More than 21 000 South Africans have rejected the government’s proposed ban on owning guns for self-defence through the campaign mounted by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) against the draft Firearms Control Amendment Bill.
In addition, more than 200 000 people have registered their opposition through other civil rights organisations and political parties.
Public comment on the bill closed on Monday.
The IRR said in a statement yesterday that in addition to making it illegal to register a gun for self-defence, the ‘reckless and dangerous proposals’ in the draft legislation would impose onerous burdens on those who use firearms for business purposes, such as hunting, sport, heritage collecting, and the film industry.
South Africa -Time is running out to surrender illegal firearms and avoid prosecution
While noting the insufficiency of data, the IRR pointed out that available data ‘suggests that the introduction of the Firearms Control Act (FCA) two decades ago had no … positive effect on violent crime in general and murder in particular. Murder rates were declining rapidly before the FCA, but that decline slowed after the law was implemented. The murder rate then began to increase over a period, since 2011, when estimated private firearm ownership decreased. Any suggestion to the contrary requires evidence that has not been produced.’
It said that, set against the UN finding that South Africa had the 10th highest murder rate in the world in 2019, ‘denying people the right to defend themselves amounts to a denial of the right to life, security, and psychological and bodily integrity, all guaranteed by the Constitution’.
The IRR argued that in several respects, ‘procedural requirements have not been adhered to by the Police Secretariat in drafting the proposed amendments’, and that the ‘draft amendment is so extensive as to amount to an entirely new legal framework, which is not an amendment at all’.
Said IRR head of campaigns Gabriel Crouse: ‘Police reform is needed. If July taught us anything it is that. The thin blue line between ordinary citizens and looters turned out to be a rainbow coalition of armed neighbours. To take guns away now would send a clear message to looters, “Try again, this time there will be no resistance”.’
Crouse added: “The current draft amendment must be scrapped, evidence must be gathered, and the Secretariat needs to get real about its own failures. Stakeholders must be consulted, a clear and up-to-date impact-assessment must be conducted, and the right to life must be respected. This is not a nice-to-have, it is a must-have, according to our Constitution.”
