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New gun law chaos
23/08/2005 09:19 - (SA)
Michele O' Connor , Die Burger
Cape Town - No new firearm licences have been issued in the Western Cape since the new Firearms Control Act came into effect.
And experts believe that at the rate that renewals are now being handled, it will take literally thousands of years to complete the process.
The latest statistics on this act paint a gloomy picture for firearm owners in the Western Cape.
The police's Phuti Setati said that up to 15 August only 16 firearm licences had been renewed in the Western Cape and that no new licences had been issued in the province.
Only about 430 competence certificates were issued, though the police had received more than 2 000 applications for renewals.
"According to the South African arms register, more than 40 000 arms licences have to be renewed this year. The province also has only 34 accredited trainers," he said.
Opinion
The opinion of firearm owners in the Western Cape about the drama caused by the new act was that the whole process was a circus and a blatant attempt to disarm South Africans.
In terms of this act, all arms owners have to renew their existing firearm licences.
Chairperson of the South African Gunowners' Association in the Western Cape, Thomas Eastes, said matters seemed abysmal in the rest of the country too.
"Between 1 July last year and 1 July this year the staff of the Central Arms Register in Pretoria received 3 788 applications for the renewal of firearms countrywide.
"Only 400 of the applications have been processed and 114 renewals granted. At this rate it will take the police between 2 900 and 4 000 years to complete the first round of renewals," he said.
Juan de Greeff, an accredited trainer and arms expert in Cape Town, said that licensing new and existing weapons was not as simple as the police professed.
Thousands of registered hunters, sport shottists and owners of handguns were all struggling to get through the red tape of the masses of incomprehensible forms and requirements of the new act.
"The new legislation makes it nearly impossible to own a firearm. The new requirements and preconditions for owning a firearm make people just give up on the idea. They would rather hand in their firearms than get snarled in red tape.
Knowledge
"The act provides that arms owners must have knowledge of the new act. This group only has to pass a so-called theoretical examination to renew a licence.
"A new owner has to pass a practical and theoretical examination. The application for a new licence or the renewal of an existing licence ought to be accompanied by a skill and competence certificate," he said.
He added that the government had already spent millions of rands on a law which would never work properly. The police, the central arms register, the training authority Saseta, and the appeal council for arms licences were simply not skilled enough to carry out the new act properly.
Brigadier Qunitin Papenfus, a retired policeman and criminologist in Cape Town, said the new act would definitely not prevent crime. Instead it would encourage people to own firearms illegally.
''The intention of the act, to control the possession of firearms, is not wrong. But the manner and process in which the whole act was put into effect are wrong," he said.
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