Joe

Joe was first exposed to firearms at a young age and his family “always had weapons.” As a child, he witnessed violence and recalls that “it became a normal thing.” When he joined the military, the firearms training he received built on what he had learned growing up. “Being in the service pretty much just amplified what I already knew about firearms.” 

After his time in the military, Joe describes experiencing a sense of vulnerability. “We get out of the service, it’s a different set of rules. And everybody can’t adapt to that…At least there I know ‘oh my enemy is here.’ Out here, you don’t know who your enemy is.” For him, owning a firearm is an important means for protection. “Wherever I go, I have my weapon with me…I know anything can happen at any given time and I just want to be prepared.”

Joe was shot and injured in two separate incidents, and these injuries continue to impact him. He shares that the “second time I got shot, I got shot five times. I got a bullet in my back, by my spine. And it bothers me pretty much every day.” For friends and family of someone who has experienced a firearm injury, Joe recommends “just being supportive…You have to take yourself out of your own shoes sometimes and put yourself in other people’s shoes and see how would you feel if this and this happened.”