful caterwauling; I wasn't the only person who came out to investigate the noise.

Secondly, it has been 3 years. She has seen therapists, taken medicine, gotten "help", and all to no avail, apparently. I have seen her get upset before over this after drinking but never so severely - I concluded that she has just repressed the whole thing instead of working through it. What can I do?

Drewthetexan wrote:How much trouble could I have gotten into if a LEO rolled by?

Worst case, you could have been shot. Probably they would have pointed their sidearms at you and told you to drop your weapons and step away with your hands in the air. Then you would have sat around in handcuffs until they figured out what was going on.

If they believed your story, they probably would not have arrested you. There is a general defense of necessity for a large range of infractions.

I don't presume to give advice, but I keep my piece loaded and in a holster when I'm in bed. That way, if I get into a situation like yours, I would be running around with a holstered piece rather than an exposed one that I could not safely put anywhere.

As for your sister's problems, I don't know what you can do other than being a loving brother and praying for her, if you are so inclined.

PTSD is very difficult to treat and takes a long time to get over. It also requires the services of professionals who know how to deal with it.

I don't know if your sister is a minor (not fully in charge of her own medical decisions) or how her care is paid for. Insurance companies try so steer people with psychological problems to lower-cost therapists who are not psychiatrists. Probably she needs to see a real psychiatrist (an MD) for a while.

- Jim

Usually it is holstered. I had it out by the time I hit the bedroom door on my sprint out - I don't know that I was thinking so much as reacting. Leaving it holstered would have been wise - and I appreciate the pointer.

That PTSD stuff is really strange. I have a friend that is going through that now regarding an incident that happened about 20 years ago. He was fine up until a year or two ago and began having problems. It took a few months of therapy to even figure out what was causing his problems. He's doing much better now.

Drew, check your PMs.