Interpol hears how illegal guns fuel SA violence

GUN crime specialists in South Africa say illegal guns are the main culprits of gun violence in the country.

They were part of nearly 500 participants from 100 countries who gathered virtually for the 5th Interpol Firearm Forensics Symposium to focus on preventive crime and gun strategies.

The three-day symposium, which will end today, was organised in co-operation with Ultra Electronics Forensic Technology.

Ballistic experts, forensic scientists, law-enforcement professionals, policy makers and public safety officials addressed the latest challenges that face law enforcement in firearm-related crime.

Interpol’s director of Operational Support and Analysis, Cyril Gout, said each firearm, each cartridge case and each bullet could become the precious asset that generated investigative leads in cases that would otherwise go undetected.

Through interactive sessions, participants explored the fundamental processes and technologies required for a successful firearms programme.

Those included building sustainable crime-gun strategies; the benefits of using multiple technologies to gather, intercept, trace, and compare illicit firearms material; understanding offenders and how they interact; and using Interpol as a central intelligence hub for firearms-related crime, including its ballistic information network.

A criminologist at Stellenbosch University’s political science department, Guy Lamb, said South Africa had been active in getting southern African countries to co-operate with sharing information about firearms used to commit crimes, illegal firearms, and firearms picked up in other countries that belonged to South Africa.

Police spokesperson Novela Potelwa said the Western Cape police, through its constant analysis of crime, had realised that illegal firearms were the main generators of serious violent crimes in the province.

She said based on that, every effort was being made to rid identified local communities of illegal firearms and ammunition.

Potelwa said in the majority of incidents of serious violent crimes such as murders, attempted murders, armed robberies, hijackings, business robberies and cash-in-transit robberies, the weapon of choice was firearms.