An important note to all firearm owners
This is to ensure that not only law-abiding citizens adhere to the regulation, but that every firearm owner does.
MBOMBELA – The police have now taken a serious stance on the issue of late applications for firearm licence renewals.
Section 24 of the Firearms Control Act, which was promulgated in 2000, will now be enforced more strictly. All owners should take note that an application for the renewal of a firearm licence must be made to the registrar by handing in such application at your local designated firearms officer (DFO) at least 90 days before the date of expiry. According to Capt Ronel Bekker, head of the firearm licensing department at the local police, this is to ensure that your application reaches head office in time and that there is enough time to process the application and have it sent back to you before it expires. “Firearm owners are not serious enough about this, and therefore it calls for the regulation to be enforced more vigilantly,” Bekker says.
This is to ensure that not only law-abiding citizens adhere to the regulation, but that every firearm owner does. “This Act is there to protect us all.” Even though it is time-consuming, Bekker urges all gun owners to prioritise this. Only in extreme cases where you were out of the country or in hospital, will you be excused if you did not apply
90 days prior to expiry. However, if you have no excuse, licences for which applications are received late should be dealt with as prescribed in Section 28 of the Act.
It prescribes that:
• a firearm licence terminates at the expiry date
• the registrar may cancel such licence if the holder did not comply with any provision of the Act
• the holder of the licence to be given a notice that he/she may within 30 days submit representations why it should not be cancelled. The registrar must then consider such representation and either issue a renewal licence or refuse the renewal of the licence and direct the owner that the firearm must be disposed of in a prescribed manner.
The owner then has 60 days within which he/she must dispose of the firearm in the way prescribed by the registrar. If such disposal is not done it must be forfeited to the state and the owner must surrender it as prescribed.
If a late application for renewal of a firearm is received the DFO must do the following:
• Complete the form SAPS 533 (request to cancel a firearm licence)
• Hand to the owner or licence holder the notice to inform him/her that he/she may in writing provide representation within 30 days why it should not be cancelled
• Complete SAP 86 (a) (the SAPS checklist to be completed with an application)
• Submit the completed documentation to the provincial officer.
If you renewed your licences and were issued with the white-card ones, the old green licences have lapsed and are not valid any longer.
