Blade Runner

In Blade Runner, the 1982 Ridley Scott film, the hero Rick Deckard(Harrison Ford) shoots Pris(Daryl Hannah) believing her to be a ‘Replicant’ – essentially an android. Now while Oscar Pistorius can have no such defence in the shooting of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, there are so many issues this shooting throws up. I’m not about to pass judgement on a case that has not yet been trialled but there is little doubt things don’t look good for the athlete.

Oscar Pistorius – A.K.A. ‘Blade Runner’

On Valentine’s Day I was pretty close to being immobile and have been for a few days which explains the lateness of my post, however I managed to celebrate the occasion with my beloved without resorting to guns or cricket bats. We had an enjoyable meal and wine, which is what sweethearts are supposed to do on Valentine’s Day no? But this crime in South Africa has raised a forever recurring issue. Societies with high gun ownership have more crime (homicide).

South Africa has a homicide rate on par with a number of the most dangerous nations on earth. The likes of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Trinidad, Guatemala, Colombia all have around 30 deaths per hundred thousand of population. When I was in South Africa I kept to a fairly well-to-do area but the high walls and elaborate security suggested the gap between the haves and have-nots was a gaping chasm. Those who are considered middle class are essentially gun trained from an early age. If you were to survey a South African sports team such as the Springboks(rugby), most or all would be gun owners. While it is clear that guns are a means of protection, it’s quite obvious from Pistorius’ tweets that there is an apathy that eventuates when you spend a lot of time carrying guns. Dashing to the gun safe when the phone rings or a rooster crows is the first action before reason and common sense. Nations that encourage gun ownership must know that while assuring some citizens of their protection, they are also imparting the knowledge to those same timid people that everyone else can own a gun as well. It’s a recipe for disaster and you only have to look at the movie theaters and schools of the USA to witness the mass shootings that result from the idea that anyone is allowed a gun. As someone that was born in a country with a homicide rate of less than one, I can categorically say I can’t relate to these cowboys and their ‘cold dead hands’.

In New Zealand it is farmers and hunters that carry guns as a rule. And surprise-surprise a number of recent gun-related deaths are hunting trips gone wrong. That’s right – apparently an English tourist brushing her teeth at night looks exactly the same as a deer. People and guns don’t mix and part of the problem is that as soon as someone owns a gun, they are suddenly more competent than any other gun owner. It’s a bit like new drivers. Keeping guns away from people is the only sane solution.

As this rant suggests, I’ve thought a lot on this lately. As a writer I do need to research crime and understand motive and plot and what drives one person to harm another. My recent stranding coupled with the fact I am bottle-feeding an infant every few hours has me regularly parked in front of the crime and investigation channel. These channels throw up some fascinating cases and every kind of crime imaginable however it is the celebrity related crime that carries the most intrigue. To the average onlooker this fascination comes from the idea of ‘what makes a person who has everything do those things?’.  One case in particular I recently watched was the Phil Spector case. The famous record producer had a full blown gun fetish and when you add that to the suspended reality that a lot of these celebs live in, trouble is looming.

Of these celebrity crimes a number are sports stars. There was of course the OJ Simpson trial, the wrestler Chris Benoit, a number of NFL players that have been involved in killings, South African rugby players Rudi Visagie who shot his daughter in the head and Bees Roux who beat a police officer to death. Quite simply it’s another world for sports stars with a more lenient justice system than a non-celebrity would be used to. Whether these stars are chemically affected (i.e. ‘roid rage) or just living in their own gun-toting world where life is like a Playstation game, it’s about time new and relevant gun control was imposed on some all too flexible nations.

Am I a pacifist? Not particularly. Just sensible. Anyone considering picking up a gun, just think of Oscar. Put down the gun and stick with the ‘blades’.