Johannesburg -
These are three ways guns are diverted into the illegal weapons pool: they are smuggled in from neighbouring countries; stolen from licensed gun owners – 50 a day – and fraud, corruption and poor implementation of the firearms licensing system.
But getting rid of the illegal guns that proliferate on the country’s streets is no easy task.
“When it comes to handing in illegal firearms, the international examples in the US and Brazil have proven it does not work, criminals have guns for a reason,” points out Martin Hood, of the SA Gun Owners Association. “They are not going to give up the tools of their trade.”
This week, the ANC announced proposed legislation seeking to close loopholes and tighten existing measures to limit access to guns that “end up in the wrong hands”.
But Martin is sceptical of any gun amnesty. “Between 2004 and 2013, legal firearm owners handed in a million guns. Virtually no illegal weapons were handed in. The police recovered some, but it shows that people who have got guns illegally do not want to hand them in because they are using them for illegal reasons.”
Commenting on the timing of the ANC’s announcement, in the wake of Bafana Bafana captain Senzo Meyiwa’s murder, Martin believes that politicians were capitalising on his death.
“What we’re hearing now is politicians who want to be seen to doing something when government has failed to protect its citizens. In both the Senzo case and that of Oscar Pistorius, if the law had been properly applied, and the police had done their jobs, we wouldn’t have such high levels of violent crime. It is going up, notwithstanding the Firearms Control Act. The police are not catching criminals and putting them in jail.”
Claire Taylor, of Gun Free SA, says “we must caution against amendments that are a knee-jerk response in light of these high-profile crimes”. Any amendments to existing gun legislation has to be “comprehensive, informed and really address loopholes”.
Since the Firearms Control Act was promulgated, the number of people shot and killed in South Africa has halved from 34 to 18 every day. “That’s still too many, but it’s a huge improvement.”
The country can rid itself of illegal weapons, she says. “There have been strategies to deal with the illegal pool of weapons in the country and we strongly support amnesty and any attempt to encourage the public to report illegal firearms and unregistered firearms.”
She cites how in the 2010 gun amnesty, of the 32 169 firearms recovered, 27 percent were illegal.
Taylor points out how civilians lose 12 times more guns than police officers, and how handguns are used in most gun crimes.
“Strictly limiting who owns what gun for which purpose would help reduce the leakage of licensed guns into the illegal pool,” she says.
This week, SA Football Association Danny Jordan, speaking at a memorial for the murdered soccer star, suggested it wanted to “take illegal guns to the furnace and build a statue of Senzo Meyiwa” that would “stand in front of Safa house”.
While Hood remarks that the “statue would have no substance as criminals who have illegal guns will not hand in their guns”, Taylor believes it’s a great idea. “It’s happened around the world, with people making statues and jewellery out of illegal guns. Even Charlize Theron has convinced Sean Penn to destroy his guns to turn them into a piece of art.”
- Saturday Star