In 2000, despite vocal opposition from South Africa’s gun lobby, the Firearms Control Act was passed and promulgated in 2004.
Published research attributes the steady decline in violence in SA between 2000 and 2010 to a decline in gun violence resulting from stricter gun controls associated with the Firearms Control Act (2000)
• The “strength, timing, and consistency of the decline in (the number of people shot and killed in five South African cities between 2001 and 2005) suggest that stricter gun control through the FCA accounted for a significant decrease in homicide overall, and firearm homicide in particular” (Matzopoulos, R. et al. 2014. Firearm and Nonfirearm Homicide in 5 South African Cities: A Retrospective Population-Based study. American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 104, No. 3, pp. 455-460, p. 459).
• “There was a very substantial difference in the rate of (women that were shot and killed between 1999 and 2009). The decrease is most likely explained by gun control legislation (Firearms Control Act) …with provisions for safer firearm use and ownership amongst its key features” (Abrahams, N. et al. 2013. Intimate Partner Femicide in South Africa in 1999 and 2009. PLOS Medicine, Vol. 10, No. 4, pp. 1-8, p. 3).
• “Our study shows a decline in total firearm injuries in children from 2001 (to 2010 in the Western Cape) …demonstrating that strengthening firearm legislation can reduce firearm-related injury” (Campbell, N. et al. 2013. Firearm injuries to children in Cape Town, South Africa: Impact of the 2004 Firearms Control Act. South African Journal of Surgery, Vol. 51, No. 3, pp. 92-96, p. 95).
