Can gun control reduce crime? One side of the debate says it does the opposite.
"We believe gun control is counterproductive, because it makes the working environment safer for crime," said Dr Peter Hammond, director of United Christian Action.
United Christian Action is an umbrella organisation for 20 bible-believing groups networked for social action.
"Gun control disarms victims," Hammond said. "It is affecting law-abiding people, because they are the ones who actually go through the process of obtaining a licence."
Gun control has again come to the fore in light of two recent shootings allegedly by mentally unstable men affiliated with the police force. One is an ex-police officer who killed four and wounded eight in the Northern Cape town of Postmasburg on Monday night after he raided the police station for weapons. The other is a policeman accused of shooting dead five Grassy Park garage attendants with a licenced gun.
Hammond says he wouldn't be supportive of testing all arms licence applicants for psychological disorders. "If you have people who have needed psychiatric attention, then they should be denied the opportunity to get (arms). But everyone can't be tested. You're innocent until proven guilty."
Hammond said the Grassy Park shooting makes a case for limiting firearms in the hands of government officials. "This is an example of dereliction of duty by the authorities, because this man shouldn't have been on the force."
Hammond claimed that the biggest threat to life is a government which asserts gun control. "Secular governments that have disarmed populations have killed 160 million people in the 20th century. All holocausts and genocides have been preceded by gun control."
He added: "You can't protect the right to life if you don't have the right to self-defence."