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GOSA – Gun Owners SA
GOSA statement on the release of the talking points for the proposed 2021 FCA Amendment Bill as published in the Government Gazette.
Like a rotting corpse floating to the surface of a cesspool, the 2018 “Draft” Amendment Bill has reappeared, bringing with it the stench of long-dead thinking and outmoded paternalism. Magical thinking, also… The straight out of Hollywood Ballistic Fingerprinting fraud scheme is getting another chance to absorb whatever is left of the SAPS budget.
It is sheer madness. Shocking and disturbing, but not unexpected from a brain-dead Police Ministry.
At the same time as the Police Minister announces a 3 Billion rand cut in the SAPS budget (for protecting you and I), and a 1.7 Billion increase in the VIP Protection Services budget (for protecting our political masters), the Police Ministry would remove the only practical means of self defence from the beleaguered South African citizenry. GOSA is astounded at the cynicism and tone-deafness of this latest clumsy attempt to relegate all citizens to chattels of the state. Slaves who are bled of taxes to the benefit of the ridiculously corrupt privileged class who rule us.
Just so we’re clear: The Constitution recognizes our right to life… which is hollow and meaningless without access to the most effective means to protect that life, which is privately held firearms (otherwise why do SAPS carry them?).
More than 60% of the firearm owners in SA are described as ‘black’ (in terms of the old concept of nationality which still pertains in government-think). Many of them (disproportionately so) do not have the means at their disposal to have armed (for now) security on call, so this proposed disarming of civil society will fall most heavily on them… and on women, and the elderly. And this from a government who would claim to be people-centered, and concerned with Gender Based Violence…
For shame!
Issued by
Paul Oxley
National Chairman: Gun Owners South Africa
071 126 3600
Safe Citizen
The Government has woken a sleeping giant
25 May 2021 – For immediate release
“With the publication of the Firearms Amendment Bill 2021 the Cabinet has woken a sleeping giant. If post 1994, there was ever an event in South Africa close to an ‘Arab Spring’, this is it. In one fell swoop, the Firearm Amendment Bill 2021, has shocked, enraged and frightened South Africans. Approaching this bill from a rational perspective, we can find no justification at all within the realm of safety and security for South Africans.” These were the words of Safe Citizen founder, Jonathan Deal, to a Zoom briefing of media and firearms stakeholders yesterday.
The architects of this bill appear to have completely lost touch with rationality as they propose amendments to the current firearm licensing system that are simply unbelievable. Certainly the most bizarre aim of the new bill is to deny citizens the right to possess a firearm for the purpose of self-defence. This comes shortly after Minister Cele is on record in parliament not only reducing the operational budget of the police but concurrently increasing the budget for executive protection of cabinet ministers and political ‘high-ups’.
Deal said: “The drafters of this proposed amendment, display an arrogant, thoughtless and careless attitude towards the public. It is inconceivable that it is in the interest of our citizens to disarm them and leave criminals armed.”
“Civil society, breadwinners, firearms associations and gun owners from every walk of life are uniting in a massive fight against this irrational move by the government. Even if you don’t own a gun now, if this bill becomes law you could forever lose the opportunity to apply for a licence for a self-defence firearm.”
Concerned citizens can join and support us at www.safecitizen.co.za and follow this link to Dear South Africa to register your objection.
https://dearsouthafrica.co.za/firearm-control-2021/
Jonathan Deal
National Coordinator
ENDS
Enquiries pertaining to this statement
- Jonathan Deal – 076-838-5150 – or on WhatsApp / jonathan.deal@safecitizen.co.za
Paratus
PARATUS MEDIA RELEASE: Proposed Firearm Amendments Leave Women Defenceless and Vulnerable to Rapists, Abusers, and Murderers.
04-06-2021, Cape Town – visit Paratus
The proposed amendments to the FCA of 2000 that seek to abolish firearm ownership for self-defence purposes is an unjustifiable overreach by an increasingly authoritarian state that has miserably failed its citizens.
National Commissioner Kehla Sitole in October 2018 admitted to Parliament that the SAPS is “overstretched” and that it is “impossible” for the police to fulfil its constitutional mandate. Matters have significantly worsened since. Our murder rate has increased every year since 2011, and South Africa is the 6th most homicidal nation on Earth.
