Oscar Pistorius: Textbook Paranoid Gun Owner?

[SecularMotion]

The case against Oscar Pistorius continued today as his defense attorney tried his best to throw doubt on the professionalism of law enforcement and validity of the evidence against his client.

Barry Roux’s cross-examination of police photographer Barend Van Staden went on for much of Tuesday. During the cross-examination, Roux tried to insist that the items photographed had been tampered with or moved around, making the re-construction of the murder scene questionable.

This move to undermine the evidence is the only realistic counter-attack available to Roux whose client Pistorius has been held up as the standard of the textbook paranoid gun owner by the prosecution.

It is an image that could actually validate Pistorius’s version of events and convince Judge Thokozile Masipa that the Olympic athlete genuinely believed his life to be in danger. It could also help him avoid a lengthy prison term.

http://www.webpronews.com/oscar-pistorius-textbook-paranoid-gun-owner-2014-03

[LuvNewcastle]

1. I think Pistorius is on his way to prison, and that's where he belongs.

To fire a gun at someone when you know your girlfriend is also in the apartment goes way beyond being paranoid and irresponsible. I think he shot her in a fit of rage and I think he feels remorse for it, which is why he's been so emotional at the trial. Whether he feels remorseful for the loss of life he caused or whether he feels remorse for himself and the position he's in, I cannot say.

[catbyte]

2. I don't have any faith in any court anywhere if there's a white guy on trial for shooting

somebody. I am completely jaded and cynical at this point. Now, if he'd been a woman or his skin was a few shades darker, yeah, he'd get busted. We'll see if a South African court is more just than ours or if they'll buy his boo hoo poor me act.

[lapislzi]

3. I think that is too simplistic.

While true that Pistorius IS paranoid and IS a gun nut, there's way more to this story. He's an abuser, he's a product of a culture of white entitlement, and the thread tying it all together is the unique nature of racism in South Africa. I'm sure he feels legitimately threatened (as many privileged white South Africans do) by the "blecks" (sic). As an entitled white guy, he probably possesses a misogynistic streak shared by many of his ilk.

As I've said before on these boards, when I lived in South Africa, I met a hundred or more guys just like him.

[Orrex]

4. The cops' lack of professionalism caused Pistorious to shoot his girlfriend?

Now that's a solid defense.

[AngryAmish]

5. And taking a ton of steroids...

[bettyellen]

6. he was another negligent gun owner that had been involved in "accidents" before - claiming the gun

"went off" when he did not pull the trigger. They should have been taken away from him after the incident at the restaurant.
The paranoia might be there too, it's his explaination (just like you hear here) that he "needed a gun".
But first and foremost, he treated that thing like a toy, had been involved in improper firing of a gun and endangering others a few times.