http://www.pretorianews.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=665&fArticleId=2132572
Registered gun owners to bite the bullet
June 30, 2004
By Sheena Adams
The government is going ahead with stringent new firearm laws which come into effect tomorrow because it believes registered owners are partly responsible for the reported loss of nearly 8 000 guns this year.
Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula told Parliament yesterday that it was a "fallacy" to think that registered owners committed no infringements regarding gun control.
"Many of the illegal firearms in circulation were owned legally once upon a time. From January to May this year, registered gun-owners in South Africa reported 7 993 firearms they lost or that were stolen from them. This is in addition to the 85 634 lost or stolen since 2000," he said during his budget debate in the National Council of Provinces.
Nqakula said stricter gun-control laws did not undermine the right of people to own firearms but protected the public from firearm abuse.
"Every peace-loving and law-abiding citizen should support such measures," he said.
The government has been taken to court over the new regulations by the South African Gun Owners' Association which launched an urgent application last Friday for an interdict to set aside the Firearms Control Act.
DA MP Darryl Worth yesterday appealed to Nqakula to deal with the confusion surrounding the implementation of the Act and asked how staff were expected to deal with the current backlog of about 60 000 applications for licences. He estimated that a further two million legal firearms had to be registered.
Nqakula said his department had budgeted more than R63-million for the implementation of the Act.
He also said the money would be used to service the 315 firearm registration centres that had been set up (22 of them in Gauteng).
Nqakula rejected criticisms from the DA that the new laws had not been communicated to stakeholders properly, saying the regulations had been "part of the public discourse since 1999".
He said: "You can't blame it on us if there are people out there who are ignorant. It is their responsibility to learn and understand what is happening in South Africa."
Nqakula also took a swipe at journalists who he said had written articles saying that his department had been trying to "impose" the new gun law on people as July 1 drew near. "What is unfortunate is that there are those whose responsibility it is to communicate to the public who are not communicating properly. How can any journalist - I was a journalist so I know how journalism works - do a story which completely exposes their ignorance?"
Nqakula said journalists who did no research were not worth the ink they used to write their reports.
Nqakula also said that the police force would be boosted by about 8 700 entry-level constables with more than 1 900 going to Gauteng.
The police will launch a crime prevention programme in the 63 areas of South Africa identified as having the most contact crimes, Nqakula said. These areas include Mamelodi.
Over the next six years the Defence Force will be replaced by the police on the borders.
During this financial year an additional 5 130 police officers would be assigned to border duty. - Political Bureau.
Registered gun owners to bite the bullet
June 30, 2004
By Sheena Adams
The government is going ahead with stringent new firearm laws which come into effect tomorrow because it believes registered owners are partly responsible for the reported loss of nearly 8 000 guns this year.
Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula told Parliament yesterday that it was a "fallacy" to think that registered owners committed no infringements regarding gun control.
"Many of the illegal firearms in circulation were owned legally once upon a time. From January to May this year, registered gun-owners in South Africa reported 7 993 firearms they lost or that were stolen from them. This is in addition to the 85 634 lost or stolen since 2000," he said during his budget debate in the National Council of Provinces.
Nqakula said stricter gun-control laws did not undermine the right of people to own firearms but protected the public from firearm abuse.
"Every peace-loving and law-abiding citizen should support such measures," he said.
The government has been taken to court over the new regulations by the South African Gun Owners' Association which launched an urgent application last Friday for an interdict to set aside the Firearms Control Act.
DA MP Darryl Worth yesterday appealed to Nqakula to deal with the confusion surrounding the implementation of the Act and asked how staff were expected to deal with the current backlog of about 60 000 applications for licences. He estimated that a further two million legal firearms had to be registered.
Nqakula said his department had budgeted more than R63-million for the implementation of the Act.
He also said the money would be used to service the 315 firearm registration centres that had been set up (22 of them in Gauteng).
Nqakula rejected criticisms from the DA that the new laws had not been communicated to stakeholders properly, saying the regulations had been "part of the public discourse since 1999".
He said: "You can't blame it on us if there are people out there who are ignorant. It is their responsibility to learn and understand what is happening in South Africa."
Nqakula also took a swipe at journalists who he said had written articles saying that his department had been trying to "impose" the new gun law on people as July 1 drew near. "What is unfortunate is that there are those whose responsibility it is to communicate to the public who are not communicating properly. How can any journalist - I was a journalist so I know how journalism works - do a story which completely exposes their ignorance?"
Nqakula said journalists who did no research were not worth the ink they used to write their reports.
Nqakula also said that the police force would be boosted by about 8 700 entry-level constables with more than 1 900 going to Gauteng.
The police will launch a crime prevention programme in the 63 areas of South Africa identified as having the most contact crimes, Nqakula said. These areas include Mamelodi.
Over the next six years the Defence Force will be replaced by the police on the borders.
During this financial year an additional 5 130 police officers would be assigned to border duty. - Political Bureau.