Equally our rate of rape and sexual violence is among the highest, if not the highest, in the world – with a staggering 50 000 sexual assaults reported annually. It is also a generally-accepted fact that rape is significantly underreported, so the true figures are likely much higher.
The problem of violence against women is in fact so rife in South Africa, that President Ramaphosa referred to it as a “second pandemic” of GBV. Yet, in spite of this, Minister Cele and the SAPS have failed to pay vital service providers which resulted in the PCEM system, which processes forensic evidence, being switched off since June last year.
This has delayed the processing of over 6 million pieces of forensic evidence connected to 180 000 criminal cases, and means that potentially thousands of rapists and murderers will get away with their crimes.
It is to this backdrop that Minister Cele now seeks to remove from women their last resort to private self-defence and personal safety – their right and ability to lawfully keep and bear arms with which to protect themselves from abusers, rapists, and murderers.
Adding further insult to injury, Minister Cele has the audacity to refer to these proposals as necessary to curtail the so-called “proliferation of firearms” in order to create a safer society. Yet under Minister Cele’s stewardship the SAPS failed to maintain their own Firearm Permit System (FPS) which has resulted in 500 000 police firearms not being tracked since June last year. During the first three months of 2021 a total of 84 SAPS firearms have been lost or stolen in Gauteng alone.
This continues the established tradition of the SAPS being irresponsible and negligent custodians of their own firearms, as evident from the fact that the police lose on average 8 times more firearms per capita than civilians do, and recover their lost firearms at a rate 15 times lower.
Persistent cases of police officers implicated and convicted of selling firearms to criminals and gangs is an additional damning indictment, and the minister would be well-served in first getting his own disarrayed house in perfect order before attempting thinly-veiled attempts at shifting the blame to law-abiding, responsible, and safe civilian firearm owners.
This goes beyond cynical politics, and is tantamount to an open assault against not only women’s ability to safeguard themselves in a society where the state has completely failed them – and continues to fail them every day – but to leave all citizens who choose to shoulder the responsibility of being their own first responders as defenceless victims for violent criminals, and entirely reliant on the dysfunctional organs of state who chronically fail to uphold their mandates.
Millions of South Africans rely on firearms for their personal protection. They are a national security asset, not a liability requiring yet more heavy-handed and incompetent attempts at overregulation.
The proposed amendments are a disgrace. The entire bill should be withdrawn and discarded as a whole, and the real stakeholders engaged with before any further attempts at amending the FCA are made.
Gideon Joubert – Owner & Editor of Paratus
+27 83 625 4333
Joubert.gd@gmail.com
SAAI
SAAI LAUNCHES #STILLNOGUN CAMPAIGN
Feedback from Saai’s members clearly indicates that farmers will not allow their proposed disarmament. The ANC’s initiative to declare the owning of a firearm for self-defence purposes illegal, has caused an uproar in the agricultural community.
The family farmer organisation Saai is introducing its public campaign called #StillNoGun this week. The campaign is launched with the aim of putting pressure on the police to eradicate the longstanding backlogs in the applications for new firearms, amnesty, and renewals of existing firearms; and to return firearms to their rightful owners.
The police have collected hundreds of thousands of firearms for supposed ballistics testing, but have up to now been unable to explain how such tests would be done on shotguns. Farmers are particularly sceptical about the police’s capacity to do this, as well as their ability to store these firearms safely and cautiously.
“With an average of one farm attack every two days and one farm murder every five days over the past 25 years, South African farmers find themselves in unsafe circumstances which in every sense complies with the definition of a low-intensity civil war,” says Dr. Theo de Jager, Executive Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Saai.
Farmers believe the ANC should surely realise that it is under suspicion due to its history of songs such as “Kill the farmer, kill the boer” and the flagrant denial of the existence of farm murders by amongst others Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa.
From discussions with embassies, visiting MPs from Europe, overseas journalists and digital meetings with agricultural unions from elsewhere in the world, it is evident that the whole world is frowning upon the bisarre disarming of farmers with the amnesty process.
Farmers are especially concerned that their firearms will not be returned to them at rural police stations where systems exist with no capacity, no expertise, no plans and very little motivation.
Only last week the parliamentary portfolio committee exposed the fact that the police had allowed the central firearms register to fall into total disrepair. Yet even in these circumstances the police want to remove self-defence as a motivation for firearm ownership.
