Cape Town living in shadow of the gun
More people are paralysed by gunshots than by car crashes
FOR every person shot and killed in gun violence on the Cape Flats, as many as six others survive but are often left with severe disabilities. This is according to a global study called Gun Violence, Disability and Recovery, looking at South Africa’s gun-related death rates.
Richard Matzopoulos, a senior specialist scientist at the Medical Research Council, said there was an increasing trend in gun homicides in Cape Town, from 2010.
He said more than 15 000 people have been left paralysed since 1994 as a result of gun-related injuries, adding that incidence peaks in young adult men.
One of those injured by a gunman’s bullet in 1998, is a young man from Bishop Lavis. He did not wish to be named.He was out with friends in Bishop Lavis when a fight ensued and shots rang out moments later.
“The bullet hit me from my side in my spine. I woke up in the hospital with two pipes coming out of me. There was no blood on my clothes, I bled on the inside and they had to drill holes in me.”
He said that he was determined to not be bedridden and three weeks into his twomonth hospital stay, he began working on moving.
“I found a wheelchair at the hospital and I forced myself to get up and started exercises. I couldn’t stand being in bed like that.”
Even though the incident happened in 1998, his life has never been the same.
Gun Free SA’s Claire Taylor said, from hospital data in the Western Cape, more people are being paralysed by gunshots than car crashes. Normally it would be car crashes that are the biggest cause but latest data indicates that it is gunshot incidents.
Taylor said it was an indication of how bad the issue of guns in communities is.
“These guns are increasingly stolen and being used against children and innocent people. At the moment the mortuary data is very extensive and they are able to track the influx in terms of gun death rates.”
Gun violence can only happen when there’s a gun; the fewer guns there are, the less the risk of death or injury, including permanent disability.
She added that strong gun laws can and do save lives, if they are properly enforced.
“Poor enforcement kills, injures, permanently disables and costs individuals, families, communities and South Africa as a whole. As such, we call on government to:
enforce the Firearms Control Act, this includes: Immediate implementation of measures to stop firearms leaking from SAPS stores, as was the case with ex-SAPS Colonel Christiaan Prinsloo.”
The report stated that using South Africa’s gun-related death rate, between 16 and 18 people survive an incident a day.
It also said that gun-related injuries are more complicated to treat than stab or blunt injuries.
“The impact of gun violence is complicated, having physical, social, psychological and financial costs; it causes pain and suffering for those who survive a shooting, as well as for the family and friends of those killed or injured. But it is not only those who are shot and their loved ones who pay; we all pay to cover the costs.”