Bad dreams involving failed self defense with guns?

[Sean Dempsey]

I am gonna pre-empt any Freudian comments on impotency or erectile disfunction - this isn't what I am posting about (I hope!)


Over the years, I have nightmares sometimes where my family and friends, or myself, are in danger, and I always acquire a gun (or one of my own guns) somehow and try to stop the attacker, but sometimes the trigger is too heavy to pull, or I shoot them repeatedly with no effect, or even if I put the gun against their head, they won't die or stop. The bullets just don't work.

I wake up and feel pretty ****ty and nervous, like I can't just shake the feeling of not being able to protect myself or my family. I feel like I need to go to a gun range and perfect my aim and assure myself I can still shoot straight.

I realize this all sounds like an elaborate metaphor for sexual disfunction but I'm asking a serious question.

Anyone else have dreams like this, that rattle your confidence and sense of safety?

 

[WayneConrad]

Yep, had 'em. But I don't read anything into them. Your brain paralyzes your body during sleep. That causes strange effects in your dreams, but the effects, like the dreams, have no meaning. Freud made a great living out of interpreting things that deserve no interpretation.

 

[LoneSniper3]

I also have a reoccuring dream involving self defense with guns. For some reason the trigger gets stuck in every one of my dreams, and the gun is impossible to shoot! Who knows what that means? I stopped trying to figure out my dreams a long time ago. They seem much too bizarre and vivid to understand.

 

[Travis McGee]

Not lately, but I used to a lot.

 

[john917v]

You guys need to dream some trigger jobs! JK. I haven't had any (normal) self defense dreams. But, I did have a dream where there was this huge T-rex-type dinosaur, and I got ahold of a gun. I try to shoot the beast, and the sights are off, as in barrel-bent 1 foot to the side-off!! It was weird.

 

[MutinousDoug]

Yep,
I've had dreams like that. In the case of firearm dreams I usually can't find cartridges for the gun I have.
My frustrating dreams aren't confined to guns: Car won't start; Can't find my way back to the room or place I want to go to. I have a re-occuring dream where I can fly by flapping my arms. That part is great but when I get tired, I'm going too fast to land.
After I wake up from one of these episodes, I have to get up and pee. It's gotten to the point where I sometimes recognize the situation while I'm still asleep. Have to Pee = stressful dream. Better than wetting the bed.

 

[Werewolf]

This topic occassionally crops up here. One thread I remember from 3 or so years ago was analyzed by a psychologist type.

Seems most dreams follow one of two themes.

1. Can't pull the trigger because it is too stiff or broken or whatever. Can't pull trigger.

2. Can pull trigger but bullet dribbles out the end of the gun, hits but does no damage, etc.

The psychologist guy - or so he claimed - interpreted the the two themes thusly:

1. The dreamer has an unresolved issue with using a gun that will injure or kill. Probably shouldn't carry or use until the will to kill is internalized.

2. The dreamer has no problem pulling the trigger and killing or injuring another. However, the dreamer is concerned with the consequences of that action, legal or otherwise.

I'm not a shrink. Don't know whether those are valid interpretations or not but seem credible to me.

YMMV

 

[SVT93]

I've had a couple 'gun dreams' some where I couldn't pull the trigger some where my sks kept jamming and wouldn't fire.

 

[Caliban]

i've had dreams where i need to shoot a gun in self-defense but i pull the trigger and nothing happens, and i've also had similar dreams where i need to stop the car i'm driving from slamming into something but i floor the brake pedal and nothing happens.

i'm definitely in the "dream analysis is bs" camp, i don't think it has any deeper meaning other than the fact that i have a fear of mechanical devices not doing what they're supposed to do at a critical juncture. which, as far as i'm concerned, is a perfectly legitimate and healthy fear that leads me to take good care of my expensive and dangerous toys that could potentially kill me or someone else.

 

[NG VI]

This topic occassionally crops up here. One thread I remember from 3 or so years ago was analyzed by a psychologist type.

Seems most dreams follow one of two themes.

1. Can't pull the trigger because it is too stiff or broken or whatever. Can't pull trigger.

2. Can pull trigger but bullet dribbles out the end of the gun, hits but does no damage, etc.

Had 'em, not lately. My newer dreams the HST opens midflight and continues to grow until it hits the BG, totally dismembering him and his buddies.

Kidding, kidding, I have had those dreams before, but not in a good bit of time. Funny though, my fiance actually had a dream recently where she had to shoot someone and only had our new Taurus PT-22, and the bullets weren't doing any damage. She said I was right, in her dream it wasn't very effective. Maybe she'll have a couple more and be more interested in shooting some .38 and 9mm with me.

