News

29 June 2016: Biased Anti-Firearms Research.

28 June 2016: If your late renewal was submitted before the 3rd of February 2016, but was turned down, please read this letter from Martin Hood. You have grounds to appeal.

10 March 2016: An intervention by Parliament's police committee has failed to halt a court challenge against acting national police commissioner Khomotso Phahlane's order that certain legally owned firearms be forfeited to the state if the owner allows the licence to expire -- Business Day Live.

1 April 10 March 2016: GFSA proves that they don't care about justice or innocent lives, but that they hate guns. How can GFSA have any credibility left?

18 February 2016: SAPS tweeted that licence renewal applications should be submitted 90 working days before expiry. This is incorrect. The Act clearly says "90 days" and SAPS are, believe it or not, bound by the Act.

3 February 2016: A SAPS directive (3/5/2/157 signed by Acting National Commisioner Phahlane) states that where a (new, white) firearms licence has expired, the firearm in question is considered an illegal firearm and that the firearm should be handed in (presumably for destruction). This will no doubt be tested in court. Here is Martin Hood's response dated February 11th. Our advice is to NOT hand firearms to the police, but to contact Martin Hood instead.

19 January 2016: By popular demand, GOSA Membership.

25 November 2015: Sixteen days of activism for No Violence Against Women and Children.

23 November 2015: Firearms are in the news again, and for the wrong reasons. The Times, Die Burger. Apparently there are dedicated sport shooters with "almost 5 000" firearms each. If you're one of them, please contact us, we'd like to shake your hand (as far as we know, the person with the most licenced firearms is a collector with around 500). Go out and write letters.

10 September 2015: Court Action.

7 August 2015: Gun Owners SA offers to manage firearm registry.

3 July 2015: After the recent interactions in Parliament between Firearms Advocacy groups and the SAPS we have been invited by CFR to furnish them with a list of service delivery issues as experienced by the public, in order that these issues can be addressed. We are therefore appealing to you to assist us in collecting data in this regard. Please fill in this form before Thursday 9 July.

26 March 2015: Firearms registry mess to be fixed, says Nhleko

24-25 March 2015: GOSA, along with a number of pro-gun sporting and other bodies, will be attending the Firearms Summit in Parliament. Unfortunately it seems that we will be granted "observer" status only. The list of speakers should make it clear that they are out to get our guns (again). What does Danny Jordaan know about firearms, except that Senzo Meyiwa was murdered (hint: this is already illegal) by a yet-to-be-apprehended (see how well the law works?) criminal using a gun (again, already illegal). This is not about firearms, it's about control.

23 March 2015: Here's a good reason to never hand in guns to the SAPS -- Gangsters found with guns 'destroyed' by Gauteng cops.

11 March 2015: Scrap the Gun Summit -- 85% of assault-related deaths are caused by a "sharp object", as opposed to 1.7% gunshot wounds. If government were serious about crime, they wouldn't be wasting time (and money) on firearms.

4 March 2015: Alan Martheze in the Cape Argus, "ANC's game of gunsmoke, mirrors nothing new"

20 November 2014: They're at it again. The National Norms and Standards in terms of the Liquor Act 59 of 2003 calls for all on-consumption premises to be weapon free.

4.10. Liquor premises should be weapon free

Right of admission to liquor premises is reserved and no weapons or sharp objects are permitted inside on-consumption liquor premises. A safe should be available at all on-consumption liquor premises in case persons in possession of guns or sharp objects are allowed to enter premises.

24 October 2014: CHASA press release regarding the shenanigans over at Canal Walk.

21 August 2014: Police generals in charge of the central firearms registry office were on Wednesday told to return to Parliament's police committee with a clear action plan including targets, time frames and budgets to ensure the effective running of the registry.

11 July 2014: The Advertising Standards Authority rules that "If your stolen gun was there, so were you" is misleading and in breach of the Code of Advertising Practice.

26 June 2014: You can almost see Gideon Joubert's words still hanging in the air, and "Investigations by the team uncovered a racket involving the fraudulent issuing of firearm licences to applicants".

20 June 2014: Gideon Joubert chats to Rowena Baird on SAFM, as a follow-up to his PoliticsWeb article "Gun control in SA has failed totally". As expected there's some bleating from the hoplophobes as well.

20 June 2014: Michael Z Williamson quotes a paper by Chakraborty, Chaudhary, and Bos on methods to avoid being raped:

• Victims crying or pleading were raped 96% of the time
• Victims who loudly screamed were raped between 44% and 50% of the time
• Victims who ran were raped 15% of the time
• Victims who forcefully resisted (without a weapon) were raped 14% of the time
• Women who resisted with knives or guns were raped less than 1% of the time

30 May 2014: The Supreme Court of Appeals has ruled that Jaco Scott was in fact wrongfully arrested for having a firearm in his possession while being under the influence of alcohol.

