Fear and self-arming in South Africa

A knotted gun sculpture at the entrance to a shopping centre in Cape Town. Photograph: Obed Zilwa/AP

Despite efforts by the government to limit it, the level of private gun ownership remains high in South Africa, with some estimates putting the number of firearms at almost 6m ? or 12 for every 100 citizens. South Africa ranks 17th in a world league of gun ownership.

In 2000 the government introduced a Firearms Control Act, introducing a competency test to restrict gun ownership among citizens.

But anti-gun groups say domestic shootings remain an inevitable outcome of allowing gun ownership.

"For many South Africans having a gun in the home is about protecting them against the stranger intruder but data both in South Africa and elsewhere shows that you are four times more likely to have a gun used against you than to be able to use it successfully in self-defence," said Ad?le Kirsten, spokesperson for the anti-gun group Gun Free South Africa (GFSA).

Murders of women by their partners, or "intimate femicide" is a particular problem in South Africa.

"The number of women killed by their intimate partner has dropped from four women a day in 1999 to three women a day in 2009," Kirsten added.

"The reason there was a drop in the number of women shot and killed is because the Firearms Control Act drastically raised the bar for gun ownership, thereby excluding people who aren't fit and proper."

"What makes shootings like [these] so tragic is that they are preventable."

Many people say they live in fear of crime in South Africa, with Johannesburg still listed as one of the five most dangerous cities in the word, along with Mogadishu and New Orleans.

Perceptions of crime defy official statistics, which actually show that the crime rate is falling in the country. Last September, the South African Police Service said the murder rate had dropped 28% since 2003, with attempted murder down 55% and assault down 32%.

"Officially, according to the government statistics, crime is decreasing, with house break-ins and home invasions also down. But unofficially I don't think people buy into those figures," said Andrew Seldon, editor of the South Africa-based security publication Hi-Tech Security Solutions.

A victims of crime report last year found that six out of 10 South Africans feared burglary more than any other crime and felt less safe in their homes than they did a year previously. As a result, experts say people are continuing to resort in massive numbers to the use of private security firms.

Figures show that almost 1,000 new security businesses were registered in South Africa in 2012 alone, a figure which has been steadily increasing over the last three years.

"People are definitely resorting to using private security companies. The main reason people give you is that they have a lack of faith in the police, both because of corruption and because of the lack of training. The police don't have the skills to deal with crime situations effectively," said Seldon.

Even though we have seen levels of violent crime going down, we still have an enormously high rate of homicide in South Africa," said Chandre Gould, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies Africa in Pretoria. "The fact that that rate is coming down is small consolation."

"We have seen the impact of the Firearms Control Act in homicides and intimate partner homicides ? that's all good news. It's certainly much more difficult to get a gun in South Africa than it was," Gould added. "But the fact of the matter is that private citizens still do own guns. I don't see that it's on the cards to entirely abandon gun ownership and gun licences."

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/14/fear-arming-south-africa-guns

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