WATCH: The politics of gun control in SA

The draft amendments to the Firearms Control Bill 2021 have stirred heated criticism by groups including the gun lobby, the private security industry and ordinary citizens. The bill should aim to reduce the need to own a gun for personal protection.

The proposed amendments purport to tackle SA’s violent crime epidemic, but without first dealing with dysfunctionalities and corruption in the SA Police Service, serious questions remain about whether the bill will only worsen the problem.

The amendments need to be evaluated against SA’s world-topping violent crime statistics and why gun ownership is needed. Specifically, questions need to be asked about how banning law-abiding citizens from a final line of self-protection would bring down violent crime and gun crime specifically.

To discuss the Firearms Amendment Bill, Michael Avery speaks to Andy Mashaile, Interpol ambassador for the Turn Back Crime campaign (194 countries); Terence Corrigan, project manager at the Institute of Race Relations; Paul Oxley, the chair of SA Gun Owners; and Tim Hughes, from the SA Self Protection Alliance and a former researcher at SAIIA.