The politics of gun control in South Africa

The draft amendments to the Firearms Control Bill 2021, have stirred heated criticism from the gun lobby to the private security industry to ordinary citizens.The Bill should aim to reduce the need to own a gun for personal protection. The proposed amendments purport to tackle South Africa's violent crime epidemic, but without first dealing with dysfunctionalities and corruption in the South African police service, serious questions remain about whether the Bill only exacerbate the problem. The amendments need to be evaluated against South Africa's world-topping violent crime statistics and why gun ownership is needed. Specifically, questions need to be asked as to how exactly banning law-abiding citizens from a final line of self-protection will 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 with a coverage of 194 countries; Terence Corrigan, Project Manager at the Institute of Race Relations; Paul Oxley, Chairman of SA Gun Owners and Tim Hughes, from the South African Self Protection Alliance and a former researcher at SAIIA