Wednesday, 16^th August 2000

The issue of firearm control is controversial because many believe that high levels of crime and violence make them a necessity. This view has also been shaped by our history of political conflict and oppression. There are no easy solutions to changing people’s perceptions in this regard. Legislation and regulation of firearm ownership is one of the first steps in a process aimed at ensuring responsible gun ownership.

This submission is based on our experience as violence monitors and investigators in the KwaZulu Natal and does not focus on the technical provisions of the Bill.

The Network of Independent Monitors is a non-profit human rights organization that seeks to reduce political and organized social violence in KwaZulu Natal and to promote a functional rule of law. In doing so, it aims to contribute to the strengthening of an international peace and justice network. NIM runs 8 different projects. I will not elaborate because of time constraints.

Firstly I would like to look at the links between legal and illegal trafficking of firearms. Whilst there is no statistics on the amount of weapons in the illegal market or confirmed evidence of their source, it appears to us that weapons from neighbouring countries and illegal sources are no longer the problem that they were. Arms caches brought into the province by the former government and paramilitary groupings are clearly still a problem but it is unlikely that they are being traded. For example, the arms cache planted by Philip Powell, found by the DPP in Nqutu was still relatively intact.

This suggests that one of the foremost sources of weaponry for criminals and those involved in organised social or political violence is now licensed firearm owners. This is borne out by the fact that an increasing amount of murders related to political and organised social violence are committed with handguns, unlike in the past when assault rifles were commonly used. The increasing number of licensed firearm owners is therefore cause for concern as more gun owners may be robbed of their weapons.

Our experience is that few gun owners including trained police officers are able to use their weapons effectively in situations where they are likely to be attacked by several persons in disadvantageous circumstances. This is borne out by the fact that, in most instances, where political figures have been killed in KwaZulu Natal, they were armed themselves at the time of the attack and may (unlike the ordinary citizen) even had bodyguards.

The number of firearms lost or stolen is also under-reported. Those who do not report their negligent loss, according to police interviewed, fail to do so because they do not want to be declared as unfit to own a firearm. The National Crime Prevention Institute noted that in random visits to 200 gun owners, half of them no longer had their weapon but had not reported their loss. This suggests that there are a larger number of legal weapons than reported that have entered the illegal market.

It is also concerning that there are so few arrests occur in cases where firearm theft is reported because one hopes that arrests in such crimes could facilitate the recovery of the stolen firearms.

The murder rate in KwaZulu Natal in 1998 was 70 (per 100 000 population). The international average murder rate is 5,5 per 100 000. Approximately 52% of the murders in KwaZulu Natal were committed with firearms and the majority of these weapons were pistols and revolvers. Accessibility of firearms impacts on the nature and seriousness of political and organised social violence in our province. Firearm use is a violence aggravator in that it escalates the level of violence, the number of casualties and the human and financial costs of the conflict.

For the first time, official statistics with regard to firearm use and distribution for the period 1994 to 1998 became available. These statistics confirm that the provinces with the highest and lowest overall number of firearm murders. Firearms determine the nature of the conflict in that they reduce the possibility of

non-violent conflict resolution. Also they allow for attackers to maintain a distance from the attack and to achieve more random targeting of victims. This in turn means that suspects are more difficult to apprehend as they may not be recognised or identified in the attack.

To illustrate, from January to September 1999 in KwaZulu Natal we collected the following statistics.

If one looks at these statistics, it is clear that there are more deaths then casualties where a gun has been used during the attack.

Nongoma January – June 2000

In a period of 6 months of political violence in Nongoma there has been 17 deaths. In the same period in Zimbabwe there were 35 killed in political violence.

These figures cover political violence in Zimbabwe representing the entire country whilst Nongoma is a tiny area in the province of KwaZulu Natal.

January to June 2000

Comparatively, the number of deaths in the pre-election period in Zimbabwe was far less than our period in KwaZulu Natal. The fact that there were only 35 deaths is attributed to the fact that gun ownership is very restricted and gun proliferation is very minimal in Zimbabwe.

The other reason why the number of deaths is low in Zimbabwe is that gun ownership is not socially accepted. This further reduces the culture of violence. For instance, people were fined for carrying a knife, for wearing military uniform, and anything relating to violence was restricted.

In our experience in KZN, the accessibility of ammunition may arguably have more of an impact on violence than firearms themselves. In certain areas of the province, where assault rifles have been used, it appears that reduced access to ammunition for these firearms has reduced their use in violence. This may explain why handguns are increasingly being used in violence as supplies of ammunition are more accessible.

This suggests that if gun dealers are required to keep records of purchases of ammunition and owners are entitled only to store limited amounts, that it may impact on violence.

Regulation of firearm control has the dual benefit of ensuring that gun owners are responsible but also has a secondary, perhaps more important role, in sending a signal to citizens that firearm ownership is not a desirable social goal in the long term.

Whilst this legislation may be difficult to enforce, it sets a standard for the control of firearms. The mere introduction and discussion around the Bill has served to ignite debate as to whether firearm ownership really makes one safer in practice and has served to educate many new gun owners of the need to ensure that their weapon is not lost due to their own negligence.

1. A process of de-arming the society but before doing that we need to look at how to reduce the demand for firearms? People need guns for protection purposes, which means that there is a need to strengthen the rule of law first before disarming.
2. Corruption on the certification on licenses must be eliminated, especially those agents that sell the competency certificates to the applicants and syndicates.
3. Gun collection programmes should focus on rewarding the community, rather than the individual.
4. Most demand projects involve some focus on change of identity and basic assumptions by participants. For this and other reasons, the process is often long and shows few results in the first years. Patience is required on the part of programme facilitators and funders.
5. Working with weapons issues in the midst of communities in conflict often involves risks to individuals. Programme need to be designed carefully so as to protect the security of those involved.
6. It cannot be emphasized too much that all collected weapons must be destroyed visibly and publicly if a collection programme is to have a positive, long-lasting effect. Cheap and efficient gun destruction technology exists and efforts should be made to spread its availability
7. Successful community programmes make wide and sophisticated use of highly visual, public education tools, which use carefully designed language and materials for the specific audience being targeted.