Oscar Pistorius guilty: Found guilty of culpable homicide, athlete is led – briefly – to cells

The trial in Pretoria has sparked a fresh debate on gun laws and domestic violence in South Africa. Adèle Kirsten of the campaign group Gun Free South Africa, told The Independent: “The trial has made people rethink guns, and realise how lethal they are. They now think about how easy it is to pull the trigger and regret the outcome. If we look at this case, if there wasn’t a gun in the home she [Reeva Steenkamp] would have stood a chance of surviving. That’s the difference between guns and other weapons.”

Rebecca Peters, former director of the International Action Network on Small Arms, added: “Whether the man who fired four shots through the door was acting reasonably or unreasonably, whether he was affected by instincts, emotions or perceptions – analysis after the fact cannot change the ugly reality. She was yet another woman shot dead at home, in the place where she was most entitled to feel safe, by the man who should have been most committed to her well-being.”

Technically, the trial is over, even though there is already some indication the state may have grounds for appeal. Some South African lawyers have been quick to make public their view that Pistorius should have foreseen that his actions could kill, and that this is a case is murder dolus eventualis – a murder in which a person should have foreseen the possibility that someone could be killed, but went ahead anyway.

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