Posse call-up!

**JS4** · 06-03-2014, 09:40

http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/...ill-loved-ones

'Guns kill loved ones'

Aarti J Narsee | 06 March, 2014 00:14

Speaking yesterday before he addressed a gathering at the University of Pretoria's Gordon School of Business Science, Gilligan said studies had shown that higher rates of gun ownership equalled gun-related fatalities. File photo

"When there is a gun in the household, the gun is more likely to kill someone in the household - such as a partner or child - rather than an intruder," says Dr James Gilligan, an American clinical psychiatrist who has spent almost half a century studying violence

Speaking yesterday before he addressed a gathering at the University of Pretoria's Gordon School of Business Science, Gilligan said studies had shown that higher rates of gun ownership equalled gun-related fatalities.

The 78-year-old, who has published extensive research and advised director Martin Scorsese on the film Shutter Island because of his expertise in prisoner psychiatry, said inequality was a major contributing factor to violence.

"Inequality is one of the most powerful predictors of murder rates around the world," Gilligan said, adding that South Africa was in the running for the title of the most unequal country in the world. '' .The experience of being treated as unequal . feeling disrespected or dishonoured . are the most powerful stimuli of violence in the world," said Gilligan.

**Gunservant** · 06-03-2014, 09:46

There's no comments section...

**JS4** · 06-03-2014, 09:49

Letter to the Editor my friend: iLive@timeslive.co.za

**JS4** · 06-03-2014, 10:12

Mine:

Dear Editor

The article 'Guns kill Loved Ones' of 6 March 2014, as published on the TimesLive website refers.

Why do we find it so hard to apportion blame correctly? That a gun may be used to kill an intruder or a loved one is immaterial, what the good Doctor should be looking at is the mere fact that someone is killed, and why.

The gun is merely a tool with no will or capability in and of itself. As a self-defence, hunting, sport or survival tool it is a very good one at that - many people would not be alive today were it not for the gun they had to defend themselves with at a crucial time.

The person who uses it, however, is where our focus should lie. It is he or she that makes the choice to kill and should then be held to account when that choice was unlawful, not the tool that was used. If an individual is intent on killing a loved one then, unfortunately, that can be accomplished by a myriad of other means. Not having a gun in the house is no guarantee of survival for the intended victim.

To blindly scream that "guns kill" is to sidestep the actual problems that lead to these tragedies. It is a knee-jerk reaction that does not address the real problems and one would expect and academic such as Doctor Gilligan to be above such elementary errors in reasoning.

Seeing as this article and the Doctor's claim is connected with the Pistorius case, allow me to ask one question: if the gun killed Reeva, then why is Oscar in the dock and not the 'oh so evil' gun?

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