GUN LAWS ARE IRRELEVANT TO ILLEGAL WEAPONS
EVERY time I open a newspaper I shudder at the number of murders reported on almost every page. What a mob of vicious barbarians we appear to be.
The usual reaction to these stories of casual murder is to cry: “we need to have stricter gun control laws!”
This is actually not a solution at all. Our gun control laws are already as strict as can be. Anybody who has ever applied for a gun licence will know the lengthy process involved. You have to obtain a certificate of competence, own a secure gun safe, have your police record checked and fill in numerous forms and answer questions all along the line.
If you’ve ever had a gun stolen from you, forget about getting another licence. The reason stricter gun laws won’t help is that gun crimes are almost all committed with illegal firearms.
Legal firearms are seldom used for criminal purposes. Obviously all the laws in the world will be helpless in controlling firearms that are outside the law to begin with.
You may as well lay down speed limits for seagulls. Recent figures show there are 2.3 million legal firearm owners in South Africa. Compare this to the estimated 7 million illegal guns in circulation and you get some idea of the size of the problem.
Most of those illegal weapons are obtained from the police or armed forces. Reliable sources say about 3 000 firearms have been lost annually by the police.
Many more are brought in across our very porous borders or obtained from corrupt officials.
Fewer than 0.0003% of murders in South Africa are committed using legal firearms. The people owning legally licensed weapons are highly unlikely to use them to commit crimes.
After the rigmarole of getting the firearm licensed it’s rather easy to trace. Even if it is used in selfdefence, there will be a rigorous police investigation.
We often read reports of the police conducting searches and confiscating hundreds of unlicensed weapons.
I wonder what happens to them. Does anybody believe they are destroyed, or simply cease to exist? I doubt it.
I suspect they find their way back into circulation somehow, ready to be used in more violent crimes. Our problem is not gun ownership – it’s illegal gun ownership. An unlicensed weapon can be used to commit a murder and then simply tossed away in the nearest trash bin. Or returned to the owner’s pocket.
There’s no record of it. Changing the gun control laws is not the answer to our crime problem. Licensed firearms are not a threat. We need to make a concerted effort to remove and destroy illegal weapons.
Maybe boatloads of confiscated weapons should be taken out to sea from time to time and dumped in the deepest ocean in front of independent witnesses.
There’s no need to change existing gun laws. Last Laugh
The porter of an elegant fivestar hotel was strolling through the foyer whistling, when the manager stopped him and reprimanded him.
“Don’t you know the staff are not allowed to whistle while on duty?” he demanded.
“I wasn’t whistling, sir,” said the porter. “I was paging a poodle.”