We’ll never get rid of the guns, so there needs to be another solution

Science fiction – big fan. 80s stuff, ditto. So when it comes to talking about things from movies and books that could possibly become reality in our world, I’m all in.

Top of my favourite ‘fiction’ items from movies and books would certainly be a Light Sabre from Star Wars. I was eleven when that concept was first floated, and I was hooked on the idea of owning. I didn’t plan on spearing it through the heart of my enemy as happens in that galaxy Far, Far Away, I just wanted to run around waving it and having sword fights. Of course I wouldn’t need to make the phhhhmmmmm noise with my mouth if I  owned one…

The 1967 Batman movie saw the Caped Crusader pull an aerosol can out of his utility belt that contained shark repellent. He sprayed it on the shark that grabbed on to his leg, and the rest is history – after that the Joker, Riddler and Penguin didn’t stand a chance. In the 80s when the ‘Back To The Future’ movies came out I desperately wanted a hoverboard. Neither a weapon nor an item to change the world, it’s something that all gadget lovers saw potential in. If only. Back to Star Wars, Luke owned a Landspeeder, which was his version of a hoverboard. Obi Wan, that IS the kind of gadget I’m looking for J. Then the Harry Potter books introduced us to the Floo Network. You could jump into the fireplace and be transported anywhere else in the world that also had a fire. Free instantaneous transport, that’d take the sting out of the Uber industry, huh?

More recently and the reason for the waffle in this column, the greatest Australian fiction author of the 21st century (in my opinion), Matthew Reilly, came up with an idea that would seriously put a dent in much of the terrorist trauma our broken world is trying to deal with at the moment. If you aren’t a regular reader of the magnificent Reilly tomes, his leading characters are Indiana Jones-like, but with a steroid/turbo boost going on. One of his main characters, Jack West Junior had an Einstein-like offsider who invented all kinds of crazy stuff in the style of Light Sabres and Hoverboards. His best ever invention was The Warbler.

This guy, named Max, had invented an anti-gunfire device. He called it The Warbler. In a nutshell, it emits a magnetic field that deflects metallic flying objects that are travelling at supersonic speed – like bullets. So what, you say? Well, just think about it for a minute. In the books, the characters are able to activate the tennis ball sized warbler that’s in their backpack (or on their utility belt) and any bullets coming their way will veer off course, narrowly missing the intended target. Aha – now you’re thinking, aren’t you? If we could make larger versions of these Warblers and have their magnetic fields operating in and around our big cities, schools and major attractions (like Disneyland, the Opera House, etc), many of the terrorist acts that happen across the world couldn’t or wouldn’t occur. Sure, there’d still be knives and bombs, but maybe we could come up with some kind-of ‘warbler’ object to combat those too. That would circumvent Mr Trump’s (and others) obsessions with the right to bear arms, taking guns and shooters right out of the equation.

Of course, Max, the inventor of the Warbler, <spoiler alert> died from a wound by a crossbow. But he left our world with an idea that deserves a bit of beer-talk. Surely, there’s merit in the Warbler and everything it stands for … stopping the guns and the people who fire them.