Here today, ‘gun’ tomorrow
All illegal guns were once legal before being diverted to the illegal pool of weapons in South Africa
The crime stats show that, on average, 56 people are murdered every day in South Africa.
Of those, 23 are shot.
All illegal guns were once legal before being diverted to the illegal pool of weapons in South Africa.
With the high number of guns that are lost and stolen, one obvious way of reducing the diversion of legal guns to the illegal pool is to strictly regulate the gun licensing process, thus ensuring that only responsible people are granted firearm licences.
On October 22, a security guard reported to duty in his company vehicle.
He sat in his car in front of the shop which he had been instructed to guard, when suddenly he heard a knocking on his passenger side window.
“I turned my head to look, but then saw another man at the driver’s side window out of the corner of my eye. Before I knew it, they had smashed my window and pulled my driver’s side door open – they grabbed my gun out of its holster and ran away,” the security guard, who has asked to stay anonymous, retold.
The gun thieves made off with the gun, valued at R6 000, in a red Volkswagen.
A case of robbery was opened with Witbank SAPS, but no arrests have been affected as of yet.
