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by Alex Broun

This play is free to download and perform. The only condition is that you must email Alex Broun at abroun@bigpond.net.au and let him know where and when you produced his script, listing the director, cast and theatre. Good luck with the production !

www.alexbroun.com email: abroun@bigpond.net.au

June 2010

Characters EMMA

PLAYWRIGHTS NOTE The guns can be as realistic or non-realistic as the director or designer desires. They can be represented by replicas, toys or even as blocks of wood. It is only important that one of the objects used clearly stands out as the red gun.

3 EMMA ENTERS CARRYING A LARGE BOX. SHE STANDS CENTRE STAGE. PAUSE. EMMA EMPTIES THE BOX, 50 GUNS CLATTER ON TO STAGE. ALL ARE BLACK EXCEPT ONE, WHICH IS RED AND EASILY IDENTIFIABLE. EMMA PICKS UP A GUN. EMMA: I have always been fascinated by guns. Their sleekness, their shinyness, the elegance of their design. 1. Friday, October 25th, 1415. An unknown English soldier killed by a French soldier at the Battle of Agincourt. The first person ever killed by a gun SHE PLACES THE GUN IN THE BOX. Guns know who they are. They do not experience existential doubt. Whatever happens the gun is still a gun. SHE PICKS UP ANOTHER GUN. 2. 15 July 1974. Christine Chubbuck, an American television news reporter, committed suicide during a live broadcast. At 9:38 am, 8 minutes into her talk show, on WXLT-TV in Sarasota, Florida, she drew out a revolver and shot herself in the head. Bet the ratings were good that day. SHE PLACES THE GUN IN THE BOX. Some say guns are evil. Anything created solely for the purpose of destroying other human beings must be evil. SHE PICKS UP ANOTHER GUN. 3. 1995, Canberra, Australia. A 39 year old man committed suicide by shooting himself three times with a pump action shotgun. The first shot passed through his chest and went out the other side. He reloaded and shot away his throat and part of his jaw. Breathing through the wound in his throat, he again reloaded, held the gun against his chest with his hands and operated the trigger with his toes. This shot entered the thoracic cavity and demolished the heart, killing him. He really wanted to die. SHE PLACES THE GUN IN THE BOX. Murder is easy. It's a terrible thing to say but murder is easy. The act itself is simple. You point the gun and pull the trigger. Easy. If that doesn't work, you do it again.

4 SHE PICKS UP ANOTHER GUN. 4. Seven students and the principal of Jokela High School, Tuusula, Finland. Shot dead by a fellow student before turning the gun on himself. "I, as a natural selector, will eliminate all who I see unfit, disgraces of human race and failures of natural selection." That is power and the gun gives you that power. SHE PLACES THE GUN IN THE BOX. SHE PICKS UP ANOTHER ONE. 5. Man in carpark, Lexington, Kentucky. USA. A gunman fired shots outside the Joseph-Beth bookstore and killed a man in the parking lot, while actor William Shatner was inside shopping. Shatner owns a nearby horse farm. SHE PLACES THE GUN IN THE BOX. SHE PICKS UP ANOTHER ONE. March 12, 2006. Yusufiyah, Iraq. Soldiers of the 502nd Infantry Regiment entered 14-year-old Abeer Qassim Hamzas house and ordered Abeers father (GUN IN THE BOX), mother (GUN IN THE BOX) and six-year-old sister (GUN IN THE BOX) into another room where Pfc. Steven Green summarily shot all in the head, emerging to say, "I just killed them." Abeer was held down to the floor by another soldier. Green and at least one other soldier then raped Abeer, and then Green shot and killed her. The lower part of Abeers body, was then set on fire. SHE PLACES THE GUN IN THE BOX. Murder is easy. SHE PICKS UP ANOTHER GUN. Christopher Pitcock, 17, Oakland, California, USA. Investigators say the shooting was a robbery gone awry. The gun used was a .38 caliber Smith and Wesson revolver. According to a report the Smith and Wesson .38 is the most popular gun used in violent crime in the USA. SHE PLACES THE GUN IN THE BOX

