‘Owning a gun is like having a pit bull’
“WHAT you want is a Glock pistol,” Russell Kirk tells me. He is an instructor at the International Firearm Training Academy: Oscar Pistorius did some of his training at one of its centres.
“My 16-year-old daughter shoots a Glock no problem.”
As a first-time gun shopper, I have come to the right place, he says, handing me a pistol at his Krugersdorp, Gauteng, premises. It is plastic. “First train, then shoot. You can’t expect to hit a golf club as well as Tiger Woods.”
It is R950 for the course — one of many hurdles before you get to take a real gun home.
In the exam to qualify for a proficiency certificate, you will be quizzed on your knowledge of the Firearms Control Act and practical aspects of firearms safety, as well as principles of the Criminal Procedure Act and self-defence — when you may and may not shoot, for example.
At national qualifications framework level 3, says Anzebet Allardyce of firearms law specialists MJ Hood & Associates Attorneys, which facilitates the licensing process for clients, “it’s not rocket science”.
“Owning a gun is like having a pit bull,” says Kirk. “You have to know how to handle it.”
If you are not prepared to always keep a gun on you, do not even bother. Rather buy pepper spray, he says.
As a civilian, the maximum number of firearms you can apply for is one handgun for self-defence and three firearms for occasional sport shooting or hunting, or combinations of them, but you are allowed a maximum of two handguns.
Training is just the start: you need to be on the range often to sharpen your skills. It is easy to get drawn into the culture, says Kirk— “shooting is fun”.
I head to another of the many gun dealer-training centres in South Africa. Competition is fierce.
At Guthrie’s Shooting Range in Midrand, range sheriff Andrew du Preez, twentysomething and tattooed, slides a pistol and bag of bullets to me through security bars. For R350, under his supervision, you can test a range of firearms without a licence. “Don’t strangle a gun,” he says at the range. “Hold it like a handshake. With guns, it’s hard to break bad habits.”
I fire and bullet shells explode around my feet. I taste sulphur. He rummages in the safe again and pulls out a rifle. I have done pretty well, he says. “You scored two in the heart.”
I get to take my riddled paper target home. He shows me different gun models, rattling off the pros and cons. It is like shopping for shoes.
After your exam, you must pass the practical test on the range. “If you fail, you just do it again. Most people pass the first time,” says Du Preez.
Says Kirk: “In the old days, the bigger the gun the better. Now it’s about shot placement. One good shot is worth 10 misses.”
It is not that hard— think of it as a driver’s licence test, he says. “I’ve had senior citizens passing.”
The training centre issuing your proficiency certificates is just the start. Next, you need to apply for a competency certificate, which, if granted, allows you to possess a certain category of firearm, depending on what training unit standards you did.
“You must show up at your local police station with two referees who will vouch for you — nonfamily members who have known you for more than five years — as well as your spouse or partner, and a sense of humour to deal with the red tape,” says Allardyce. They will also take fingerprints to enable the Criminal Record Centre to do a criminal record check.
But there is more to go if you get your competency and then want to apply for a firearm licence: you must now submit a comprehensive motivation, which her firm often helps clients with.
“Some are up to 200 pages — for one gun.” Self-defence guns — such as the Taurus handgun Pistorius used to kill Reeva Steenkamp, for example — are a special case.
“You need to prove a need to possess the gun and that you can’t protect yourself by any other means. You can’t just cut out robbery articles from the newspaper and hand them in.”
There are 84 possible refusal reasons, from “You failed to convince the registrar that circumstances exist that necessitate the possession of the firearm” to “You indicated . . . that the area you live in is not safe, however, you failed to provide supporting documentation.”
Allardyce says: “If your application is refused, you can wait a substantial time to be provided with the refusal reasons, if ever.”
Her firm overturns about nine out of 10 rejections. How long can it take to acquire a licence? “How long is a piece of string?”