I nearly shot someone once.

There's no real clever headline for this. I nearly killed someone with a loaded gun - it's the sort of thing that doesn't really suit clever puns or references. I didn't know it was loaded at the time. I never thought for a second anyone was stupid enough to give a 16-year-old a rifle full of bullets. But I was in Pakistan at the time and they do things differently there.

It was on a school trip. Our aim was to climb a mountain but along the way we got to see plenty of the local villages; picking up supplies, porters and so on. I can't remember exactly where we were at the time, somewhere around Gilgit which is one of the main through ways to reach the Himalayas. The arse end of nowhere is probably the best description. We'd wandered into a small town which was little more than a collection of small shacks lining a dirt path. They were selling the basics: live animals, groceries, guns. That sort of thing. And, of course, as a group of teenage boys, we liked guns. We'd only wandered over to look, but within seconds the shop owner was handing out semi-automatic pistols and machine guns; smiling toothlessly and repeating “plez, plez” in bad English. I got a bolt action rifle and thinking I was being clever, pumped the bolt to check the chamber was empty. I pretty much started to point it at everyone's head after that.

Fortunately, I never touched the trigger. I'm not sure why, it just seemed like the wrong thing to do even with an 'unloaded' gun. It was for the best. The next time I worked the bolt a bullet flew out. Then another. And another. It was a breach loading rifle and I'd been pointing at everyone while making 'pew pew' noises. I never told them at the time and it took me six years to stop having nightmares.