GFSA wants police minister to tighten gun control
GFSA researcher, Claire Taylor, said that modernising the central firearms registry would go a long way to curbing gun violence.
Picture: © Scott Betts/ 123rf.com
CAPE TOWN - With various areas on the Cape Flats currently caught in the grip of ongoing gang violence, Gun-Free South Africa (GFSA) has likened the shootings to urban warfare.
In the most recent incident in Ottery, a 24-year-old man was killed and three others injured in a shooting on an open field on Wednesday night.
GFSA said that 34 people are shot dead in South Africa every day.
The lobby group is now urging the new police minister to tighten up gun control.
GFSA researcher, Claire Taylor, said that modernising the central firearms registry would go a long way to curbing gun violence.
Taylor said that the registry had been dysfunctional for many years.
"It has been embroiled in allegations of fraud and corruption, and so GFSA's recommendation is in fact that the CFR be taken away from the police and that it be managed by an independent authority."
Taylor said that the SAPS recently reported 24 guns going missing from the registry.
"It's clear that the police are unable to manage it as we are seeing with increasing numbers of cases of fraud and corruption, there are 24 guns like that that have been reported."
Taylor said that police officers also reported the loss of two issued firearms going missing every day.