BRIEFING 2 of 2023: Functional Central Firearms Registry key to dealing with illegal guns in SA
South Africa’s Central Firearms Registry (CFR) has the potential to be a powerful crime-fighting tool: If effectively managed – in line with SA’s legal and political obligations – it would help stop legal guns leaking into criminal hands.
However, SAPS sees the CFR as an administrative function, and has repeatedly squandered opportunities to address historic, systemic and persistent dysfunction.
Should the CFR […]
BRIEFING 1 of 2023: Class action aims for police accountability in firearms management
In February 2023 GFSA gave official notice that class action proceedings were to be instituted on behalf of affected families to hold the police accountable for deaths and injuries resulting from failed police-controlled firearms management systems.
This Briefing provides additional information on the class action, the ineffectuality of institutions to hold the police accountable, and the implications of this for firearms […]
BRIEFING 3 of 2022: Using the principle of limits to stop SA’s gun violence epidemic
The latest quarterly crime statistics confirm the gun violence epidemic in South Africa: 30 people were murdered with a gun every day between 1 April and 30 June 2022, up from 23 a day in 2019/20. Briefing 3 summarises the latest statistics on gun violence in South Africa, as well as studies that offer solutions to our gun violence epidemic.
BRIEFING 2 of 2022: Gun control, self-defence and public safety
Crime statistics for January to March 2022 confirm that violent crime in South Africa continues to rise.
In this context of high levels of crime, a weak criminal justice system, proposed amendments to tighten gun controls (including banning guns for self-defence), as well as forceful marketing by the firearms industry that guns are effective for self-defence, we can expect gun sales […]
BRIEFING 1 of 2022: Femicide in South Africa over 18 years
Femicide – the murder of women and girls – is the most extreme form of violence, and shows a country’s magnitude of violence against women.
South Africa’s third national femicide study looks at how femicide has changed over an 18 year period, comparing data from 1999, 2009 and 2017.
The findings of the Medical Research Council’s 2017 femicide study include that:
- While SA’s […]
BRIEFING 4 of 2021: A snapshot of injury-related death in SA in 2017
Briefing 4 summarises South Africa’s 2nd injury mortality survey which analyses 2017 mortuary data. The survey gives a snapshot of who, how, where and when people died including detailed information on the weapon used in murder or suicide.
The main findings of the 2017 injury mortality survey include that:
‒ More people were murdered than died […]
BRIEFING 3 of 2021: The illegal firearms trade in South Africa
In May 2021 the Civilian Secretariat for Police Service published a draft Firearms Control Amendment Bill. With almost 100 proposed amendments, a key focus of the Bill is to control legal firearms and ammunition more effectively. This Briefing explores whether that approach will have an impact on the illegal firearms trade in South Africa, and is based on a recently […]
BRIEFING 2 of 2021: SA’s Central Firearms Register – The collapsing cornerstone of gun control
On 14 and 15 May the Portfolio Committee on Police is conducting an oversight visit in Gauteng, where members will visit the Central Firearms Registry (CFR) in Pretoria. Briefing 2 has been developed in preparation for this oversight visit to highlight that problems in the functioning of the CFR identified in 2010 have still not been dealt with eleven years […]
BRIEFING 1 of 2021: The firearms amnesty has ended, does SAPS know where the guns are?
Three days before the 2020-21 national firearms amnesty ended, the SAPS reported that just 40,729 firearms had been handed in, either for destruction or by gun owners with expired licences applying for new licences. Assuming that all the firearms handed in had expired licences, this is only 9% of the 450,000+ firearms which the Supreme Court of Appeal estimated were […]
BRIEFING 3 of 2020: QUICK FACTS – Guns and violence in SA
The Covid 19 pandemic has made 2020 a year of numbers as we track the number of new infections, hospitalisations, deaths, recoveries.
As such, it seems apt that our third and final Briefing of 2020 is also filled with numbers – quick facts and stats on guns and violence in South Africa.
To reduce gun violence, we need to reduce the easy […]
BRIEFING 2 of 2020: Implications of Supreme Court of Appeal judgement upholding firearm licence renewals
On 23 July 2020 the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) set aside an egregious interdict granted by the North Gauteng High Court which disabled South Africa’s firearm licence renewals and termination system. In its ruling the SCA affirmed that gun ownership is not a fundamental right under SA’s Bill of Rights, but a privilege regulated by the Firearms Control Act; […]
Briefing 1 of 2020: How South Africa can help silence the guns in Africa
When South Africa assumed chairing the African Union (AU) for 2020 last month, President Cyril Ramaphosa prioritised the AU’s Silencing the Guns agenda as a strategy to creating conducive environments for Africa’s development.
Our president’s championing of the Silencing the Guns agenda contrasts sharply with our national context as was tragically illustrated this past weekend when seven people were killed, and […]
