I am Arnold Schwarzenegger…..Who are you?

By Deo K. Tumusiime   

THE USE OF GUNS  

When we were younger, we watched films acted by the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Of course, it never occurred to us that this was merely drama and that the scenes in the films were entirely imaginary.

But we enjoyed whatever we watched nonetheless and marveled at the mastery of the film star, often reminded how stars never die. Indeed, Schwarzenegger was always the last man standing in his films. And to prove that he never died, Schwarzenegger is slated to visit Uganda in the coming weeks! But in reality, do stars never die?

From films, we have translated the scenes to real life, shooting for different motives, including self-pride. Perhaps Schwarzenegger was initially motivated by real life occurrences in war situations, but whatever the case, he was only a movie star - Who are you to emulate his heroics on others? How come Schwarzenegger has not played a role in saving America from the incessant gun attacks? Instead, he is himself not safe in real life.

I am repeatedly making reference to "real life" to strike the borderline over the necessity of the gun as a mode of defence or and protection. In the films, we definitely see so many people killed for fun and we even cheer our film star; but in real life, we get to appreciate the bitterness of the gun the moment a bullet runs through our body or the body of our loved ones. The gun is not by any grain of imagination ever supposed to be a tool to be used in a human environment.

In war, the sides involved point the gun towards each other; they target and shoot to kill. Killing in situations of war is only criminalised depending on which side one belongs to. Soldiers never walk to church to confess how they killed so many people. And we think it is alright. We justify our actions by claiming that we must respond to fire with fire, forgetting that the same fire could someday be turned against us or our loved ones even outside the war zone-it is all fire.

Fire, indeed, it is. I watched the use of fire from the gun to summarily write off 20 nursery children and six stuff in Connecticut in 2012. I watched scenes of even worse fire, used to write off thousands of innocent people a decade earlier, in the 2001 bombings attributed to Osama Bin Laden, later himself killed by fire. I watched even more recently as fire was used to write off 17 school children in Florida.

Back home, I watched as fire was used to write Police officer and former Assistant Inspector General of Police Andrew Felix Kaweesi - 30 bullets driven through his body alongside his body guard and driver. In the face of fire, the body guards are rendered absolutely useless to say the least. And useless, indeed, are our bodies in the face of fire, because the whole thing defies God's original purpose for creation.

In God's wisdom, God knew that human beings would sometimes have misunderstandings and would want to fight a bit to relieve the immense pressure of anger. God made provision for us to fight using our fists, kicks and I saw Zinedine Zidane using his head to butt Materazzi at the 2006 World Cup Finals. The latter was hurt but never died. Imagine what would have happened if Zidane had opted to use the gun instead!

God did not create guns; we did. And now and forever, we continue to pay the price, but we never seem to learn.

America is today continuing to grapple with the gun mayhem. Sometimes I wonder just how many more innocent lives must be lost before we can truly appreciate that God is not happy with us using guns against fellow human beings, even when we perceive them to be criminals.

The same guns on another day are turned against innocent school children and by the time we draw conclusion that the attacker had a mental illness, it is too late. I dare say that whoever pulls the trigger to shoot and to kill a fellow human being is to me a psychic and heartless person no matter the justification. Americans may claim that owning a gun is their constitutional right and perhaps their blessing from God, but we must all be reminded that even with the biggest guns in our bedrooms, a time shall come and we will all die of one thing or another for if God does not protect our lives, in vain are all our efforts. And you do not necessarily have to be religious in order to appreciate this.

Alas unto you who build your homes with tall fences and guard them with the biggest guns. Your worst insecurity is within you and not outside you. Invest in dogs and they will scare away intruders. Give even your worst enemy chance to live, for you may only get to know their motives tomorrow and not today.

Saddam Hussein was finished off accused of having weapons of mass destruction - only for the truth to be unearthed much later after he was killed by the gun. So let us never be too excited about the trigger of the gun because it absolutely undermines God's creation, no matter which way you look at it.

Where was Jesus when the gunmen opened fire at the innocent children?

But God let us all this happen in order to remind us that we can never outdo God's original design of humanity - it is what it is. God did not create the gun, we did. If we must never see more bloodshed resulting from the use of the gun, we must get these guns out of human possession. We do NOT need guns at all. Arnold was Schwarzenegger….Who are you?

The writer is a communications consultant