 

[ASM826]

The only dream like that I remember...

In the dream, I heard noises downstairs. I came downstairs and found 8 or 9 guys ransacking the house. One of them drew a pistol, and then they all attacked me.

I drew my pistol from the holster and it was just like IDPA. Fire and move, fire and move. I took them all in about 7 seconds.

I don't think it means anything, but it sounds better than dreaming about gun malfunctions.

 

[KBintheSLC]

I have had lots of similar dreams. Sometimes, the gun fails to function when I need it. Other times, I can't get my hand on the gun and I am squabbling to grab it in a desperate situation. Other times, I am being hunted by government ninjas that don't die when shot... etc.

I think our dreams tend to reflect our fears. It does not necessarily mean that it will actually happen, more that somewhere inside your subconscious, you fear that it will.

 

[GRB]

The type of dreams you describe are common among shooters who actuallt shoot other people. They are often associated with Post Traumatic Stress. If you have ever suffered a traumatic event, regardless of the type, these dreams could be your way of copoing. One of the things about post traumatic stress, and post traumatic stress disorder, is that you keep reliving a stressful situation in which you find yourself helpless. It is usually fairly easy to overcome with minimal therapy, and sometimes without therapy. often jsut talking about it a few tiomes is enough to do the trick, no not talking about the dreams alone, but also about the stressor(s) that led you to have the dreams.

All the best,
Glenn B

 

[Rio Laxas]

I've had the same dream off and on ever since I started carrying. It never that I left the pistol at home or anything, it is always that the bullets just don't seem to stop the attacker(s) or that it malfunctions.

I don't think it has anything to do with sexual dysfunction. That's just the same tired BS that gets used to blame a lot of stuff on other totally unrelated stuff.

 

[doc2rn]

Once after I had to clear a jam in a firefight. I practiced clearing a jam alot, LT was there and resolved the situation by getting me a PPPSH. I was good to go the rest of the time, gotta love those battlefield drops.

 

[FlyinBryan]

i have a friend who has a dream that he and tim allen are in a house that is attacked by ww2 germans and he thinks the leader of them is col. klink.

the gun he uses for some reason, he thinks its because tim allen has loaded it, or maybe worked on it, or possibly handloaded the ammo for it, simply dents the caps the germans are wearing. then he said he always wakes up.

 

[biggiesmalls]

i've had dreams like that too. with both pstol and shotgun. do i hear support group? let's make a catchy name

 

[rodregier]

A couple of past dreams a few years ago involving a revolver with an impossibly heavy trigger pull and a vague (but urgent) threat to be solved...

 

[.cheese.]

had one last night.... bear attack and bullets that traveled in slow motion bouncing off...... weird

 

[rantingredneck]

Yep. I've had the two ton trigger pull dream several times. Not in a long while though. I had it occasionally for a couple years after I bought my first handgun. Have only had it once or twice in the last 10 years or so.

 

[Zesty]

I'm with Travis McGee(funny I'm also a Travis). I used to have dreams where my guns would not work for various reasons. Now that I feel more familiar I don't seem to get them at all really.

 

[Gottahaveone]

Wow...It's NOT just me. Not too frequently, but it's always one of two scenario's....

1) I can't pull the trigger hard enough to fire. One finger or both hands, it doesn't matter.

2) I have the wrong ammo. It's always a wheelgun, and the rounds drop thru the cylinder and fall out when I try to load it.

Either we're ALL nut's, or I'm OK

 

[novaDAK]

I have these dreams every now and then. Most recently I dreampt I needed to use my XD45 to protect myself, and the trigger was impossible to pull. The few times I was able to pull the trigger, I shot the ground in front of me.

I've heard that to stop these dreams, practice practice practice with the gun in question and they'll go away.

Worked well for me.

 

[JCMAG]

My dreams of impotence have actually ended since I got a handgun, practiced with it, and began carrying it.

Before that, however, even though I hadn't handled a firearm since my youth, nigh a decade before, I had dreams where a knife, a punch, or a handgun proved totally ineffective against some kind of aggressor.

I suggest that this is some form of subconscious dilemma common to many or all people (not just men!) and is merely transpiring in a medium that we recognize with self preservation and prosperity (our firearms).

My 442 must have done what Freud could not and has, at least temporarily, set my subconscious at ease.

 

[Funderb]

anxiety dreams.