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In the land of John Wayne, happiness is a warm gun, so smile when you look at me

Saturday August 29 2015

A humorous Burundian ambassador I used to hang out with in Algiers, Julien Nahayo, liked only one genre of American film — the Western type. He explained his preference to me:

A tough, rugged and evil-eyed bandido rides into town from the Sierra and terrorises everyone in town, from the salon to the cantina. He and his retinue drink whiskey without paying for it, hang the sheriff if he interferes, shoot everyone in their way, rape the bar waitress and collect all the horses and are about to head back to the hills.

But at that moment, another man is introduced. He may be a local man who has been away for the past three years and has not been heard of in his town.

He may be, on the other hand, a total stranger who was on his way to some other place who gets news of a massacre being carried out by a band of desperados and has come to offer assistance.

Sometimes it is a hired gun, someone the people of the residents send for, answering the call to come and deal with the bad boys. There is a standoff; the two parties face off in the town square as the “civilians” scamper to hide in their homes or sheds. Then the shots ring out, and one after the other, the bandits are all felled, and peace is restored in the little town.

Julien would tell me that that kind of ending, with “le justicier” triumphing over the bad guys, would bring peace to his mind as he heaved a huge sigh of relief, took his nightcap and climbed into bed.

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My generation know that kind of story since we were raised on the same diet of cowboy films, with popular stars such as John Wayne, Allan Ladd and Burt Lancaster.

Then there were the bad guys, mean customers like Richard Wydmark, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach.

In fact, the whole world has been taken in by the romance of the Westerns and their endless gunfights, so much so that children from Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe enact their “Cowboys and Indians” skits, in which good and evil meet in mock battles that the side that is presumed to be good must win.

When families are raising their children they think nothing of buying toy pistols for their little sons and teaching them how to use them. Of course they don’t end up killing anyone, but the idea is there alright. Girls are usually spared this horrible mis-education.

Most countries have citizens who grew up watching these films and admire Western stars for their screen bravery, but have managed to keep the guns off the streets for the most part.

But the Americans, the originators of that story, have failed miserably. An American can walk into a gun shop, inspect a few firearms and say to the shopkeeper, “How much is that?” and if the price is right, walk out with a gun without any further inquiry. These days, you can buy them online too. No need to leave home.

Hardly a month goes by before you get to hear of another senseless shooting in the United States, for the most frivolous reasons.

In the latest one, a journalist in Virginia was fired because of aggressive behaviour in a television station. To illustrate just that, he came back more than a year later to kill his former colleagues while filming his own horrendous acts and later posting his thoughts on social media.

But we have had frustrated high school kids opening fire on their schoolmates and teachers because they got bad results; soldiers on base turning automatic fire on their officers and colleagues because they are bored to death; toddlers killing family members because they are trying to see if the gun works.

It is indeed weird that this country should be the only advanced one in which you can acquire a gun as easily as buying a bicycle.

That places America at the top of the list of loonies, not very far behind Pakistan and Afghanistan, where deadly guns can be bought from open stalls in the market.

Jenerali Ulimwengu is chairman of the board of the Raia Mwema newspaper and an advocate of the High Court in Dar es Salaam. E-mail: [email protected]

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