I could write for hours right now but to make things as short as possible... I have a very sweet husband. He is the stepfather to my son. I have always felt like I'm in the middle. I know my son can be a pain but what teen is not. Anyway, my husband has had outbursts of anger towards my son. It does not happen frequently but when it does, he really explodes way beyond what the situation calls for. Others have seen it before. Like I said it does not happen frequently but... This past week, my husband, son, another family member and her 4 year old daughter were at my house. I have large dog that is normally friendly but for some reason, she bit the visiting family member's small dog. I paniced, as we all did, and I yelled "get the dog" while diving for them. In the excitement, my son jumped up and ran over. I remember him yelling "it's your f...ing dog mom" or something to the affect. It all happened so fast. I know he should not have yelled or cursed but at the same time, we all paniced because of the dogs. My husband immediately jumped up and confronted my son. They were face to face and my husband screamed at my son and tried to provoke him to hit him. I was scared as were the others present. He looses control. I kept telling them to stop. I know how he looses control and it was scaring me to hear him this angry. At some point, my husband left the room and my son went outside to get away from him. Then the unbelieveable happened. My husband came out of the bedroom with a shotgun. He was yelling and screaming "where is he..." We were in shock. He would not stop. He went up the stairs looking for my son yelling. I finally said he left... When he came back down, he stood by me yelling as I tried to ask him to calm down and that a child was present and that we were all scared. It took a little while but he finally stopped. Later, instead of saying he was sorry or realizing what he did was wrong, he tried to say he was protecting me and that he saw my son with a knife in his hand... That was so crazy. In no way did any of us feel threatened by my son and why would he have a knife? It was all about dogs fighting and nothing else. I'm still confused by him saying this. Others were present. No one saw anything like that and it would not make sense since there was no arguement or anything between my son and myself going on. This is not the first time. He is always negative when it comes to my son. If I try to tell him he went overboard with the gun and we are afraid, he continues to says things like he only tries to protect me and stick up for me. I could go on forever but... At this point, everyone is quiet and not saying anything. I have been depressed and confused. I don't even want to be around people. I did not feel up to working today. I just don't know what to do or how to feel. He made the comment that he has not gotten angry in 3 years and he tries to stay out of things... he is a calm person... That's why it's confusing. He is generally sweet but I lived with an abusive husband in the past and I know my currrent husband is not like that but at the same time, I keep asking myself if I'm repeating what I did once before. His getting the gun has made me question if or when he might have another outburst and how bad can it be then even if it is 10 years from now. There is no end to what I could write right now. Please just help me start somewhere. Am I being overly paranoid about this because of my past or are my concerns ligitimate??? Oh, he even says "the gun was not even loaded. I just wanted to scared him since he always talks badly to you."