My father-in-law makes a gun with his fingers and says bang while aiming it at his wife. He has never used a real gun and there are no guns in the house. He was recently diagnosed with alzheimers. I know he's trying to be funny when doing this, but we've never seen him joke around like this before. Should we be concerned?
Do not give it any attention whatsoever. Do not react to it in any way. If you react he will do it more.
Just ignore him and he'll get tired of doing it if it gets him no attention.
I would be very certain that no one laughs about this behavior, but shuns it.
And as mentioned below, given his current ideations, I would insure there are no guns in the home.
I would encourage placement in facility as soon as possible so that this woman can have some quality in her life ongoing.
Does he still drive?
Is there any way possible that he could get his hands on a gun?
Has he made any other threats or has there been any other indication of violence?
If not I would just keep telling him that it is inappropriate to do that.
There can be personality changes with dementia.
If there has been no other indications of violence I would not overly worry but if it escalates let his doctor know.