Gun amnesty welcomed

Cops warned these firearms must not find their way back into communities

GUN FREE SA has welcomed Police Minister Bheki Cele’s call for amnesty to turn in guns without facing prosecution, but it warned about the leakage of confiscated guns back into communities.

At a media briefing on Thursday, Cele called for those with illegal firearms or those whose licences had expired to make use of the amnesty, and gave them six months, beginning on Sunday, to the end of May to turn them in and warned that police would have no mercy on those who failed to do so.

Gun Free SA director Adèle Kirsten said their concern was based on various incidents in which weapons handed in for destruction were leaked from police stores back onto the streets.

Kirsten said South Africa’s experience of holding amnesties confirmed how effective they were at recovering guns, including unwanted, unauthorised and illegal guns.

“Over 120 000 firearms and 1.8 million rounds of ammunition were recovered in the past three amnesties. Over one third of the guns and ammunition recovered in the 2005 and 2010 amnesties were illegally-held: 45 133 and 738 028 respectively,” Kirsten said.

She said that if the 2019/20 amnesty was undertaken as part of a comprehensive strategy aimed at recovering and destroying the existing pool of firearms and limiting the flow of new firearms into communities, it held the potential to begin reversing the country’s gun violence crisis.

Gun Owners SA’s (Gosa), in-house counsel Anika Rossle said Gosa had an interdict in place, stopping the police from taking away firearms of which the licence has expired. “These firearms do not fall into the category of an illegal firearm. There is currently a legal process being followed in order to deal with these firearms.”

Gosa chairperson Paul Oxley said they, however, have to stress and point out that Operation Firearm Amnesty 2019/20 was not a means to renew expired licences.

“There is no provision in the national directive for people with expired licences to do so. You can apply for an entirely new licence, but that is a different proposition entirely,” Oxley said.

Reagen Allen, MPL and the DA’s Western Cape spokesperson for community safety, said he would engage the standing committee on community safety in the province to make unannounced visits to stations to check compliance during the amnesty process, as he simply couldn’t trust that the police were able to safeguard returned firearms.

Six months… Police will show no mercy for non-compliance Bheki Cele POLICE MINISTER