2011
‘Right then, we’re onto the gs and hs.’ Mrs Simpson ran her pen down the class register as she picked the debate teams for the following week. ‘That means Janice Garrett, Zoe Glynn and Noah Groome, you’ll be Team One. Nicholas Guthrie, Lungelo Hadebe, Peter Harper, Team Two.’
Noah wasn’t much good at debating – he was too concerned with making sure all data was delivered accurately, preferably from at least 3 credible sources. Not easy to deliver reams of information in the short time each speaker was allowed, especially when his team members were as concerned with inflaming passion and arousing indignation as they were with hitting the opposition with the facts. But hard facts were what Noah was good at. Give him a topic and he would research it until the last trail had run cold.
‘Look,’ said Zoe Glynn at break time, when they met to discuss the topic, ‘why don’t you second, Noah. Stick to the facts, dazzle them with graphics. I’ll open and Janice can conclude.’
‘Keep your side of things short and sweet,’ Janice added. ‘But don’t forget we’ll be relying on you, Noah. If they come up with info that’s inaccurate, let us know. Pass us a note or something.’
‘And you can help us with our prep,’ Zoe said. ‘Research as much as you can. Relevant stuff that they won’t be able to argue against.’
Noah nodded. That he could do. He’d get onto it at once, email them everything they needed. They could bring emotion, he’d provide the shocking, incontrovertible truth.
Gun Control or Gun Rights?
That was the topic Mrs Simpson had given them for the debate, and Zoe, Janice and Noah were arguing for Gun Control.
He set to work the moment he got home. Typing in key words, following leads from site to site, trying hard to concentrate on facts and figures as he clicked from stories of children killing other children with firearms found in the home, to suicides that might have been prevented if guns hadn’t been available, to gang-related shootings and active shooters out on a killing spree.
He watched clips from Bowling for Columbine, saw footage of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, found a list of the weapons they’d carried in duffel bags to kill their school mates: a pipe bomb that failed to go off; a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun; a 9-mm Carbine; a 9-mm semi-automatic handgun; and a 12-gauge, double-barrelled, sawn-off shotgun.
He saw Michael Moore opening a bank account and being given a free hunting rifle; he watched the two planes crashing into the World Trade Center to the accompaniment of ‘What a Wonderful World’.
He read articles that tried to explain the behaviour of recent shooters: theories ranging from narcissistic arrogance, to being bullied at school, to listening to alternative music, to religious mania, to schizophrenia. Irrespective of the circumstances and regardless of the justifications, Noah established one common denominator in the American shootings: most of the perpetrators had opened fire using legally obtained weapons.
Noah also found the stats for gun-related deaths and murders in South Africa. The Firearms Control Act 60 of 2000 was meant to regulate the ownership of guns by civilians, but there were still plenty of unlicensed weapons in circulation, many of them responsible for daily shootings and deaths.
The statistics were staggering. He watched YouTube clips of distraught mothers, fathers, teachers and friends calling for a halt to gun-related violence. It was shattering and, as he read on and watched more and more footage, mind-numbing.
He scrolled through multitudinous comments on gun sites where gun owners bemoaned the influence of ‘libtards’ who wanted to control them, violate their Second Amendment rights. He documented the weapons used in active shootings, showing how semi-automatic handguns outnumbered the use of other types of firearms. He compiled a list of suicides, accidental fatalities, homicides and justifiable homicides per capita per country, with a promise to Janice and Zoe that he’d construct graphs to push the point home.
There wasn’t time to collate everything, but after a couple of days he felt ready to send them his material. He listed the reasons proponents of gun rights gave for wanting to be allowed to buy guns, then countered each of those with arguments from people who demanded increased gun control. Janice and Zoe would have no shortage of ammunition – Noah winced at his inadvertent use of the word, remembered Michael Moore walking into Walmart and buying bullets over the counter.
He sent it all off midweek, leaving Janice and Zoe plenty of time to shape it into an impassioned argument for Monday’s debate. In the meantime he’d get to work on the graphics, let deep red blocks on bar charts illustrate the points they would be making.
Janice replied almost immediately: Thanks Noah! This research is gold. Wouldn’t it be great if we could get rid of all the guns in the world? 
Zoe’s email followed shortly.
Noah closed his laptop, leant back in his chair and stretched his arms over his head. He couldn’t imagine how Team 2 could find anything to dispute the hard evidence his team would present. His data spoke for itself.
And then, that Friday, 22 July 2011, in Norway, Anders Behring Breivik carried out 2 lone-wolf terrorist attacks. The first, a car bomb explosion in Oslo, killed 8 people and injured over 200. The second, an attack on the island of Utøya in Tyrifjorden, Buskerud, where the Workers’ Youth League of the Norwegian Labour Party had organised a summer camp. Wearing a fake police uniform, Breivik picked off young people with cool precision, killing 68, injuring more than 110. A 69th victim died 2 days after the massacre.
Noah sat in front of the tv, watching the news footage over and over again, flashing back to scenes from his research: mounds of flowers at the sites of mass shootings, accidental deaths, homicides, suicides … more funerals than he could bear to contemplate. And now there were going to be so many more.
Noah wondered if Mrs Simpson would cancel the debate. He hoped so. In the wake of such a brutal massacre, who needed even more evidence shoved down their throats? Breivik’s actions had taken Noah’s facts and turned them into the faces of grieving parents, classmates and teachers. This wasn’t something edited by Michael Moore to drive home a point, valid though that might be. This was raw, uncensored footage, and Noah found it devastating to watch.
The forces of the universe seemed to have gone berserk, off-course, rampaging wildly out of control. Noah felt the scales tipping. And then, 4 days later, all sense of balance was blown away.