Coming home should not feel like a threat. But one tenant said that is exactly what happened after they returned to the place they shared with a roommate and walked through their own front door.
According to the Reddit post, the roommate had been drinking and apparently did not realize who was entering the home. Instead of checking first or calling out, the roommate allegedly pulled a gun on the tenant. The poster was not sneaking in, breaking in, or doing anything unusual. They were coming back to the home where they lived.
That is what made the situation so alarming. A firearm was introduced into a normal household moment because someone inside was drunk, startled, and ready to treat a familiar doorway like a threat.
The original Reddit post can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/13o1num/drunk_roommate_pulled_his_gun_on_me_last_night/
The poster described the roommate as intoxicated, which made the gun part feel even worse. A sober person can still make a dangerous mistake with a firearm, but alcohol lowers judgment right when judgment matters most. When the person holding the gun is already impaired, the people around them have no reason to trust that the situation will stay under control.
The tenant wanted to know what they could do. That question carried the weight of the whole post. This was not a stranger in a parking lot or someone making threats from across the street. This was a person inside the same living space. The poster could not simply avoid the roommate by changing a route home or staying out of one store. Their bedroom, belongings, and daily routine were tied to the same place.
Roommate conflicts can be ugly even when the stakes are low. Someone refuses to clean, pays rent late, eats food that is not theirs, or brings over guests nobody agreed to. But once a gun is pulled, the argument leaves normal roommate territory. The home stops feeling like shared housing and starts feeling unpredictable.
The poster seemed to be looking for a practical path forward. Could they break the lease? Should they call police? Did the fact that the roommate had been drinking matter legally? What if the roommate later said they were only scared or thought someone was breaking in?
Those questions matter because the poster was likely trying to avoid making the situation more dangerous. Calling law enforcement on someone you live with can escalate everything fast, especially if that person owns firearms and drinks. But not reporting it can leave the poster trapped in a home where the next late-night arrival could end much worse.
The most frightening part is how ordinary the trigger was. The poster did not describe a long argument that spiraled into threats. They described entering their own home. That meant the next incident could happen just as suddenly: a noise in the hallway, a door opening, someone coming back from work, or a roommate half-awake and drunk with a gun nearby.
There was no safe way to treat that as a misunderstanding and move on like nothing happened. Even if the roommate was embarrassed later, the tenant had already seen what could happen when alcohol and fear met a loaded weapon.
Commenters urged the poster to take the incident seriously and prioritize getting out of the living situation safely. Many said a roommate pulling a gun is not something to handle like an ordinary disagreement. Even if the roommate claimed it was a mistake, the result was still the same: the poster had a firearm pointed at them in their own home.
Several commenters told the poster to document everything. That included writing down the date, time, what happened, whether the roommate had been drinking, and whether there were any witnesses or messages afterward. If the poster needed to talk to a landlord, police, or an attorney, a clear timeline would matter.
Others focused on the lease. Depending on the lease terms and local law, the roommate’s conduct could potentially help the poster argue that they needed to leave for safety reasons. Some commenters suggested contacting the landlord and explaining that a firearm had been pulled inside the home, especially if the roommate’s behavior created a threat to other tenants or the property.
A number of people also said the poster should not confront the roommate alone. If there had to be a conversation, commenters suggested keeping it in writing or having someone else present. The point was not to win an argument. It was to avoid giving an impaired or unstable person another chance to escalate.
Gun owners in the comments were especially frustrated by the alcohol part. Responsible firearm handling depends on clear judgment, safe storage, and knowing what you are pointing at before you ever touch the trigger. A drunk roommate drawing on someone who lives there failed that standard in the most basic way.
The post ended with the tenant facing a hard reality. They may have walked through their own door that night, but after a gun came out, it was fair to wonder whether that place still felt like home at all.
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