Private gun ownership is not the root of violent crime

HAVING just finished reading criminologist Mark Shaws new book entitled it is an absolute revelation to finally understand where the problem of illicit guns on the Cape Flats actually lies.

It appears that it is not in fact a handful of privately-owned stolen firearms that are fuelling the shootings on the Cape Flats, but the very system that is mandated to protect society that’s to blame. The system has failed. The gun registry, although in a mess, is not entirely to blame. The continued bleating by Gunfree SA is partially to blame, by them incorrectly pointing the finger at private gun ownership as being the source of the problem. As we now know, private gun ownership was never part of the problem.

Suggestions by Gunfree SA, that responsible private gun ownership and the issuing of private firearm licences is part of the problem, is a work of fiction. Amnesties have been a total waste of time and resources, as very few of the close to 400 000 expired licence holders actually handed their guns in for destruction. Those, like me, that have reapplied for a new license after handing our guns in for ballistic testing during the last amnesty, after inadvertently allowing the five-year licence to expire, now wait with trepidation as Pretoria makes a decision as to the merits of such applications.

The cost in time and money during these amnesties must run into tens of millions of rand. And all for what?

How many expired gun licensed firearms were found to be used in the commission of a crime? Probably none. Who would hand a gun in for re-licensing if it was used in the commission of a crime? It follows then that all the guns that were destroyed were crime free.

The point is that it was never private gun ownership nor expired gun licences that was the cause of the thousands Sof illicit guns circulating on the Cape Flats. According to criminologist Mark Shaw more than 9 000 firearms were pilfered and stolen from the state armoury since his investigation began about 3 years ago. The salient point is that despite all the gun amnesties, despite the state’s destruction of thousands of expired license firearms, suggestions that private gun ownership for self defence purposes would no longer be valid ... Despite all of this, there is not a shred of evidence to suggest that honest law abiding responsible gun owners are in any way connected to the thousands of illicit guns circulating on the Cape Flats.

COLIN BOSMAN | Newlands