While it is a bad idea to drink while carrying a firearm, it is not an offence to do so -- it's an offence to handle a firearm while under the influence of alcohol, but it is not an offence to have a firearm in your possession.

4 June 2014: So the SAPS gave a whole bunch of guns, including at least one military (full auto) R1 to criminals insted of destroying them? Yes, that happens.

5 May 2014: Interview on CCTV Africa, South Africa has between 2 and 3 Million Licenced Firearms.

24 March 2014: Mail and Guardian Thought Leader: We need more gunowners in South Africa, not less.

17 March 2014: We get a mention in the Daily Maverick.

For over a year, we've been told by the media that the shooting of Reeva Steenkamp by Oscar Pistorius has "sparked a renewed debate about gun ownership in South Africa"

Yes, we've been told that by the media. They're about the only people who want this debate, because it will happen on their pages and bring them much needed revenue.

Look people, we went around this buoy before. We got (much) stricter gun control. It didn't affect criminals, because here in South Africa our criminals don't respect the law.

But enforcing laws cost money, it's cheaper to keep the talk show circus going.

5 March 2014: The Afrikaans newspaper Die Beeld reports that the South African Police lost 10 000 firearms in the past five years. Apparently the good news is that they managed to recover 2 794 of these firearms.

22 November 2013: Setting a good example, but he needs to learn to shoot!

Johannesburg - Crime Line head Yusuf Abramjee and his family were held up at gunpoint at their home in Erasmia home this morning.

Shots were fired, but no one was injured.

It's understood several gunmen cut the electric fence and gained entry to Abramjee's home where they held him and his wife at gunpoint.

Abramjee's son heard the commotion, drew his firearm and confronted the suspects.

As the suspects fled, Abramjee drew his own firearm and exchanged gunfire with the robbers.

The men escaped with his vehicle and some personal items.

21 October 2013: Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said today the U.S. and the rest of the democratic world is at a security crossroads in the wake of last month's deadly al-Shabab attack at a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya - and suggested an answer could be in arming civilians.

30 August 2013: A Ten-country comparison suggests there's little or no link between video games and gun murders.

29 August 2013: Kieno Kammies (567 CapeTalk) interviewed Liza Grobler, author of Crossing the Line -- when Cops become Criminals. Listen to it here or local copy here. And buy the book. (Spoiler: between 10% and 30% of policemen and -women are corrupt).

29 August 2013: Take note of these two interesting studies. The first from the Center for Disease Control states that "firearms are used more for self-defense than they are in the commission of crimes" and the second from Harvard concludes that banning firearms will not reduce murder or suicide.

25 July 2013: Twenty years ago, a massacre was stopped well short of its intended target by one good man with a gun. We remember those whose lives were lost and tragically changed on that day.

12 July 2013: Give the Auditor General six million rands and Nkandla goes away.

12 July 2013: GOSA press release.

19 March 2013: From the PMG minutes: ... the total value of the contract came to R412.5 million. Despite this, the contract had still not been fulfilled 70 months after the deadline ... For SAPS to say it would learn from their mistakes in the future was to admit that they did not know what they were doing ... The Chairperson put it to SAPS that less than 2% of the Firearms Contract had been completed. She asked for their understanding of 'completion'. She said that there had been four people who were supposed to be providing assistance from SITA and that there was now only one left. ... Lt-Gen Ngubane said that the old firearms control system was still being used but not in its original form as it was constantly being updated ... The only surprising thing here is that people seem surprised by this. (Minutes also available here).

12 March 2013: Paul Oxley on a BBC documentary. For those of you who, like me, can't watch documentaries like this, the fun starts just before the 44 minute mark.

22 February 2012: "So when Gun Free SA and others loudly proclaim that the main source for illegal weapons is theft and loss by legal owners one needs to take a very sceptical view -- a detailed analysis on news24.

20 February 2013: Paul Oxley (GOSA) debates Adele Kirsten (GFSA) on Eusebius Mckaiser's show on CapeTalk and 702.

17 February 2013: GOSA quoted in the Metro newspaper, Time Magazine and Global Post.

6 February 2013: Gun Free South Africa wants to audit the Central Firearm Registry. It appears that they think the new Firearms Control Act is not working properly -- "We have no confidence in the registry -- Adele Kisten". Well, surprise, surprise. Gun Owners of South Africa cautioned that the Act can't work, even before it was implemented. Like GFSA, we also want an audit. A full audit. How much has the Firearm Control Act cost to implement, and how well does it meet its stated goals?

Here's the money quote, though: "what this means is that all of us, those who are not armed, are not safe -- Adele Kisten".

5 February 2013: While we cannot condone drinking and driving, a recent court judgement rules that being caught drunk behind the wheel does not automatically disqualify you from having firearms.

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