New research has revealed that the number of gun-related deaths in South Africa has virtually halved over the past five years.
The Institute for Security Studies, an independent small arms researcher (and anti-gun lobbyist), believe that the drop is a result of the implementation of the Firearms Control Act of 2000.
The act saw a tightening of regulations and legislation related to gun ownership.
Adele Kirsten, founding member of Gun Free South Africa and an independent researcher for small arms as well as a member of the Gun Control Alliance, hailed the research by the University of South Africa (Unisa) as very encouraging.
"These statistics are amazing, particularly in the Western Cape where there is almost a 50 percent reduction."
The dramatic statistics were revealed by the Institute for Security Studies in a presentation to parliament.
South Africa's National Injury Mortality Surveillance System administered by Unisa since 1999 found that firearms were used to kill more than 6 000 South Africans in 2004.
Guy Lamb of the Institute for Security studies explained that despite the high figure it was slightly just more than half the number of deaths in 2001.
Lamb, who is head of the institute's Arms Management Programme presented a report last week to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Safety and Security on the Firearms Control Amendment Bill.
The act has introduced a wide range of control measures from re-licensing firearms, restrictions on the number of guns a person can own, the minimum age you can legally acquire a gun and rigorous background checks on potential gun owners.
Lamb said availability and abuse of firearms continued to contribute to the high levels of violent crime in South Africa.
He told Weekend Argus on Friday that the Unisa report looked at mortuary deaths statistics rather than police reports.
The researchers collated the numbers of unnatural deaths in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.
The data is divided up into various categories, one of which is "gun-related deaths", which would include murders, suicides and accidents.
"What is really interesting about the information they have provided is that while other unnatural deaths (such as suicides, stabbings, drownings) have remained constant the gun-related deaths have dropped almost by 50 percent."
Lamb stated on the institute's website, that 86 percent of firearm-related deaths were the result of violence, with the remainder attributed to suicide (13 percent) or accidents (less than one percent).
Another interesting statistic showed that more than 80 percent of victims of firearms violence were men, and the majority were between 20 and 39.
The recent spate of police officers being killed has catapulted gun violence into the spotlight, but Lamb said that this is by no means a new development.
"Over the past decade more than a thousand police personnel have died or been injured by bullets."
Lamb said, using these statistics the institute assessed the overall South African picture to try to assess what was the cause of this marked and specific decline in gun-related deaths.
"There was no violence reducing strategy, major community crime initiatives or police operations."
The findings pointed to the gun control law as being the primary reason for the reduction in gun violence.
Effectively what was happening was that the pool of guns in South Africa was becoming smaller, making it harder for criminals to access a firearm.
"The new act will establish more restrictions and the people who shouldn't own firearms don't."
"The new legislation is making it practically impossible to get a gun licence, if you are not a hunter or sport shooter."
He added that many people were irresponsible and either lost their guns or had them stolen.
"Very often these guns are recovered when they are involved in crimes."
He cited an example situations where children get hold of their parent's guns and either shoot themselves, their parents or take them to school.
Two weeks ago a 14-year-old girl was shot by a classmate at Bonteheuwel High School.
In the presentation to parliament, the institute lobbied for the government to tighten the gun control law in certain areas such as in the rules for lending a firearm to another person.
Currently the law only requires the person to handle and use the gun in your presence but has no stipulation on that person's age or their background of violence.
Independent researcher Kirsten said that the data spoke for itself and she felt confident that, "unreservedly and absolutely that the number of gun deaths is decreasing."
She said that the statistics covered a period of about five years, which was enough to start plotting some sort of trend.
"We still have high levels of violence - that is definite - but I feel that strengthening the system's laws is an important mechanism in reducing deaths."