Every academic study on this subject over the past two and a half decades; all research by institutes, university and even the state itself; as well as AfriForum’s comprehensive data on farm attacks and farm murders; clearly indicates that a farming family’s ability to survive a farm attack is first and foremost dependent on their preparedness to shoot back and to buy time through self-defence for the neighbourhood watch and perhaps the police to arrive on the scene.
Apart from the fact that the ANC’s conduct makes no sense on an ethical and moral level, it exposes a stance that the world had been afraid of.
Saai will join forces with other organisations that are also running campaigns to uphold law-abiding citizens’ rights to defend our lives, our families and home and hearth while crime statistics are sky-rocketing.
During our campaign we are involving South Africans and friends of South Africans living abroad, as well as embassies, foreign governments and international agencies. Read more about this campaign on Saai’s website. Even better, follow the link http://www.stillnogun.co.za and throw your weight behind the movement!
AGRI SA
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GUNSITE
Gunsite South Africa opposes and rejects the proposed amendments to the FCA in its entirety.
To remove the ability of law-abiding South Africans to own and use firearms for self-defence is unjustifiable, especially so with the highly-publicised failure of the SAPS to uphold law and order in our Republic.
Equally, the arbitrary and senseless numerical restrictions for dedicated sport shooters and dedicated hunters, serve no purpose other than to destroy those sectors, and will deal a mortal blow to the firearm industry and the concept of lawful, competent, and responsible firearm ownership in SA.
The proposed bill is an atrocious compilation of terrible and destructive limitations, not grounded in rationality and reason. Therefore, the only reasonable way forward, is for it to be withdrawn and discarded in its entirety.
SAFARI OUTDOOR
LETTER FROM OUR CEO
Over the last day or two, all firearm owners in South Africa took a desperate ride on a roller coaster of emotions after reading extracts from the newly released Government Gazette No 44593, 21 May 2021, Pages 149 to 156.
Firearm owners have been subjected to gross incompetence, meaningless legislation and over-regulation for years now. Anyone who wants to argue that point simply has to look at the myriad of court orders obtained against the SAPS in favour of private gun owners, industry bodies, and businesses over the last five years. Our own business has brought several successful applications against the South African Police over the last two years, ranging from granting import permits, adhering to the 90-day window to evaluate licence applications or even simple matters like firearm storage.
The situation turned desperate this year, with most of the Central Firearms Registry coming to a grinding halt. Then with a ministerial committee visit and parliamentary report, just when we thought maybe now things will change, suddenly, instead of revamping a dysfunctional system, new suggested legislative changes are published.
To say that these changes are impractical and ridiculous is a kindness.
I can assure you the top legal minds in the country are pouring over the suggested changes, and the one thing you can be sure of is that a multitude of legal challenges will follow from every corner of the industry.
I believe that it is very important for each and every firearm owner to get involved. It is time to join one of several of the organisations representing our interests. GOSA, CHASA, SA Hunters, to name a few, are all good and reputable organisations and where we have all had the luxury of our own opinions and petty disagreements, the time has finally come to set it all aside. We regularly joke about the South Africans inability to stand together, but for once, we need to unite if we are to retain a semblance of normalcy and control over our respective destinies.
For our part (as Outdoor Investment representing Safari Outdoor, Inyathi Sporting Supplies and Formalito), we are already considering every legal avenue, and we will shortly start reaching out to several stakeholders to ensure that we work together towards a positive outcome.
Often in times of adversity, I remind myself of a quote from a children’s book that in its simple way seem to remind me that no challenge is insurmountable:
The monster is only scary while it is in the closet.
Once in the light,
you can see its many flaws
and weaknesses.
And often,
we end up laughing,
at what we shield our eyes from
no more.”
― Tom Althouse, The frowny face cow
Marco van Niekerk
CEO: Outdoor Investment Holdings (Pty) Ltd
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IN THE MEDIA
- BizNews – Civil unrest in SA puts spotlight on proposed firearm bill – is now the time to be disarming citizens?
- BusinessInsider – Self defence will not be a valid reason to own a gun in SA under a newly-revived draft law
- News24 – Is the plan to ban gun sales for self-defence illegal? 5 questions with a public law expert
- Times Live – Gun law bill will help vulnerable women in GBV situations: Bheki Cele