Gun Free SA has found that over the past two years, there has been an increase in guns stolen/lost by police officers.
The organisation said guns stolen or lost by police went from 566 in 2020/21 to 715 guns in 2021/22.
Researcher at Gun Free SA Claire Taylor, said that the numbers of stolen/lost guns from civilians in the Western Cape alone had declined dramatically in the last two years, though it is unclear whether it’s due to fewer guns being lost or stolen, or that fewer civilians are reporting loss or theft.
Taylor said statistics depict 2008/9 as the year with the most lost or stolen firearms nationally by civilians and 2009/10 as the year with the most stolen firearms by police. In 2008/9, 12,883 firearms were stolen by civilians, and 35 were stolen per day and 2009/10 saw 3814 firearms stolen by police. 2021/22 saw an increase of stolen firearms by police from 566 in 2020/21 to 712 in 2021/22.
Taylor said gun deaths are linked to gun availability.
“Stricter gun legislation and the enforcement thereof reduces gun availability, which results in fewer people being shot and killed.”
Former SAPS commander Jeremy Vearey is the strategic advisor to Gun Free SA and said that the requirement of a gun licenses should be reviewed.
“Many of the gun owners get a license on merits of self-defence. It is also important to take into perspective the area the license holder resides. Is self-defence a good enough reason in an area with low crime? This increases the pool of firearms that could in the long run be misplaced or stolen, increasing the potential of illicit guns. Many of these gun owners have never even been to a shooting range,” he said.
Vearey said that South Africa should adopt what the US has begun adopting, and that is smart guns. He said that smart guns require the fingerprints of the owner, without them the gun cannot be used.
Jenni Irish-Qhobosheane, a senior analyst at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Crime said that illicit firearms were still available and thriving because of gangs and taxi associations.
“Gangs have access to firearms. They always have. The gang market becomes profitable through drugs, and through the profit, more guns are consumed. We have seen in various taxi spats, how gun violence becomes evident. The taxi industry too for the most part is part of the illicit gun industry,” she said.
Irish-Qhobosheane said that in the 1990s, guns were smuggled across the border, with Namibia being one of the countries that produce a large bulk of the illicit guns. She said that things have changed and that the business of illicit gun trade is now taking place domestically mostly.
Irish-Qhobosheane said that through research she has identified that the domestic illicit gun operations thrive through state resources.
“The SANDF has a high number of firearms that ‘go missing’ with no proper numbers given. Another state institution that has guns that go ‘missing’ is state security and metro police.The poor reporting of numbers of guns going missing in these departments is a cause of high concern,” she said.
Police spokesperson Malcolm Pojie said it conducted visits to ascertain compliance and verify if they had not obtained large amounts of ammunition.
“The proliferation of ammunition remains a matter of grave concern. Therefore, as per our Standard Operational Procedures (SOP), regular visits to dealers, at least once per quarter, are conducted on a regular basis.
“During inspection at dealers, the sale and quantities of calibres of ammunition that’s sold, are monitored as the Act put certain limitations on the possession of ammunition by certain categories of licences. DFO’s conducted visits to dealers to obtain the information as requested, as part of the preparation for the state of readiness on 2023-03-20,” said Pojie.
SAPS Western Cape said the use of firearms to commit crime will always be of concern, especially firearms and ammunition illegally obtained for such purposes.
“Firearms and ammunition illegally in possession of individuals are recovered regularly by SAPS and other law enforcement agencies,” Pojie said.