Fear is driving resistance to new gun law

The closest I have ever come to any gun was in my kindergarten days, shooting down spoilt kids with a water pistol, and, later, during my Zorro-playing days, I had a pair of shooters with gorgeous synthetic ivory handles.

I was known as the Fastest Gun Alive in Albert Street, south of the Rio railway line.

Other than that early violent lifestyle, I have always been a firm believer in Ahimsa, which implies kill only blue-arsed flies and giant, flying American cockroaches; leave the throttling of fellow humans out of the syllabus.

So this (new?) proposed gun law in South Africa is not going to bother me much, except I will have to turn in that repeater water pistol I have kept by my bedside for a solid 70 years. (My father, bless his generous soul, forced me to present the ivory-handled pair, purchased from a shop in West Street in 1958, to Pravin Gordhan, son of my dad’s firm friend in those days!)

On a more serious note, the resistance by ordinary, law-abiding civilians to the eradication of all gun ownership is fully understandable. Criminals are still kings in this and in most other countries.

This is a sad indictment of a virtually total loss of civilised living.

Cowboys and Crooks. Wyatt Earp. Gunfight at the OK Corral. High Noon … and, mostly, Geronimo! Our lifestyles make all of those virtual sissies.

This entire exercise of total insecurity is, deep down, connected to racist views as well. That, now, is the real rub!

Illegal gun ownership, like most other commodities (except real wealth) is mostly perceived as being proportional to the race ratio. So it’s logical to believe (rightly or incorrectly) that most illegal firearms will be retained by black criminals, many of whom do not have a traceable residential address. This makes confiscating arms and ammunition impossible.

Although the criminal mind is not at all confined to any particular race group, the notion of the phobia hatched during the height of apartheid, stems from the fear of “die Swart Gevaar”. Few will admit openly to this seriously racist fear.

How does Bheki Cele round up every gun, including unregistrable homemade jobs, from not just Ballito, Umhlanga, Westville, Sandton, Hout Bay, Sea Point … but, also, most definitely, from the tunnels of all informal settlements and townships such as Umlazi, Khayelitsha, Soweto or those in the distant outskirts of Limpopo?

Until a genuine, comprehensive, visible round-up programme is established throughout the country, I am afraid that nobody will comply fully with this new gun law.

I, myself, intend to oil the mechanism of my red, plastic, see-through, made-inJapan water pistol. I also intend asking Mr Gordhan to please return my ivory ones, and the roll of 100 caps that I sulkily gave to him.

Yessir! The hour of “Annie, Return Your Gun!” is not about to happen otherwise.