5 Guns also have no conscience. They do not feel remorse or ask for redemption. SHE PICKS UP ANOTHER GUN. March 31st, 1993, Brandon Lee, Wilmington, North Carolina on the set of The Crow Lee was killed after another actor fired a prop gun at him. A squib load was lodged in the barrel of the handgun. When the blank was fired, the bullet shot out and hit Lee in the abdomen, wounding him fatally. SHE PLACES THE GUN IN THE BOX. And guns can not undo what they have done. You can't pull the trigger and bring somebody back. No matter how much you might want to, the genie can never go back in the bottle. Once the bullet leaves - its never coming back. SHE COMES ACROSS THE RED GUN. SHE LOOKS AT THE GUN. BEAT. SHE MOVES AWAY AND PICKS UP ANOTHER GUN. (QUICKLY) Aaron Vickers - Ruger 9 mm semiautomatic (SHE PLACES THE GUN IN THE BOX) Jason Abbott - Lorcin Engineering .380 semiautomatic (SHE PLACES A GUN IN THE BOX), Billie Jo Ace - Raven Arms .25 semiautomatic (SHE PLACES A GUN IN THE BOX), Jorge Alcantar - Mossberg 12 gauge shotgun (SHE PLACES A GUN IN THE BOX) Michael Daniel Alexander - Smith and Wesson 9mm semiautomatic (SHE PLACES A GUN IN THE BOX), Earl Booker Juniour Smith and Wesson .357 revolver (SHE PLACES A GUN IN THE BOX), Maria Ragland Davis, Bryco Arms .380 semiautomatic (SHE PLACES A GUN IN THE BOX), Sukhwinder Singh Dhaliwal, Davis Industries .380 semiautomatic (SHE PLACES A GUN IN THE BOX),

6 SHE COMES ACROSS THE RED GUN AGAIN, SHE LOOKS AT IT AGAIN. BEAT. August 19th, 1994. Simon Peters, 20, Sheppardton, Victoria, Australia. SHE MOVES AWAY FROM THE RED GUN AND PICKS UP ANOTHER GUN. Jim Mullins, 64, Rutledge Pike, Tennessee, USA. Mullins' regular customers at the Discount store knew where he kept his .38-caliber pistol. The killer knew, too. Mullins was killed with a bullet to the head - all for a cash register with just enough bills to make change. SHE PLACES THE GUN IN THE BOX, PICKS UP ANOTHER ONE. 2nd of March, 1853. Fort Tennett, Texas Lieutenant Frederick Denman went out to hunt and fish with a brother officer, when by the accidental discharge of a rifle in the hands of his companion he was fatally shot in the knee. Unlucky. SHE PLACES THE GUN IN THE BOX AND PICKS UP ANOTHER ONE. 1802, exact date unknown. Outside Sydney, Australia. Pemulwuy, legendary Australian Aboriginal rainbow warrior. Shot dead by Henry Hacking outside Sydney in 1802. On the orders of Governor King his head was cut off and sent to England. SHE PLACES THE GUN IN THE BOX AND PICKS UP ANOTHER ONE. Sitting Bull, December 15, 1890. Shot by Indian Police leading to the Massacre of Wounded Knee. SHE PLACES THE GUN IN THE BOX AND PICKS UP ANOTHER ONE. (PACE QUICKENING) Mahmoud Qabha, 5 years old, a Palestinian boy, killed by an Israeli soldier after opening fire on a Palestinian car at a checkpoint in the West Bank. SHE PLACES THE GUN IN THE BOX AND PICKS UP ANOTHER ONE.

