It is fairly logical that guns and knives are commonly associated with the word, crime. They have let legitimate uses of course, in particular, knives. I use knives every day without a thought of ever being arrested but I understand that in the wrong hands and with different intentions, knives are lethal and illegal. I only carry a knife in my house and even then only from the drawer to the work-top.
While there is much speculation over the events this week in the home of the world’s most famous Paralympic athlete, what is not in question is the result. No pun intended but the upshot of that night is that a young woman is now dead. Either intentionally or by accident is yet to be decided but is really incidental and of little comfort to her family.
This is why I am much happier living in a society which might not be ‘free’ like the land of our cousins across the pond. The American definition of freedom, amongst other things, is their right to bear arms. And so be it if these arms are capable of firing bullets through steel sheets.
The numbers of guns deaths make grim reading.
15,000 people were murdered in South Africa alone last year. About 45 people per day. It is hard to imagine so many deaths. I tend to use to visualisation. At the Brentford V Chelsea game a couple of weeks ago, I was one of 12,000 in a packed stadium. Â A more accessible image is the crowd shot at a Michael McIntyre concert – (which believe me, is an image that absolutely terrorizes too many fellow comedians for my liking). The guy is just funnier than you are, get over it – or become as funny and as popular yourself.
How many deaths across the world would not have happened without the ‘freedom’ to be tooled up? An impossible question to answer – but perhaps a better question might be how many of us are lucky to be alive for the fact that there wasn’t a loaded Uzi in the house during rows that all couples have?
And come to think of it, without guns in our homes, we are safer from ourselves as well. Anyone who has read my story Eclipsed will know the frustrations of trying to get a film produced. A feeling exacerbated by the films that are made and often heralded. The 40 year old virgin was a DVD that emerged during a recent clear-out. I had seen it already and wondered whether I might have judged it too harshly? So I decided to give it another go.
Steve Carrel’s character is being encouraged by Seth Rogan’s character to approach a woman in a bar and ask her to dance. Carrel is reticent. Rogan is insistent.
Steve Carrel – “But what if she says no?”
Seth Rogan – “Then punch her in the fucking head.”
You see my point. If I had access to a loaded gun – my boys might now be without their dad…