Q&A with Gun Free South Africa director Stanley Maphosa

Do you want private gun ownership banned?

Not necessarily. We would like to see people give a strong reason why they need guns as private individuals.

Would self-defence qualify?

Not necessarily. There are issues in terms of the overall right to own a gun vs the privilege. It is a privilege that is contained under a law, in this case the Firearms Control Act.

Do you support the Firearms Control Amendment Bill, which aims to ban private guns for self-defence?

We have not seen it.

It was published in 2021.

Yes, and people made comments. We’re still waiting for the revised one.

It’s pending, but the intention is to ban private gun ownership. Do you support that?

I don’t think it’s to really ban private gun ownership. There is obviously that statement that says it should be reduced, and that there should be stricter regulations around ownership. I don’t think banning would succeed, but there will be stricter laws in terms of stronger justification why you need it, and in terms of storage and usage.

Do citizens have a right to protect themselves against violent criminals by means of a licensed firearm?

The issue is that the law must look at a holistic protection of everybody, not just those who are able to protect themselves. We are saying those who are not able, should not remain vulnerable. The law and constitution are there to equalise protection for everybody.

Isn’t the reality that nobody can rely on the police for protection?

That discussion needs to be ventilated further, because ... the national police force must protect everybody that is in government, everybody that is in parliament and even us as individuals who pay taxes towards SAPS. And we must ensure that SAPS does what it is supposed to do, rather than create a free-for-all. Imagine if all of us had guns and we had no police. Is that the scenario we need? My answer is “no”.

Instead we have gangsters and crime syndicates with guns in collusion with the police, don’t we?

To a certain extent, yes. But when we look at the origin of the illegal guns we can’t box it into corruption only. We must look at it holistically and say there are guns that get lost from individual owners and from private security, and from collusion with the police. There is no gun that is illegal that was not first of all legal. So the tap is leaking, and as society we have to close all the leaking taps.

Would you agree that by far the major sources of gun proliferation are the SAPS, the defence force and cross-border smuggling, not private gun owners?

I would agree, but a leak in a water system, whether it’s small or big, is a leak. And you can’t say ‘I am closing the big one and leaving the smaller one,’ because the smaller one will still leak. So we must close all the leaks.