7 Ilana Turgeman, she was 15, Maa lot, Israel. One of 22 Israeli students killed by three members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine in a massacre in a local high school. SHE PLACES THE GUN IN THE BOX AND PICKS UP ANOTHER ONE. Donald Coffey, 7-years-old, Texas, USA. May 10, 2009. Hit in the face by a shotgun blast while sitting on the back seat of his dad's car after a family outing. The couple who killed him had posted a sign on their land saying: 'Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be re-shot!! Smile - I will. SHE PLACES THE GUN IN THE BOX AND PICKS UP ANOTHER ONE. Quainta Hynman, aged 8, Arouca, Trinidad and Tobago, shot five times by the gunman on the upper and lower back. Found dead by his grandmother lying in a pool of blood SHE PLACES THE GUN IN THE BOX AND PICKS UP ANOTHER ONE. Minneola, Florida, a10-year-old girl, shot in the back as she was eating breakfast by her 9-year-old brother. He must have really hated his sister. SHE PLACES THE GUN IN THE BOX AND PICKS UP ANOTHER ONE. 13-year-old Nathan Bellar of Lakeland, Florida, watched his father gun down his step mother, Wendy Bellar (PLACES THE GUN IN THE BOX), as she tried to take her sons to their grandparents. Nathan ran back through the house and heard his father shoot his younger brothers - Ryan Patrick Bellar, 8, (PLACES A GUN IN THE BOX), and Zack James Bellar, 5 months (PLACES A GUN IN THE BOX). His father, Troy Ryan Bellar, 34, then chased Nathan through the cluttered garage and took aim, but tripped on a bicycle before he could get off the fatal shot. As Nathan ran screaming to the safety of a neighbor's house, the father killed himself on the front lawn. (PLACES A GUN IN THE BOX) (PICKS ANOTHER GUN) Rhys Jones, 11, shot dead in Liverpool, England as he enjoys a kick-about. SHE PLACES A GUN IN THE BOX AND ONCE MORE COMES ACROSS THE RED GUN.

8 Simon Peters was baby-sitting his 11-year-old sister, Emma, and a 12-year-old neighbor at the time of the shooting, which was reported just after 7 p.m. Monday at Peters home. BEAT. SHE PLACES THE GUN IN THE BOX AND PICKS UP ANOTHER ONE. SUDDENLY FAST AGAIN. Andy Warhol (GUN IN THE BOX) Gianni Versace (GUN IN THE BOX) Marvin Gaye (GUN IN THE BOX) Tupac Shakur (GUN IN THE BOX) Selena (GUN IN THE BOX) John Lennon (GUN IN THE BOX), Adolf Hitler (GUN IN THE BOX) SHE COMES ACROSS THE RED GUN AGAIN. Simon, who recently had enlisted in the Air Force and was due to leave for pilot training in Sydney, was showing his prize pistol to his little sister and the neighbor. Robert F Kennedy (GUN IN THE BOX), John F Kennedy (GUN IN THE BOX), Lee Harvey Oswald (GUN IN THE BOX), Abraham Lincoln (GUN IN THE BOX), Ghandi (GUN IN THE BOX), ONCE MORE SHE IS CONFRONTED BY THE RED GUN. Peters practiced competitive shooting, a sport he had pursued since high school, and was familiar with gun safety, friends say. "My ultimate goal is to go to the 2012 Olympics in London," he wrote on his Facebook page. Che Guevara (GUN IN THE BOX) Malcolm X (GUN IN THE BOX) Martin Luther King (GUN IN THE BOX)

9 The person who was killed by a gun while Im saying this sentence. SHE PLACES THE GUN IN THE BOX. NOW ONLY THE RED GUN REMAINS. Simon took the magazine out of the pistol and gave the gun to his sister, unaware that a round was left in the weapon. SHE SLOWLY PICKS UP THE GUN. His sister Emma pulled the trigger, hitting her older brother in the head. Peters was pronounced dead on the scene by emergency personnel. "It was accidental," said local Senior Detective Andrew Macklin. "There was no foul play. This is a terrible tragedy. One that his sister will have to live with (SHE LOOKS AT THE AUDIENCE) for all my life. LIGHTS SLOWLY FADE.